Ecotourism Emerging Industry Forum Report Released
Recommends Donors Take Market-Based Approach
The final results have been delivered and posted from the Ecotourism Emerging Industry Forum, a three week forum with 40 active expert participants from 16 countries, and 237 registered observers which took place November 1-18, 2005 on Planeta.com. In the year since the dialogue debuted, it has been viewed 100, 000 times. Megan Epler Wood, of EplerWood International the co-organizer of the forum, created the Executive Summary to deliver the important recommendations that resulted from this forum to donors and all those active in ecotourism development.
Participants recommended that donors take a new more business friendly approach that fosters small businesses directly and does not hinge on working with NGOs.
Participants stated that community based ecotourism development requires all the same approaches as other businesses, but more time is needed to undertake community involvement procedures, and that these time consuming factors need to be factored into the design of donor projects.
Participants found that building green is a regional development issue. It was recommended that development agencies create regional plans for sustainable and ecotourism development where the costs of sustainability can be shared.
Industry Forum Provided Unique Input from Private Sector
The Ecotourism Emerging Industry Forum was designed to provide professionally moderated, up-to-date results on small and medium enterprise (SME) priorities for funding and investment decisions for sustainable tourism in developing countries.
Participants discussed the projects they themselves had developed, the challenges they faced, and the possibilities for improving future ecotourism investment.
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