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Advancing Sustainable Tourism in Latin America by Striking Partnerships with Tour Operators
Cooperative agreements signed by major tour operators are one outstanding feature of the Rainforest Alliance's Project for the Implementation of Best Management Practices and Certification Support for Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises. This initiative is coordinated by the Rainforest Alliance in several Latin American countries.
The Rainforest Alliance is a leading international conservation organization whose goals include promoting ecologically and socially responsible best practices for tourism businesses in Latin America. The organization works to promote tourism certification programs, including publicizing the various programs' requirements and the benefits of certification. The Rainforest Alliance also gathers and distributes information about current tourism market conditions and trends, provides marketing support to participating tourism businesses and creates commercial alliances that benefit owners of sustainable tourism businesses.
The purpose of the cooperative agreements is to encourage tour operators to motivate their affiliated business enterprises to join them in conserving biodiversity and reducing tourism's negative impacts. The agreements allow staff with lodges and other tourism enterprises that work with participating tour companies to receive Rainforest Alliance training related to effective business management and the requirements of sustainable tourism certification programs. Participants can then elect to receive technical assistance and marketing support, if their businesses meet specific requirements.
"In early 2005, we started trying to locate tour operators and agencies committed to sustainable tourism in Guatemala, Belize, Ecuador and Costa Rica," said Ronald Sanabria, director of Sustainable Tourism for the Rainforest Alliance. "We presented the project to them and invited them to join our efforts. The results have been very satisfactory -- we've signed several agreements and are in the process of negotiating others."
A Partnership That Pays
The relationship with tour operators begins when they sign a contract with the Rainforest Alliance that spells out commitments by both parties. The Rainforest Alliance provides introductory seminars about best practices and tourism certification programs, including an introduction to our project.
Next, we invite staff with businesses affiliated with participating tour operators to attend workshops that allow us to delve deeper into the subject of sustainability and study successful businesses that have implemented best practices or have earned eco-labels.
Then, staff with businesses that meet specific requirements may elect to receive additional Rainforest Alliance support -- our experts will provide them with an in-depth analysis of their business, with technical assistance, marketing support and publicity designed to attract more visitors.
For their part, tour operators that sign contracts with the Rainforest Alliance agree to be responsible for organizing the seminar and training events, recruiting participants and motivating them to join our best practices program. Tour operators also agree to give priority to hotels and lodges that adopt best practices, in tour packages offered to international tourism wholesalers.
"We are convinced that this type of agreement is an excellent way to promote communication between the private sector and non-government organizations such as ourselves," Sanabria explained. "The agreements allow us to transmit the knowledge that we have accumulated at the Rainforest Alliance in a way that benefits tour operators." The Rainforest Alliance's work in sustainable tourism Latin America is supported by the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank, the Ford Foundation and Fundecooperación. This project implemented in cooperation with Asociacion Ecuatoriana de Ecoturismo (Ecuador), Asociacion Alianza Verde (Guatemala) and Programme for Belize (Belize).
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