Community Task Force fostering community involvement in local tourism management
Summary
Community tourism can only prosper and be sustainable if it is driven by the people. Therefore, the ‘Sustainable Tourism and Protected Areas in a Post-COVID World’ project initially contemplated the option of bringing all stakeholders directly or indirectly involved in ecotourism in the selected PAs (including their management boards) together to achieve the common goal of creating sustainable ecotourism offers.
However, during the project implementation, it was noted that not all the stakeholders had the same levels of interest and support, therefore a new approach was suggested. This implied creating a “taskforce” with the key local stakeholders and instead of having network meetings, small workshops at the local level were organised to facilitate the visioning of tourism at the early stage.
The community workshops aimed to identify 1-2 representatives to form Tourism Task Forces, define the community’s vision for tourism and an action plan to carry out in 2023. Plans tend to differ from how situations evolve.
Classifications
Region
Scale of implementation
Ecosystem
Theme
Challenges
Sustainable development goals
Aichi targets
Challenges
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Tourism in the selected PAs already exists but sustainable tourism practice is limited and there is no organisation for stakeholders to reach out for tour product development and promotion.
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The Ecotourism Cluster Network initially introduced to the project was inspired by the Mediterranean Experience of Ecotourism Network’s (MEET) annual, which was specifically focused on developing ecotourism products that satisfy criteria in order for the Protected Area to become a part of MEET. However, tourism in the two selected PAs was not mature enough for all stakeholders to express the same levels of interest and support. The ECN did not succeed.
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As the project only lasted one year, local people did not have a full understanding of tour products in their very communities and PAs. In addition, they did not have a joint working mechanism to coordinate the tour professionally. In case of information enquiries or booking, there is no focal contact point to coordinate with individual service providers.
Beneficiaries
The residents of 4 selected villages in and around Cuc Phuong National Park and Van Long Nature Reserve
Comment les blocs constitutifs interagissent-ils entre eux dans la solution?
A strong sense of community and connectedness among its members is essential for an open and transparent discussion using participatory bottom-up approach for a Task Force to come into being.
Impacts
Two task force workshops were organised with key local champions who pioneered joining tourism initiatives in the beginning phase (6 community members representing 3 villages in Van Long NR and 9 people from Khanh village of Cuc Phuong NP).
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01 task force was successfully formed (or revived) in Khanh village with core members being 4 homestay owners and 1 tour guide coordinating new experiences
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No task force was established in Van Long NR. Participants agreed that for the tourism activities to continue, a local operator can work directly with individual service providers.
Story
❝This is a much needed thing [task force] for Khanh villagers to know how to work together and with tour agents when they come visit us. In the past, we only worked with the Cuc Phuong Management Board, and we had a small group mechanism. But during 2 years of COVID, no guests came. Therefore this group is no longer active. We also talked to Cuc Phuong Management Board and sought their agreement to let us host guests who do not come through the main gate. With the revision of this group and extension to new members*, we hope that we can work with other tourists coming from the Ho Chi Minh trail.❞
- Mr. Bui Van Dien (Muong ethnicity, Khanh villager, homestay owner)
* The old group consists of 4 homestay owners. Whenever there is a booking from Cuc Phuong Management Board, the homestay owner getting the booking must act as the coordinator of other services. There was no central booking / communication system.
Pictures
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