Contributed
Visitors watch the old method of grinding cane on Appleton Estate.Avia Ustanny, Freelance Writer
THEO CHAMBERS of Positive tourism.com news. told Outlook that Community Tourism is the key to the reduction of crime in any tourism area. "It works in the other Caribbean islands because the entire community is involved. Community tourism reduces the need for police, and for government involvement because the community will protect its own interests.
"Once the community is involved it will protect its interests, they will not destroy that which provides a living. Community Tourism should include better schooling, better hospitals and literacy programmes. It should not just bring tourists here but also help to develop the infrastructure of the areas so that the industry can be sustained," Mr. Chambers said.
The International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) was formed in 1986 (the United Nations International Year of Peace) has long recognised the direct link between community well being and peace. The not-for-profit organization has a vision of travel and tourism as "the world's first 'global peace industry' - an industry that recognizes, promotes and supports the belief that every traveler is potentially as 'Ambassador for Peace' - an Ambassador for Peace within the global family, and an Ambassador for Peace with nature".
The IIPT is based on the philosophy and principles expressed in the Manila Declaration of the World Tourism Organization (WTO). The Conference served to heighten awareness to the potential of the travel and tourism industry to contribute to world peace through promoting international understanding among people and co-operation among nations, improving the quality of environment, both built and natural, the enhancement of culture and the preservation of heritage.
From Treasure Beach, Jason Henzel of Jakes Village, reports that the sharing of resources in local tourism has created a "very good community spirit. Persons are not cooped up in their hotel and they have not paid a lot of money for their package so they feel they can go down and try other restaurants. People do not feel they are confined and because of that you do not have the hustling and the harassment. In the area where there are so many all-inclusives, the minute one (a visitor) comes out, they (Jamaicans) jump."
Henzel states that Treasure Beach has taken the decision that "we will be low density, with no high rises hotels. Every year the Foundation does three or four projects which directly benefit the community. Even though the larger hotels do projects if persons do not wander in the streets and talk to local, go fishing with them and hang with them in a bar, the impact is not the same. When you let your guard down they (visitors) want to go to schools, they want to visit hospitals and they want to send things back. That's really how community tourism works."
