Community Support

For the region’s natural environment to support eco-tourism, local communities must be committed to these efforts and must be involved in every aspect of planning and development. It has been proven in a number of settings that community involvement in eco-tourism planning is critical to the incremental expansion that is the foundation of success in rural eco-tourism efforts.

One of the most significant elements of community support is participation by EVERY member of the community in the promotion and interpretation of the region and its sites. Put simply, it means that the gas station attendant needs to be trained to answer questions and to direct travelers to points of interest. It means that the clerks at the store or waitresses in the café need to take special care to make newcomers welcome, find out what brings them to the area and then provide additional information regarding bed and breakfasts, the local café with the really great pie, or eco-tourism sites that might be of interest.

In addition to dealing with accommodation and food service issues, communities can support eco-tourism efforts by organizing nature tourism groups that represent community interests, distributing newsletters, developing web sites and hosting web bulletin boards, conducting study trips to other eco-tourism sites to observe efforts, and host seminars to exchange information about nature tourism interpretation, marketing and service developments.