GUIDING THE WAY

 

ECO-CULTURAL TOURISM GUIDES AND STANDARDS

 

 

Presented To: 1998 Way To Go, A New Travel Expo

 

 

 

 

By: Dr. Patrick Tierney

Adrift Adventures and San Francisco St Univ.

Email: ptierney@sfsu.edu

 

 

 

February 1, 1998

 

The growing travel niche of eco-cultural tourism is heavily dependent on guides. These professionals are the principle providers of client education about natural and cultural resources, keys to conservation and protection of resources, enforcers of policies that protect host cultures and people, often they are the principle recepients of financial benefits to the local area and they make it fun for their guests. They operate in a wide variety of environmental and client experience settings, from rainforest to glacial ice field. The tourism industry setting in a developing courtry is very different from a nature tour conducted in a rural North American setting.

It is somewhat surprising how little a tourist usually knows about his/her potential guide before making a decision to go with an organization, despite the importance of guides to the success of an eco-cultural experience. This lack of information stems from at least two sources; ignorance about the important role the guide will play, and/or not knowing what information to acquire to allow for a pre-trip evaluation, and where to find such data. Often times the credibility of advertisements and commercial sources are suspect and the potential visitor may not know of anyone who has personally been on a guided experience they desire.

The objectives of this presentation are to assist independent travelers and commercial travel agents understand the roles of guides in a true eco-cultural experience, discuss how to evaluate if a potential guide and outfitter is of high quality, and describe some sources for this type of information. The presentation is organized into three sections, guide licensing and permiting, general standards for guiding and finally, sources of information.

 

Guide Licensing - Government agency issues license to operate once minimum requirements met by guide. This is different from licensing the outfitting company. May have different levels of guides (ex. senior naturalists vs apprentice guide). Can be very effective if rigorous requirements and extensive experience requirements. License can be revoked for poor performance. Guide licensing is usually good assurance of reasonable guide quality. But licensing may still not always guarantee high quality guides because requirements may be weak. May or may not involve a test. Licensing can be just intended to limit competition and boost guide wages, or to prevent foreigners from becoming guides. Many areas, especially in 2^nd and 3^rd world countries, do not have licensing, or regs are not enforced.

 

Another issue with guide licensing in developing countries is that rigorous licensing requirements can make it extremely difficult for indigenous people and other rural residents, who have spent their life in the bush and are very familiar with it, to qualify for a license. Licensing may favor more formally educated foreign or metropolitan residents, thus limiting ecotourisms benefits to the regions surrounding protected areas.

 

EXAMPLES:

* Utah and Idaho whitewater guide licenses

* Galapagos National Park, Ecuador, guide license

* Belize guide license

 

RECOMMENDATION:

Ask potential outfitters if their guides must be licensed? If yes, what are some of the requirements? What is minimum experience required to get license?

 

Outfitter licensing or permitting - Government agency licenses the outfitting company or permits it to operate in a protected area or region. Can be effective if agency has rigorous requirements and staff to enforce them. Not as good as guide licensing because guides may or may not have to meet high standards or be licensed. Often outfitter licensing alone is just a way for the agency or country to tax the outfitter, standards may be very lax on environmental, cultural or experience requirements, and may be little or no enforcement of regs. But outfitter licensing, together with guide licensing, is still reasonable assurance of quality guiding.

 

EXAMPLES:

* State of Colorado river outfitter license

* Licensed concessionaire for agency such as the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, etc.

* New Zealand and Mexico national park concessionaires

 

RECOMMENDATION:

Ask potential outfitters if they are licensed or permitted, and by what agency? Can they provide you with the name and fax number of a contact person at the agency who can verify their license and performance?

Recommendations for guides- Non-profit, industry group or company itself recommends standards and practices for guides and outfitters. May be effective if there are strong guidelines and good cooperation by outfitters. May be only thing available if government has low budget or little support for regulations. May be the only performance standards for many site seeing programs and parts of the world. Limited effectiveness because any outfitter or guide could completely ignore guidelines without direct penalty.

 

EXAMPLES:

* Colorado River Outfitters Association environmental guidelines

* Ecotourism Society guidelines for nature tour operators

 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

If potential outfitter and their guides are not required to have a license or permit, ask if their company follows any internal or external guidelines to minimize impacts to bio-physical resources and local cultures. Ask them to describe a few guidelines they follow.

 

ECO-CULTURAL GUIDE STANDARDS

My intent is to provide an overview of some general performance standards for eco-cultural tour guides and outfitters. Not all apply in all cases. Consideration should be given to guides from rural areas in developing countries who lack the financial resources or sophisticated promotional expertise, but who can provide a high quality experience. Standards shown were developed by the Ecotourism Society, and some are my own. The following are some items to look for in advance or while on a trip to help you decide if it will be high quality, truly responsible tourism experience.

PRE-DEPARTURE: The outfitter should:

* Be able to provide you with a written comprehensive description and/or readings list about the ecological and cultural phenomenon you might see. This is true for North American and European outfitters, but knowledge may not be in writing for guides in developing countries.

* Describe general travel ethics and standards for visiting an area. However, these can’t be too specific until you arrive and see what the area is like.

Some typical topics that could reduce adverse cultural impacts, especially while while traveling in developing countries:

A. Clothing, bathing suits and nudity

B. Pan handlers and begging

C. Inflating prices of local goods

D. Aggressive merchants, bargaining and tipping

* Warn against bringing disposable goods that contribute to the solid waste problem or which are hazardous and can not be disposed of properly.

* Educate about products to avoid that are illegally traded or made from endangered flora or wildlife.

* Be able to discuss number of their guides from local area (most important in developing countries). Do they purchase most trip supplies from local area? These actions help spread economic benefits to local people.

* Describe their company contributions to protecting areas visited

A. In-kind support

B. Financial (for example, percent of proceeds donated)

AT THE TRIP ORIGIN - Guides should:

* Provide a quality, lengthy orientation on local culture and natural history

* Support protected area entrance fees and describe uses of funds collected

DURING THE ORIENTATION AND/OR ON THE TRIP - Guides should:

* Describe common visitor cultural practices that are insulting to host cultures. Guides should be bi-cultural and bi-lingual.

* Alert you to fragile environments and wildlife, and ways to avoid impacting them.

* Brief visitors on environmental guidelines created by company, specific to the area

* Present key protected area regulations

* Discuss sustainable yet sanitary methods for human waste and solid waste disposal.

* Allow opportunities for interaction with local people

* Discourage (often it is prohibited) collection of souvenirs from natural areas, such as bones and feathers, unless condoned by local authorities

* Encourage catch and release of fish and other game species, unless plentiful, used for meals, and/or part of local game management plan.

* Discourage feeding or baiting of fish and wildlife to facilitate observation

* Discuss resource management activities and programs of local park agency

* Avoid bringing groups into already crowded natural areas

* Warn against drug dealers, prostitution, or black markets

* Split large groups into smaller ones when visiting fragile areas

* Allow opportunities for local non-profit conservation groups to talk with visitors

* Discuss threats to the protected areas and indigenous cultures

* Use accommodations and suppliers who are in compliance with environmental regulations

BY END OF TRIP - Guides should:

* Describe ways visitors can become involved in protecting area from threats;

A. Service and in-kind opportunities

B. Financial contributions

C. Political action

* Encourage writing letters to organizations whose policies are damaging local areas or culture

* Provide a list of local environmental and conservation groups doing work in areas visited and describe ways visitors can assist them

SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR EVALUATING ECO-GUIDES

Guide licensing, outfitter permitting and voluntary guidelines all have their limitations for someone trying to decided which guide to go with. Travel agents do not have the time to make ten calls. Often the consumer or travel counselor, who does not have a friend who has taken a similar recent trip, must seek other non-biased sources of information to make their decision. The following are some examples:

A. Talk with travel agent or eco-travel wholesaler. There are a growing number who specialize in a region or activity.

B. Referral list provided by company

C. Call the regulating agency (National Park, National

Forest, etc.). This can be effective, especially for

international destinations.

D. Search the internet by:

1. Participating in eco-cultural tourism chat groups

* Speaker Marcus Endicott with his green travel network (green-travel@igc.apc.org)

2. Visit eco websites, such as

* Partners In Responsible Tourism website (www.pirt.org)

* El Planeta Platica by Ron Mader (www.planeta.com)

* Green travel webpage (www.green-travel.com)

E. Ask if organization has received any responsible travel awards, certificates or ratings by organizations such as:

- Eco-tel certificate for accommodations (refer to

expo presentation by HVS)

- PATA Green Leaf awards

- Eco-tourism awards by travel magazines such as

Smithsonian.

* Caution should be used when considering awards, because

some awards may be influcenced by advertising

expenditures, or may ignore eco-cultural concerns and focus on other criteria, such as pampering, technology or design.

* Remember, not every deserving company has been nominated for an award

* Be flexible and go with the flow