Berl Francis | Community tourism shows promise

International tourism trends are showing an increasing strengthening of community tourism, and Jamaica has seized the opportunity to shift the island’s tourist industry from being exclusively a sun, sea and sand, and large-hotel destination toward an interactive and more inclusive experience for visitors.

Community tourism, an initiative started in 1978 by Mandeville hotelier Diana McIntyre-Pike and a former director of tourism, Desmond Henry, has caught on and is bringing credence to the slogan adopted several years ago by the Jamaica Tourist Board: ‘We’re more than a beach. We’re a country’. McIntyre-Pike, daughter of pioneering Negril hotelier Ceceline McIntyre, worked with Henry to create a bottom-up tourism product. They coined the name community tourism for their venture, which encourages communities to make greater use of local resources including agricultural produce, become trained in hospitality skills, and generate income that would stay in Jamaica.

McIntyre-Pike and Henry realised that some tourists want to explore the places they visit, and interact with local people. So, together, they started marketing the concept through the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT). The idea of community tourism was introduced to Jamaica by Diana’s mother; Mrs McIntyre offered an authentic Jamaican experience at her property in Negril in the 1960s, when that community was an unspoilt fishing village.

She introduced her community’s lifestyle to her guests, offering them many of the benefits of tourist destinations, while making them feel a welcome part of the local community. This approach helped to launch Negril with a huge market of nature lovers and hippies. Ceceline McIntyre’s daughter, Diana, was nurtured in this environment and she pursued the concept while operating the family’s Astra Hotel in Mandeville.

EXPERIENCE RURAL LIFESTYLE

Community tourism’s goal is to offer visitors the opportunity to experience rural Jamaican life, while promoting the country’s national heritage and contributing to an improvement in the quality of life in local communities. This is a worldwide trend which is a “win-win” situation for communities and visitors.

Community-based tourism, as it is known in other countries, is where the money earned directly benefits the host community. This is as opposed to tourists staying in large hotels which are, for the most part, foreign owned, therefore the money earned does not stay in Jamaica. Further, by and large, most of the goods consumed in the larger hotels are imported.

The Jamaica Community Tourism Project has the responsibility of developing community tourism in Jamaica. It was proposed and designed by the Sustainable Communities Foundation, in association with Countrystyle Community Tourism Network (CCTN), and coordinated by the St Elizabeth Homecoming Foundation. All development and all product offerings, including tours, are designed to be environmentally sustainable and beneficial to communities.

Headquartered in Mandeville, CCTN has registered branches, members and partners throughout the Caribbean and in the US, Canada, Europe and South Africa. It also constitutes the Caribbean chapter of IIPT and coordinates the IIPT International Community Tourism Network in over 70 countries. CCTN has established a set of specialised, but mutually supportive non-profit and for-profit subsidiary organisations to aid communities wishing to engage in community tourism.

Communities are educated in all aspects of managing the business of tourism, ensuring visitor satisfaction. People are trained to understand the importance of taking care of visitors in a hospitable manner, and keeping their areas clean and environmentally friendly, with no drug pushing or other harassment.

NOT AN ALTERNATIVE

Community tourism is not viewed by its organisers as an alternative to mainstream tourism. Its leaders maintain that, while tourism, in general, is undoubtedly important from a national point of view, particularly in terms of foreign exchange earnings, development of the mainstream tourist industry in any area or community should not exploit or cause destruction of the natural habitat and resources, including cultural and heritage resources.

CCTN’s Countrystyle Homestay is licensed to market homestays in the Caribbean as a member of Homestay Technologies Ltd. CCTN provides training and marketing support for craft people, as there is a demand by tourists for locally made craft throughout the Caribbean. However, there is no denying the fact that much of the craft sold in resorts are imported. In addition, most of the food, furniture and fixtures consumed by the industry are imported. Clearly, if Jamaica is to reap its fair share of benefits from tourism, local input must be increased.

To take advantage of opportunities offered by the industry, Jamaica commissioned development of a national community tourism policy and strategy. Following on the McIntyre -Henry initiative, a group of agencies, including the Jamaica Promotion Corporation (JAMPRO), the Bureau of Women’s Affairs, the Forestry Department and the the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture formed a committee to undertake an extensive consultation process. This was undertaken with communities, the public and private sector, and the tourist industry to identify issues, concerns and opportunities facing communities interested in pursuing tourism.

The assessment indicated that international market trends, the market characteristics of the tourism sector, and the diverse array of interesting and distinctive communities offer a combination of very promising conditions on which to grow a vibrant community tourism sector. It also demonstrated that there were many constraints, gaps and capacity issues that need to be addressed. In particular, the need to strengthen the ability of communities to engage successfully in tourism was identified by all stakeholder groups.

Berl Francis is a communication consultant and former director of communication at the Ministry of Tourism. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com