Sustainable Tourism Development and the Preparation of Sustainable Tourism Policies and Guidelines
As part of the preparation of Palaus' Sustainable Tourism Development Policies for the President of the Republic, a 5-day workshop was held for senior political officials (Governors and Senators), travel industry leaders, tour operators and PVA officials to prepare policy statements including implementation initiatives. Following the workshop James consolidates all the accumulated data and prepared a final set of sustainable tourism development policies. The participants came together again on week 3 to finalize the policies. The 31 policies passed through the Palau Congress in a record 6 months.
ecoplan:net ltd. presented Hawaii's first ever sustainable tourism and green management workshops. The state has become a leader in the Pacific Region to offer responsible tourism. ecoplan:net ltd., working with a local partner -- The International Society for Ecotourism Management -- have become the principal trainers in advancing sustainable tourism and ecotourism concepts.
James gave the keynote address and facilitated 2 workshops at this annual conference sponsored by Yale University and ISTF. The focus of the sessions were on the positive and negative impacts of ecotourism. However, the keynote stressed the importance of going beyond ecotourism to implementing a comprehensive National Sustainable Tourism Policy. The Bahamas was used as a model.
Following the preparation of the Sustainable Tourism Policies for the Out Islands of the Bahamas, a workshop was organized by the Ministry of Tourism to review the proposed policies and recommend options. The session was opened by the Permanent Secretary, and then the participants were divided into working groups to address each policy initiative. Their recommendations were incorporated into the final report.
