Planning for the Rapid Development
of Community Based Ecotourism
Using Action Research: A Project
Implemented in Rio Negro,
Comayagua, Honduras:
Prepared by:
Dave Kestenbaum
Associates for Community Based Tourism Development
Prepared for:
The Community of Rio Negro,
National System of Protected Areas (SINAP),
Comayagua Mountain Ecosystem (ECOSIMCO),
States Forestry Administration the HonduranCorporation of Forestry Development (AFE-CODEFOR),
The municipalities of Comayagua, Esquis, and San Jeronimo, and
Cuerpo de Conservation, Honduras (CCH)
With Support from:
Partners of the Americas (POA):Farmer to Farmer Program, and
Cuerpo de Conservation Hondur
Date September 15, 2002
Planning for the Rapid Development of Community Based Ecotourism Using Action
Research: A Project Implemented in Rio Negro, Comayagua, Honduras
Copyright ©by David Evan Kestenbaum
Printed by
Dave Kestenbaum/ Associates for Community Based Tourism Planning
PO Box 314
Saint Albans Bay, Vermont 05481
davekest@together.net
Limits of Liability and Disclaimer of Warranty
This views expressed in this report are those of the individual author and do not
necessarily represent the views of the parties this document was prepared for or the views
of the organizations that supported this work. The author has used his best effort in
preparing this document and every effort has been made to collect the latest and most
substantial information. The author makes no representation or warranties with respect to
the accuracy of this report and shall in no event be held liable for any loss of profit or any
other commercial damage. Including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential,
or other damages.
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FORWARDS
The following text describes a community based ecotourism development strategy
for the community of Rio Negro located within the buffer zone of Montana de
Comayagua National Park (PANACOMA) in the Department of Comayagua, Honduras.
This document was written with the intention of being used for a variety of purposes
including but not limited to the following:
1. As a guide for the community of Rio Negro to use to develop ecotourism
as a revenue generating activity within their community.
2. As a source for the community of Rio Negro to better understand the
tourism industry and the tourism development process.
3. As a tool for assisting large government agencies and non-governmental
agencies within the area realize that tourism development, which
places local community members at the center of the process, is
possible development option.
4. As a document which can be used to solicit funds for community
development from both national and international development
agencies and non-governmental organizations.
5. As a document other communities and organizations can use to guide
them through their own tourism development process.
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FORWARDS ..................................................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 10
1-A.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 10
1-A.2 GENESIS OF THIS PROJECT ................................................................................... 10
1-A.3 AN INTRODUCTION PANACOMA AND RIO NEGRO ............................................ 11
1-A.4 ECOTOURISM AS A WAY OF INTEGRATING CONSERVATION WITH DEVELOPMENT 12
1-A.4.1 Determining the Feasibility of Ecotourism Development within Rio Negro 12
1-A.4.2 A Bottom-Up Approach to Feasibility Assessment ...................................... 14
1-A.4.3 Innovation and Entrepreneurship ................................................................ 14
1-A.5 WHY ECOTOURISM CAN WORK IN RIO NEGRO .................................................... 15
1-A.5.1 Minimizing the Skepticism Within Rio Negro .............................................. 16
1-A.6 BUILDING ON OTHER PLANNING MODELS ........................................................... 17
1-A.7 THE LAYOUT OF THIS DOCUMENT........................................................................ 20
SECTION B: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE................................................... 22
1-B.1 IMPACTS OF TOURISM OVER TIME ....................................................................... 22
1-B.2 TOURISM AS A DEVELOPMENT OPTION ................................................................ 22
1-B.3 TOURISM PLANNING MODELS .............................................................................. 23
1-B.3.1 The PASLOP Technique: Early Attempts at Integrated Tourism Planning . 24
1-B.3.2 Expert Driven-Local Participatory Planning .............................................. 25
1-B.3.3 A Team Approach to Regional and National Level Tourism Planning ....... 26
1-B.3.4 An Integrated Approach to Sustainable Tourism and Resort Development 28
1-B.3.5 Nature Based Tourism Planning for Rural America.................................... 28
1-B.3.6 Ecosystem Based Planning that Empowers Communities ........................... 28
1-B.3.7 Ecotourism Planning for Individual Businesses .......................................... 29
1-B.3.8 Collaborative and Participatory Planning Models...................................... 29
1-B.4 CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................... 30
CHAPTER TWO: THE METHODOLOGY USED FOR THIS PROJECT ............ 31
2.1 AN INTRODUCTION TO RAPID RURAL APPRAISAL .................................................... 31
2.1.1 Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) vs. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) ........ 31
2.1.2 RRA in this Report ........................................................................................... 31
2.2 INFORMAL RAPPORT BUILDING WITH COMMUNITY MEMBERS ................................ 32
2.3 PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION .................................................................................. 33
2.3.1 Exploratory Interviews with Local Community Members ............................... 33
2.3.2 Interviews with Foreign Tourists ..................................................................... 35
2.4 SECONDARY DATA COLLECTION ............................................................................. 35
CHAPTER THREE: A PROFILE AND ANALYSIS OF NATIONAL PARK
MONTANA DE COMAYAGUA (PANACOMA) ....................................................... 37
3.1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................... 37
3.2 HISTORY AND BACKGROUND OF PANACOMA....................................................... 37
3.3 PARK OVERVIEW...................................................................................................... 38
3.4 GEOGRAPHIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL ORIENTATION ................................................ 39
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3.5 MANAGEMENT ZONES AND SUBZONES.................................................................... 40
3.5.1 Core Zone......................................................................................................... 40
3.5.2 Special Use Zone.............................................................................................. 41
3.5.3 Buffer Zone....................................................................................................... 42
3.6 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND THE PARK ................................................................... 43
3.7 FUTURE MANAGEMENT PLANS ................................................................................ 44
3.8 BARRIERS TO DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................... 45
3.8.1 Environmental Factors .................................................................................... 45
3.8.2 Political Factors .............................................................................................. 45
3.9 TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN PANACOMA IN RELATION TO OTHER PARKS ........... 46
3.9.1 Profiles of Other Parks .................................................................................... 46
3.9.2 National Park Cerro Azul Meambar................................................................ 46
3.9.3 National Park Montana de Celeque ................................................................ 46
3.9.4 National Park Trifinio-Montecristo ................................................................. 47
3.9.5 Cerro Azul National Park ................................................................................ 47
3.9.6 National Park Cusuco ...................................................................................... 47
3.9.7 La Tigra National Park.................................................................................... 47
3.9.8 La Muralla National Park ............................................................................... 47
3.9.9 Montana de Yoro National Park ...................................................................... 48
3.9.10 Pico Pijol National Park ................................................................................ 48
3.9.11 Santa Barbara National Park ........................................................................ 48
3.9.12 Sierra de Agalta ............................................................................................. 48
3.9.13 Pico Bonito..................................................................................................... 48
3.10 SUMMARY OF COMPETITIVE FACTORS ................................................................... 49
3.10.1 Natural Resources .......................................................................................... 49
3.10.2 Level of Infrastructure ................................................................................... 49
3.10.3 Location ......................................................................................................... 49
3.10.4 Ability to Customize ....................................................................................... 49
3.10.5 Major Competitors ......................................................................................... 50
3.10.6 Options for Attracting Visitors....................................................................... 50
3.11 SWOT ANALYSIS FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN PANACOMA ....................... 50
3.11.1 Strengths ........................................................................................................ 50
3.11.2 Weaknesses .................................................................................................... 50
3.11.3 Opportunities ................................................................................................. 51
3.11.4 Threats ........................................................................................................... 51
3. 12 CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................... 51
CHAPTER FOUR: A PROFILE AND ANALYSIS OF THE COMMUNITY OF
RIO NEGRO ................................................................................................................... 52
4.1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................... 52
4.2 HISTORY AND BACKGROUND OF RIO NEGRO ........................................................... 52
4.3 ACCESSIBILITY ......................................................................................................... 53
4.4 LIVELIHOOD ............................................................................................................. 53
4.5 INFRASTRUCTURE .................................................................................................... 54
4.5.1 Potable Water .................................................................................................. 54
4.5.2 Refuse Disposal ................................................................................................ 54
4.5.3 Electricity ......................................................................................................... 54
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4.5.4 Communication ................................................................................................ 55
4.5.5 Health Care ...................................................................................................... 55
4.5.6 Crime................................................................................................................ 55
4.5.7 Education ......................................................................................................... 55
4.6 ORGANIZATIONS AND CIVIC STRUCTURE ................................................................. 55
4.6.1 Local Organizations......................................................................................... 56
4.6.2 Outside Organization Operating Within Rio Negro and the Region ............... 57
4.7 SPECIAL EVENTS AND LEISURE ACTIVITIES ............................................................. 59
4.7.1 Fiesta Patronal de Cristo Negro...................................................................... 59
4.7.2 Ferria Artesenal ............................................................................................... 59
4.7.3 Recreation ........................................................................................................ 59
4.8 PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES FACING RIO NEGRO .................................................. 59
4.9 HUMAN RESOURCES................................................................................................. 60
4.10 RIO NEGRO, PANACOMA, AND TOURISM............................................................ 61
4.11 PROFILE OF TOURISM IN RIO NEGRO ...................................................................... 62
4.11.1 History............................................................................................................ 62
4.11.2 Tourism Resources and Public Opinion ........................................................ 63
4.11.3 Attractions in Rio Negro ................................................................................ 64
4.11.4 Gauging Visitor Reaction .............................................................................. 64
4.11.5 Inventory of Tourism Resources .................................................................... 65
4.11.6 Residents’ Prior Experience Working with Tourists ..................................... 65
4.11.7 Residents’ Desire to Work With Tourists ....................................................... 66
4.11.8 Potential Deterrents ....................................................................................... 67
4.11.9 Potential for Negative Impacts of Tourism .................................................... 67
4.12 SWOT ANALYSIS OF FACTORS RELATED TO TOURISM DEVELOPMENT WITHIN
RIO NEGRO .................................................................................................................... 68
4.12.1 Strengths ........................................................................................................ 69
4.12.2 Weaknesses .................................................................................................... 69
4.12.3 Opportunities ................................................................................................. 69
4.12.4 Threats ........................................................................................................... 70
4.13 CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................ 70
CHAPTER FIVE: A PROFILE AND ANALYSIS OF THE MARKET .................. 71
5.1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................... 71
5.2 TOURISM WORLDWIDE............................................................................................. 71
5.3 TOURISM IN CENTRAL AND LATIN AMERICA ........................................................... 72
5.4 TOURISM IN HONDURAS ........................................................................................... 72
5.4.1 Arrivals at a National Level ............................................................................. 72
5.4.2 Tourism Revenues at a National Level ............................................................ 73
5.4.3 Tourist Origins and Ports of Entry .................................................................. 73
5.4.4 High and Low Season Travel Patterns ............................................................ 73
5.4.5 Types of Travel ................................................................................................. 73
5.4.6 Travel Motives ................................................................................................. 74
5.4.7 Length of Stay .................................................................................................. 74
5.4.8 Travel Spending ............................................................................................... 75
5.4.9 Tourist Demographics ..................................................................................... 75
5.4.10 How Tourists Learn About Travel to Honduras ............................................ 77
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5.5 TOURISM INFRASTRUCTURE AND ATTRACTIONS IN HONDURAS ............................... 78
5.5.1 Attractions and Destinations............................................................................ 78
5.5.2Hotels and Tourism Services ............................................................................ 79
5.6 TOURISM IN COMAYAGUA........................................................................................ 79
5.6.1 General Visitor Statistics ................................................................................. 79
5.6.2 Tourism Infrastructure and Services in Comayagua ....................................... 80
5.7 SWOT ANALYSIS OF THE MARKETPLACE IN RELATION TO TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
IN RIO NEGRO ................................................................................................................ 80
5.7.1 Strengths .......................................................................................................... 81
5.7.2 Weaknesses ...................................................................................................... 81
5.7.3 Opportunities ................................................................................................... 81
5.7.4 Threats ............................................................................................................. 81
5.8 CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................................... 82
CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSIONS AND REVIEW OF EXTERNAL AND
INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTS IN RELATION TO TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
IN RIO NEGRO .............................................................................................................. 83
6.1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................... 83
6.2 SUMMARY OF STRENGTHS FROM PREVIOUS CHAPTERS ........................................... 83
6.2.1 Conclusions from list of Strengths ................................................................... 84
6.3 SUMMARY OF WEAKNESSES FROM PREVIOUS CHAPTERS ........................................ 84
6.3.1 Conclusions from the list of Weaknesses ......................................................... 84
6.4 SUMMARY OF THREATS FROM PREVIOUS CHAPTERS ............................................... 86
6.4.1 Conclusions from the list of Weaknesses ......................................................... 87
6.5 SUMMARY OF OPPORTUNITIES FROM PREVIOUS CHAPTERS ..................................... 87
6.5.1 Conclusions from the list of Opportunities ...................................................... 88
6.6 FINAL REVIEW ......................................................................................................... 88
CHAPTER SEVEN: AN IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPING
ECOTOURISM WITHIN RIO NEGRO ...................................................................... 89
7.1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................... 89
7.1.1 List of Tutorials: .............................................................................................. 89
TUTORIAL ONE: HOW TO INVOLVE THE COMMUNITY IN USING THIS PLAN ................... 90
7.2.1 Tutorial Goals:................................................................................................. 90
7.2.2 Why Community Involvement Important? ....................................................... 90
7.2.3 Ensuring Full Community Participation ......................................................... 90
7.3 TUTORIAL TWO: DEVELOPING AND PRICING PRODUCTS .......................................... 92
7.3.1 Tutorial Goals:................................................................................................. 92
7.3.2 Why is Developing and Pricing Products Important? ..................................... 92
7.3.3 Part I: Product Development ........................................................................... 93
7.3.4 Part II: Pricing the Products ........................................................................... 98
7.4 TUTORIAL THREE: DEVELOPING A MARKETING PLAN FOR RIO NEGRO ................. 101
7.4.1 Tutorial Goals:............................................................................................... 101
7.4.2 Why is Developing a Marketing Plan Important? ......................................... 101
7.4.3 How This Section is Organized ...................................................................... 101
7.4.4 What is Marketing? ........................................................................................ 101
7.4.5 What is a Marketing Plan? ............................................................................ 102
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7.4.6 Understanding Business Objectives and the Situational, Marketing, and
Competitive Analyses .............................................................................................. 103
7.4.7 Product-Market Match................................................................................... 106
7.4.8 Marketing Objectives ..................................................................................... 113
7.5 TUTORIAL FOUR: DEVELOPING MARKETING STRATEGIES ..................................... 116
7.5.1Product Promotion and Placement in the Domestic Market .......................... 116
7.5.2 Product Promotion and Placement When Marketing to 1) Foreign
Professionals, Missionaries, and Servicemen living In and Around Comayagua and
2) Foreign Business Travelers in Comayagua........................................................ 117
7.5.3 Product Promotion and Placement when Marketing to Foreign Recreation
Travelers in Comayagua ......................................................................................... 117
7.5.4 Product Promotion and Placement When Marketing to ................................ 118
Honduran School Children, University Groups, and Civic Organizations In and
Around the Comayagua Area.................................................................................. 118
7.5.5 Product Promotion and Placement for International Tourists ...................... 118
7.6 TUTORIAL FIVE: IDENTIFYING EFFECTIVE MARKETING ACTIVITIES ...................... 120
7.6.1 Effective Marketing Activities for Rio Negro ................................................. 120
7.6.2 Creating a Theme or Brand ........................................................................... 121
7.6.3 Designing and Distributing Brochures .......................................................... 124
7.6.4 Developing a Press Kit .................................................................................. 125
7.6.5 Using Signs .................................................................................................... 126
7.6.7 Monitoring Marketing Efforts ........................................................................ 127
7.7. TUTORIAL SIX: DEVELOPING AND MAINTAINING A COMMUNITY IMAGE .............. 129
7.8 TUTORIAL SEVEN: HOW TO ENSURE THAT EVERYONE IN THE COMMUNITY WILL
BENEFIT FROM TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ..................................................................... 131
7.8.1Creating a Community Development Fund .................................................... 131
7.8.2 How to Spend the Community Fund .............................................................. 132
7.9 TUTORIAL EIGHT: .................................................................................................. 134
MINIMIZING THE NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACTS ASSOCIATED WITH
TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................................. 134
7.9.1 Positive and Negative Impacts of Tourism .................................................... 134
7.9.2 Developing a Code of Conduct ...................................................................... 135
7.9.3 Implementation Strategy for Developing Codes of Conduct ......................... 135
7.9.4 Creating Regulations for Physical Infrastructure ......................................... 137
7.10 TUTORIAL NINE: CREATING A CONTRACT WITH OUTSIDE AGENCIES INTERESTED IN
DEVELOPING PROJECTS WITHIN RIO NEGRO ............................................................... 139
7.10.1 Working With the Municipality .................................................................... 139
7.10.2 Avoiding Competition With Locally-Run Businesses ................................... 139
7.10.3 Uses for the Purchased Land ....................................................................... 139
7.10.4 Negotiating a Contract with the Municipality ............................................. 139
7.10.5Types of Financial Arrangements ................................................................. 142
7.10.6 Park Visitor Registration ............................................................................. 143
7.10.7 Park Entrance Fee ....................................................................................... 144
7.11 TUTORIAL TEN: FURTHER TRAINING.................................................................... 147
7.11.1 Food Safety and Sanitation .......................................................................... 147
7.11.2 Water ............................................................................................................ 148
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7.11.3 Food ............................................................................................................. 148
7.11.4 First Aid ....................................................................................................... 149
7.11.5 Hospitality/Personal Services ...................................................................... 150
7.11.6 Interpretation ............................................................................................... 151
7.11.7 Speaking and Understanding English .......................................................... 152
7.11.8 Conclusions .................................................................................................. 152
CHAPTER EIGHT: SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS .......................... 153
8.1 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................... 153
8.2 INITIAL RESULTS SHOWN IN THE COMMUNITY PRIOR TO THE PRESENTATION OF THIS
REPORT ........................................................................................................................ 155
8.3 AN ONGOING PROCESS .......................................................................................... 155
8.4 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................ 156
8.4.1 Recommendations for Future Work Within Rio Negro .................................. 156
8.4.2 Recommendations for Future Research ......................................................... 158
8.5 FINAL WORDS ........................................................................................................ 158
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 159
APPENDIX A ................................................................................................................ 165
APPENDIX B ................................................................................................................ 166
APPENDIX C ................................................................................................................ 167
APPENDIX D ................................................................................................................ 171
APPENDIX E ................................................................................................................ 174
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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Section A: Project Introduction and Overview
Section B: A Review of the Literature
1-A.1 Introduction
The objective of this project is to develop a community-based ecotourism
development strategy for the community of Rio Negro, Honduras. According to
ecotourism consultant Carol Patterson, a good plan “. . . identifies opportunities, outlines
ways to capitalize on these opportunities, and develops an implementation strategy”
(Patterson, 1997). After extensively reviewing planning models used by development
agencies around the world, I determined that a new model needed to be developed for this
project, due to its unique nature. Some of the most salient features setting this project’s
planning model apart from others include:
1. Placing local entrepreneurs and established community organizations at
the center of the development process
2. Using action research, particularly by providing technical assistance to the
local community and running pilot projects during the planning and
research phase in order to build community trust, test implementation
strategies, determine feasibility, and build experience/promote greater
participation amongst community members.
The planning model developed for this project builds on a number of other
planning models in order to develop a process which “links resource conservation and
local participation with professionalism in the tourism business, entrepreneurial thinking
and market orientation” (Steck, Strasdas, Gustedt, 2001).
The remainder of this chapter presents the history of this project, justification for
this project, an overview of this planning model, how and why this planning model was
formulated, and how this planning model is used and presented in this text
1-A.2 Genesis of This Project
In January of 2001, Partners of the Americas (POA), an U.S.-based nongovernmental organization (for more information about Partners of the Americas, please
see Appendix A), worked with the University of Vermont to run a three week course on
ecotourism and environmental interpretation in Honduras. The student body for this
course was comprised of Honduran conservationists, as well as North American
undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Vermont. My role during this
course was to assist with the teaching of the ecotourism component, provide Spanish to
English and English to Spanish translations, and promote cultural exchange between the
North American and Honduran students (for more information about the author, please
see the Author’s Biography in Appendix B).
As one of the instructors for this course, I shared information about my life and
expertise in the area of tourism development. At the same time, I had the opportunity to
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learn a great deal about Honduras, its people, -- and on a larger scale, the world -- from
the Hondurans I traveled with. During our time together, I had the chance to develop a
special bond with each of the class’s twelve students, including our “resident practical
joker,” Jose Avilio Velasquez. (See Figure 1-A.1)
Avilio, as his friends call him, is from Rio Negro – a small farming community
located on the steep slopes of a national park (Montana de Comayagua National Park, or
PANACOMA). He is a coffee farmer and an environmentalist in his mid-thirties who has
a wife, two young boys, and a small farm located within the buffer zone of
PANACOMA.
At every opportunity, Avilio approached me with questions about ecotourism.
Particularly, he shared his own ideas and solicited my advice concerning ecotourism
development within his community. This project has its roots in my early conversations
with Avilio.
Figure 1-A.1 Sustainability, Ecotourism and Environmental Interpretation
in Honduras at NACIFOR Chad, Sam, Renato, Avilio(Bottom Center),
Isaac, Jim, Eddie, George, and Helder
1-A.3 An Introduction PANACOMA and Rio Negro
PANACOMA was declared a national park to protect the watershed and to exploit
the land’s potential for tourism development. Avilio explained to me that when the park
was declared in 1987, many local people as well as national and international agencies
and organizations talked about the economic benefits Rio Negro would receive from
being integrated into the park. Today, most residents of the area do not believe they have
seen any benefits from the park and a large number of residents even resent the park’s
presence because the increased land-use regulations have limited their development
options. Avilio went on to explain that he is strongly in favor of the park’s presence, but
is frustrated because in over 14 years, there has been little success in either conservation
or tourism development. Conservation efforts will only be successful when the poor
communities living within the park begin to receive direct benefits from protecting the
land.
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Figure 1-A.2 PANACOMA primary Growth
Figure 1-A.3 Sunset in Rio Negro
1-A.4 Ecotourism as a Way of Integrating Conservation with Development
Because tourism is one of the only major industries suited for “rural, remote
and/or undeveloped areas, and marginal lands” (Ashley, Roe, 1998; IIED, 1994; Fredrick,
1993), it is a prime development alternative that could solve the park’s problem of
integrating conservation with development. Avilio was particularly taken by the concept
of ecotourism, defined by author Martha Honey as:
Travel to fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas that strives to be low
impact and (usually) small scale. It helps educate the traveler, provides funds for
conservation; directly benefits the economic development and political
empowerment of local communities; and fosters respect for different cultures and
for human rights (Honey, 1999).
Avilio believes that ecotourism, if implemented correctly, presents a win-win
scenario for all the people who have a vested interest in PANACOMA including:




The National System of Protected Areas (SINAP).
Comayagua Mountain Ecosystem (ECOSIMCO)
States Forestry Administration -- the Honduran Corporation of Forestry
Development (AFE-CODEFOR).
The municipalities of Comayagua, Esquis, and San Jeronimo.
After years of talk about ecotourism development in PANACOMA, little has been
accomplished. According to Avilio, this is due to a variety of factors, the biggest of
which is a lack of local know-how. Avilio went on to ask me if I would visit his
community and assist him by providing some ideas that would help his community
develop ecotourism.
1-A.4.1 Determining the Feasibility of Ecotourism Development within Rio Negro
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In order to better orientate me to the situation in PANACOMA and help convince
me to visit Rio Negro, Avilio told me at length about the tourism resources within his
community and described amongst other things the layout of PANACOMA, the region’s
diverse flora and fauna, and the area’s human resources.
From Avilio’s description, it was apparent that Rio Negro possessed many of the
basic elements for ecotourism development including:




A populace interested in ecotourism development.
Beautiful and diverse flora and fauna.
The protected status of a National Park.
Relatively close proximity to major population centers and transportation
routes (Steck, 1999).
However, from Avilio’s description it was also evident that his community
possessed many serious barriers to ecotourism development, including:







Lack of a tourism culture within the country or the region.
Lack of tourism expertise on the part of community members.
Potential interference by outside organizations with little tourism
experience or expertise.
Poor access roads.
Poor communication infrastructure.
Poor hygiene and sanitation practices.
Lack of access to capital and technical expertise (Steck, 1999).
In most cases, these barriers would have led me to advise Avilio that ecotourism
development would not work in his community. The tourism resources within Rio Negro
are not much different than those possessed by many other small communities and the
obstacles are significant enough that they have caused similar tourism development
projects to fail (Steck, 1999).
In fact, a number of rapid appraisal systems used to determine the feasibility of
tourism development in a region suggest that ecotourism development would have little
or no chance of success in Rio Negro. The result of one rapid appraisal system developed
by the German development agency (GTZ) suggested that tourism development in Rio
Negro makes “limited sense” or “no sense” (Steck, 1999), when considering the enormity
of the barriers listed above.
However, upon further study, there are reasons why this project can work where
others like it have failed. Many ecotourism development projects geared toward small
communities have a tendency to impose the idea of tourism development onto individuals
whose main interest is not tourism. Projects with this philosophy are often unsuccessful
because their top-down nature ignores the very culture of the industry, which they are
trying to develop. Instead of top-down approaches, bottom-up approaches to ecotourism
development that place local entrepreneurs with a passion for conservation at the center
of the process can have a greater probability for success. Because of this, and because I
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was struck by Avilio’s entrepreneurial spirit, I agreed to work with him and his
community.
1-A.4.2 A Bottom-Up Approach to Feasibility Assessment
While it is true that ecotourism projects around the world have failed because
developers and consultants often overestimated the capacity of local communities (Steck,
1999), it is also true that many projects, which could have been successful, have not been
pursued because to date no ecotourism planning model has been developed that
adequately considers 1) the abilities of individuals within a community to be innovative
or entrepreneurial or 2) the Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure (ESI) possessed by the
community at a systems level (Flora & Flora, 1993) when determining feasibility.
Traditional business models that rely solely on supply and demand as the driving
forces for economic development are short-sighted (Marcoullier, 1997) because they fail
to emphasize the importance of human capital – or more importantly, entrepreneurship
and innovation.(Eliasson, 2000) These factors play an equally important role in a postmodern economic system as supply and demand (Drucker, 1985).
1-A.4.3 Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Tourism by nature is a disjointed and segmented industry, with a large number of
small providers and individual entrepreneurs (Ceballos-Lascurian, 1996). In the tourism
industry, passionate and hardworking individuals have the potential to turn projects with
few resources into great successes while bad managers, employees, or planners can make
businesses with plentiful resources utter failures. In the end, people with the appropriate
skills and attitude play just as important a role in successful tourism development projects
as do the natural and financial resources of an area.
Many arguments can be made for the importance of taking the local capacity for
innovation and entrepreneurship into consideration. For example the Cultural Tourism
Program (CTP) currently being run in Tanzania was built through a collaborative effort
between local entrepreneurs, the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), and the
Tanzanian Tourism Board (TTB). To date this program is considered quite successful in
that it has diversified the economies of many small communities, provided quality
products to guests, and provided direct assistance to thousands of individuals through
development projects such as schools, irrigation systems, and tree nurseries. In brief the
main way this program operates is by the SNV and TTB, providing marketing and
technical assistance to local entrepreneurs.
Each of the communities affiliated with the CTP has experienced varying levels
of success. Representatives of these communities, the SNV, and the TTB believe that the
level of success in each community relates directly to the capacity of local individual
entrepreneurs (T.O. Sikar, Representative of the CTP and SNV, Personal
Communication, July, 14 and August 12, 2000; P. Mwenguo, Representative of CTP and
TTB, Personal Communication, July 6 and August 6, 2000; Dixon, local guide for CTP,
Personal Communication August 8, 2000; Bobfas, Local guide for CTP, Personal
Communication, August 14, 2000).
-14-
These small community based tourism projects in Africa exist in a number of
different environments, some which have faced much greater barriers to development
than those that exist in Rio Negro. In fact, some of the CTP sites exist in communities
where other tourism development strategies have failed in the past (T.O. Sikar,
Representative of the CTP and SNV, Personal Communication, July, 14 and August 12,
2000; P. Mwenguo, Representative of CTP and TTB, Personal Communication, July 6
and August 6, 2000; Dixon, local guide for CTP, Personal Communication August 8,
2000; Bobfas local guide for CTP, Personal Communication, August 14, 2000).
1-A.5 Why Ecotourism Can Work in Rio Negro
When I met Avilio, I thought he possessed that same entrepreneurial spirit,
charismatic personality, and creative edge that made some of the most unlikely projects
in Africa successful. From my conversations with Avilio, I also concluded that if just a
few of Avilio’s neighbors shared some of these characteristics, then community-based
ecotourism would have a real chance of diversifying the local economy while at the same
time promoting conservation and community development.
Rio Negro clearly has the natural resources and potentially the
entrepreneurs/leaders needed for tourism development, but a development project will
not be successful on the community level unless a third component exists. This third
component is entrepreneurial social infrastructure, or the group-level interactive quality
of the local community that is vital in linking leadership and resources together (Flora &
Flora, 1993).
Flora and Flora (1993) explain that ESI has three key components: symbolic
diversity, resource mobilization, and quality of linkages.
Symbolic diversity is a community’s ability to engage in constructive controversy
to arrive at workable community decisions by focusing on community processes,
depersonalization of politics, and broadening of community boundaries.
Resource mobilization involves generating some surplus within the community
beyond basic subsistence with relative equity in resource risk and distribution,
investment by residents of their own private capital locally, and collective
investment in the community.
Quality networks include establishing linkages with other similar circumstances
and developing vertical networks to provide diverse sources.
Research indicates that in communities where the resources and leadership for
development exist, development strategies that act to change particular facets of ESI can
result in concrete “economic change through community based initiatives” (Flora &
Flora, 1993). It was apparent from early conversations with Avilio that certain levels of
ESI existed in Rio Negro, and that with a good planning model it would be possible to
develop ecotourism that would benefit not only a few family-owned businesses, but the
entire community. After completing these initial assessments and conferring with Avilio,
-15-
I concluded that the next logical step in creating an ecotourism plan for Rio Negro was
for me to visit.
1-A.5.1 Minimizing the Skepticism Within Rio Negro
I first visited Rio Negro in January of 2001. During this visit I learned a great deal
about the community’s interest in diversifying the local economy with ecotourism, and I
learned about the community’s skepticism toward assistance provided by so-called
“outside experts” like myself. It seems that over the years different development agencies
have come to Rio Negro with all sorts of advice and promises regarding ways to develop
successful and appropriate economic activities in order to diversify and strengthen the
local economy. For instance, community members told me stories about development
projects that promoted the planting of cardamom and ginger, which not only proved
unsuccessful, but oftentimes left many community members poorer than they were before
the project began.
Through a number of informal interviews I concluded that a large percentage of
community members were concerned that a development project led by outsiders might
build up false hopes and expectations, produce a plan, which was never delivered to the
community, or prescribe inappropriate implementation strategies.
In order to avert these problems, I devised a strategy for ‘action research’
(Checkland,1992) or ‘active advisory’ (Steck, Stradas & Gustedt, 1999) based on the
rapid rural appraisal (RRA) methodology (Dunn, 1994). This strategy involved
simultaneously providing technical assistance while conducting research for this report.
By integrating technical assistance into the planning process my aim was to:








prevent the plan from getting bogged down in the planning phase;
help the citizens of Rio Negro get a feel for ecotourism;
build a working relationship between myself and the community;
assist the community in understanding my perspective on ecotourism;
enable the community to determine the effectiveness of suggested
strategies early on in the process;
build trust with the community;
increase my ability to learn more about the community; and
determine how the community and individuals performed when dealing
with change and unknown factors.
“Building on particular principles of social anthropology such as: field learning
and residence, participant, observation, appropriate attitudes, behavior and report, and
value validity of indigenous technical knowledge” (Dunn, 1994), this strategy also
worked well to increase the level of community participation within the research and
planning phase of this report.
In fact, every time positive results were generated with the implementation of
some technical advice, more and more community members volunteered to participate in
and assist in this research. This supports the hypothesis of the German Development
-16-
Agency (GTZ) that technical co-operation projects can mediate development and act as a
catalyst for development (Steck, Stradas & Gustedt, 1999) To give an example of how I
combined research and planning with technical assistance, it may be beneficial to
understand that during the research and planning phase for this report I:
1. Conducted a survey of every household in the community.
2. Worked with community members to gather information.
3. Brought in groups of tourists to Rio Negro to participate in many of the
activities we developed during brainstorming sessions with the
community members.
4. Set up focus groups with the tourists we brought to Rio Negro.
5. Had the tourists share their thoughts and feelings with community
members regarding the potential for tourism development within
PANACOMA.
6. Developed a community fund with 15% of the revenues generated from
the tourists I brought to the community. The money was put aside and
given to the guide association to use toward social projects that would
benefit the entire community – not just those involved in tourism.
7. Drew up designs for and began construction of the area’s first lodges.
8. Developed connections between local tour operators and the local guide
association.
For more detailed information about these activities, see Appendix C (Farmer-toFarmer Trip Report April 2001).
1-A.6 Building on Other Planning Models
To develop the proper planning model for this project, I reviewed planning
models from the fields of small business management, tourism development, and
integrated conservation development. As mentioned earlier, this project required a
uniquely formatted plan and so did not rely entirely on previously formatted plans for
development. Nonetheless, most of the plans proposed by other authors had some
interesting and unique features to lend to this project.
One model which did prove particularly useful for this project was developed and
described by Patterson in her 1997 book The Business of Ecotourism, which provides a
guide for planning and starting an ecotourism business. Patterson’s guide covered all the
necessary steps to developing an ecotourism business. The necessary steps in this
process are illustrated in Figure 1.5.
-17-
Figure 1-A.4 Patterson’s Strategic Planning Process
Review of the
Environment
Mission
Statement
Set
Objectives
Analyze
Market
Review of
Business
Capabilities
1
Identify &
Select Strategies
Define
Product
Implement
(Patterson, 1997, Page 13).
Since Patterson’s model was geared more toward planning an individual business
rather than guiding an entire community’s development process, I adapted her process as
follows:
 A community development process instead of that of an individual
business
 Considered individual capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship as
well as a community’s system level Entrepreneurial Social
Infrastructure (ESI) when determining feasibility and implementation
strategies.
 A project with extremely limited funding
 A project with a limited time-line
 A region with no tourism culture
 My preference to place an emphasis on making use of local entrepreneurs
and established community organizations
 My preference to provide technical assistance during the planning process.
The resultant amalgamation is an endogenous circular planning model presented
in figure 1-A.5.
-18-
1
Figure 1-A.5 Rapid and Active Tourism Development model
Implementation
Tool Kit
Review and Analysis of
PANACOMA
(Natural Resources)
Participatory and
Active Research
Market
Analysis
Recognized
Desire to Capitalize
on
Ecotourism
Recommended
Products
Define Project Objectives
Provide
Technical Assistance
Pilot Projects
Monitoring
Development of
Community fund
Implementation
Tutorials
Summary and
Analysis
Review and Analysis of
Community resources
Recommended
Implementation
Strategies
Reasoning and
Explanation
for
Recommendations
Monitoring
Recommendations
Look For other
Development
Option
- 19 –
1-A.7 The Layout of this Document
The remainder of this document provides an overview of these steps; upcoming
chapters define the objectives of this project, provide a thorough analysis of the three
major factors which will contribute to the success or failure of these objectives, provide a
thorough overview of the community of Rio Negro and National Park Montana de
Comayagua (PANACOMA), the tourism marketplace, and finally, suggests ways to
capitalize on the existing opportunities by providing an implementation strategy. A
chapter-by-chapter breakdown is as follows:
Chapter one is divided into two distinct sections, sections A and B. In Chapter
One section A, I have provided the objectives of this report, a justification as to why this
report was prepared, and an outline of the planning model. In the remainder of this
chapter, section B, I will provide a brief literature review of tourism planning models
used by other authors and that have influenced the development of this document.
Chapter Two outlines and describes the methodology used in preparation of this
document and explains the reasoning behind the methods chosen.
Chapters Three, Four, Five, and Six provide the review and analyses of the
internal environment, external environment, and market. These are the three major factors
that need to be analyzed in order to determine if ecotourism is a feasible development
option.
Chapter Three begins this process by providing a detailed profile of the National
Park Montana de Comayagua (PANACOMA). The chapter begins by providing a general
description of the park’s geography, policy, zoning, management, administration, major
problems, and plans for the future. This background information on the park is quite
detailed and most of it was extracted from the park’s management plan, prepared by
Karla J. Cantarero in 2000. Once this general background information is presented, the
chapter shifts its focus to concentrate more closely on tourism development and the park,
including a brief overview of the tourism resources possessed by other parks within the
Honduran park system and a summary and analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT analysis) that exist for tourism development in
PANACOMA.
Chapter Four provides a detailed profile of Rio Negro and is set up in a similar
manner to the profile of the park presented in Chapter Three. This chapter begins with a
review of general demographic information such as population, education levels, etc, and
gradually shifts its focus to concentrate more on specifics relating to ecotourism, such as
the community’s tourism resources and the opinions of people in the local community
regarding tourism development. The chapter then concludes with a SWOT analysis
relating to ecotourism development in Rio Negro.
Chapter Five analyzes and describes the national and local tourism market. The
chapter begins by describing international and national travel trends, and continues with a
- 20 –
description of tourism resources on a national level. The chapter concludes with an
examination of more local level trends and resources and a SWOT analysis related to the
possibility of developing ecotourism within Rio Negro.
Chapter Six summarizes the SWOT analyses from chapters 3, 4, and 5 and draws
a series of conclusions and recommendation regarding tourism development in Rio
Negro. This chapter acts as a conclusion to the first section of this report, which
concentrates on defining the objectives of this project and reviewing the internal and
external environments as they related to meeting the objectives of this report.
Chapter Seven is essentially the toolkit that describes various implementation
strategies for developing ecotourism within Rio Negro. The chapter is full of practical
information including recommended implementation strategies, product definitions,
explanations of how these strategies and product definitions where formulated, and a
series of tutorials aimed at instructing community members in either implementing or
improving upon the recommended strategies.
Chapter Eight contains a number of critiques, conclusions, and recommendations
regarding this document and its preparation. I have included some retrospective insights
and suggestions for future work. The document concludes with a series of appendices
and a list of references.
- 21 –
CHAPTER ONE CONTINUED
SECTION B: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
1-B.1 Impacts of Tourism Over Time
The travel industry has had its greatest influence on human culture since 1950.
(Angelo & Vladimir, 1991; Sweeting, Bruner & Rosenfeld, 1997; Ceballos-Lascurian,
1996; Honey, 1999; Goodwin, et al. 1998; Patterson, 1997). Growing at an average rate
of 7 percent annually from approximately 25 million arrivals in 1950 to 664 million
arrivals in 1999; tourism has become the world‘s largest industry over the last half
century, producing 8% of all export earnings worldwide (WTO, 2000). International
tourism receipts including those generated by international fares, amounted to an
estimated 532 billion dollars in 1998, higher than any other trade category (WTO, 2000).
As tourism has grown worldwide, it has expanded its geographic reach. In the
1950’s less than 10% of travel worldwide was to developing nations and today nonOECD states receive almost 30% of the global total. (Goodwin, et al. 1998; Prosser,
1994; WTO, 1997; WTO, 2002) According to the World Travel and Tourism Council
(WTTC), tourism is currently responsible for 8.2% of employment worldwide and will
indirectly produce 5.5 million jobs per year during the next decade (WTTC, 2001a).
Banning worldwide disaster the WTO predicts international tourist arrivals will grow at
an average rate of 4.1 percent until the year 2020 with 1.56 billion arrivals in the year
2020. (WTO, 2001)
As the world’s largest industry, tourism produces a number of positive and
negative impacts on the earth (Goodwin, et al. 1998;Turner and Ash; Prosser, 1994). The
majority of tourism is “mass tourism” driven by the pursuit of sun, sea, sand, and sex.
(Honey, 1999; Ceballos-Lascurian, 1996) This type of tourism has traditionally attracted
a large number of clients, and produced a great deal of money to circulate in the global
economy. However, this type of tourism has also produced a great deal of negative
impacts. From an environmental perspective, tourism pollutes through greenhouse gas
emissions produced by the planes, trains, automobiles that transport travelers, and the
impacts of mass migrations of temporary residents to different ecosystems. From a social
perspective, mass tourism often brings higher levels of crime, prostitution, and noise to a
community. Other problems development agents have cited with mass tourism are that
local communities often only benefit slightly because the industry is controlled by large
multinational corporations and only provides low-level service jobs and the majority of
revenues leak out of the host community. (Mathieson & Wall, 1983; Marcouiller, 1997;
Milman, and Pizam, 1998; Honey, 1999; Pattulo, 1996; Kuss, Graffm & Vaske, 1990;
Sweeting, Bruner, & Rosenfeld, 1999; Patterson, 1997)
1-B.2 Tourism as a Development Option
In spite of its negative impacts, many rural communities see tourism as a
sustainable development option that will have less environmental and cultural impacts
than traditional development options such as agriculture, manufacturing, oil, forestry,
mining, etc. One reason rural communities are embracing the idea of tourism
- 22 –
development is because the tourist demand continues to expand and the “fragmentation
and specialization” (Marcouiller, 1997) of the tourism market has resulted in larger
demand for products which depend on the environmental and cultural resources available
in rural and marginalized areas. (Marcoullier, 1997; Fredrick, 1993; Edgell & Edwards
1993; Edgell & Cartwright 1990; Kieselbach & Long 1990; Marcouiller, 1997;Young,
1992)
In practice, the development of sustainable tourism in rural communities has been
rare due to rural communities having little or no experience with tourism, which has led
to inappropriate or poor tourism planning and development. (Marcoullier, 1997; Milman
& Pizam 1988; Jordan, 1980; de Kadt, 1976) and environmental impacts (Becker &
Bradbury, 1994) and environmental (Romerill, 1989; Budowksi, 1976; Sweeting, Bruner,
Rosenfeld, 1999; Honey, 1999).
1-B.3 Tourism Planning Models
Research suggests that traditional tourism planning models, which focus on
supply and demand economics have been too narrow in nature and are inappropriate for
developing sustainable tourism in rural communities. These traditional planning models
have placed a great deal of emphasis on promotion and revenue maximization and the
business end of tourism such as strategic marketing initiatives, destination zone tourism,
demand planning, and site facility planning while ignore other factors. (Gunn, 1994;
Morrision, 1989 as sited in Marcoullier, 1997). These planning models are limited in
scope and do not produce sustainable forms of tourism development because they cannot
deal with the complexity and sensitivity of rural communities and ecosystems.
(Marcoullier, 1996;Ceballos-Lascurian; Steck et al (1999); Steck (1999); Gibson, 1993;
Johnson and Thomas 1993; Murphy, 1988, 1985, 1983; Ceballos-Lascurian, 1996;
Lawrence, 1992)
Research shows that tourism planning needs to be expanded in scope from
concentrating mostly on economic models to embrace a more holistic or integrated
planning framework that uses research from multiple fields. (Marcoullier, 1996;
Ceballos-Lascurian, 1996; Steck et al (1999), Steck (1999); Fletcher and Cooper (1999);
Gibson, 1993; Johnson and Thomas, 1993; Murphy 1988, 1985, 1983; CeballosLascurian, 1996)
Integrative or more holistic planning strategies “explicitly incorporate regional
economic, social, political, and environmental context of the environments and
community in which tourism operations are going to operate. Integrated plans are also
characterized by being inclusive and collaborative with all parties that will be affected by
development”. (Marcoullier, 1996)
A host of authors have provided a range of approaches to achieve more integrated
or holistic methods of tourism planning. The section below provides a review of selected
planning models developed by, Ceballos-Lascurian, Boo, Baud-Bovy and Lawson ,
Sweeting Burner, Rosenfeld, 1999, Patterson, Potts, Jamieson & Noble, and Ashley and
Roe.
- 23 –
1-B.3.1 The PASLOP Technique: Early Attempts at Integrated Tourism Planning
In 1977 Baud-Bovy and Lawson developed the PASLOP technique for tourism
planning. The PASLOP technique presents a linear planning model with extensive and
adaptable feedback and monitoring systems. The PASLOP planning model recognizes
the interdependencies between the tourism industry and the regional social, economic,
environmental, cultural, and political resources of an area. Based on these resources
tourism planners propose a variety of possible tourism development options (or tourism
scenarios). These possible tourism development options are then analyzed and a best
case scenario tourism development option is chosen based the natural, cultural, and
human resources of a region and the tourism market demand as well as local political and
economic factors. This planning model also makes use of extensive monitoring and
feedback systems, which permits flexibility and adaptability. Marcoullier, 1996). Figure
1b.1 is a Conceptual representation of this model.
Figure 1B.1 Conceptual Representation of the PASLOP Model
Sociopolitical Structure of
Destination
social, economic, environmental
cultural, and political resources of
an area
Factors Summarized
Creation of Different Tourism
Development Scenarios
And Cost Benefit Analysis regarding
Each development option conducted
Taking into consideration positive and
negative
Development impacts
Best Tourism
Development
Scenario chosen and
implemented
- 24 –
Supply, Demand, and
trends
Of the tourism market
Revolutionary and advanced for the time, the PASLOP approach has been used as
the foundation for other planning models but has been criticized for being a top down
approach, for having little citizen participation, and for not providing details regarding
decision making processes to determine tourism products when dealing with complex
economic and social impact s (Marcoullier, 1996; Allen, et. al. , Haywood 1998, Milman
and Pizam, 1988)
1-B.3.2 Expert Driven-Local Participatory Planning
Elizabeth Boo (1992) describes an integrated planning model for developing
tourism in protected areas. Boo’s model is an expert-driven, four step linear process
Figure 1.B.2 Coceptual Representation of Boo’s Expert Driven Four Step Model
Step 1
Assessment of
tourism
Environmentusing specific
questions
Step 2
Goal
Setting
Best case
scenarios
Step 3
Expert led
Community
oriented
strategic
planning
Step 4
Print and
distribute
Finalized plan to
potential
collaborators
Step one of Boo’s model calls for an assessment of the tourism environment and
directs planners to ask the following questions:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
Where are we now?
What is the status if the natural resource?
What is the level of the tourist demand?
What facilities are available?
Who are the beneficiaries of current tourism?
What are the costs?
What is the internatl/external situation with respect to the park and the
surrounding areas/communities?
8) What cultural resources are present?
9) What do tourists come to do?
10) What could they come to do? (Boo Cited in Ceballos-Lascurian, 1996)
Step two of Boo’s process calls to planners to set goals using a best case scenario
model by asking the following questions:
1. Where would we like to be?
- 25 –
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
How could tourism management be improved?
If started from scratch, what might be done differently?
How could the tourism experience be enhanced?
How might the impact of the tourists be minimized?
What opportunities are being missed?
What would the park like to communicate to the visitor?
This discussion should include considerations of local communities, development
of facilities, government involvement etc. (Boo Cited in Ceballos-Lascurian,
1996)
Step three of Boo’s process calls for an expert-driven, community oriented
Strategic planning process, which makes use of group processes and outside facilitators.
Boo’s plan highlights the importance of identifying the level of tourism desired by a
community during this phase to properly identify action strategies for the
implementation of all the specific tasks required to reach this desired level of tourism
development.
Step four of Boo’s process is calls for the printing and distribution of formal
tourism strategy document describing the planning processes and the action strategies
identified in step three and distributing it to potential contributors of technical or financial
assistance.
Much like the PASOLP process, Boo’s model has multiple and flexible feedback
loops; However, unlike the PASLOP process, Boo’s model is geared toward grassroots
planning and provides a number of tools specifically designed to ensure local level
community participation.
1-B.3.3 A Team Approach to Regional and National Level Tourism Planning
Ceballos Lascurain embraces Budowski’s 1976 argument that “If tourism is to
become sustainable, efforts must be made to improve the links between nature
conservation, local community development, and the tourism industry…and this can only
be achieved is through an integrated and regional approach to planning”(Budowski,
1976) Responding to Budowski’s comments, Ceballos-Lascurian developed a
government and expert driven planning model which draws on the work of a host of other
authors including Boo. (1992) (Ceballos Lascurian, 1986;Garcia Villa, 1984; McIntyre
and Hetherington, 1991, Boo, 1992)
The first step of Ceballos-Lascusrian’s planning process is very much designed
for planning on the national or regional level and calls for governments to work with
outside experts to determine study objectives.
The second step in Ceballos-Lasacurian model is collaborative decision making
process that includes the team of outside experts and the government working together to
determine more specific short, medium and long-term objectives of tourism development.
Ceballos-Lascurian then recommends that the interdisplinary team of outside
experts leads research process to determine the unique features of an area that could be
developed for tourism research
- 26 –
Step four is an analysis of the overall environment to determine the types of
tourism possible in the region. Ceballos-Lascurian calls for a review of present tourism
development, historical background of the project, a review of the main obstacles to
further development, prospects and potentials for further development, demographics, etc
and how all of these factors will be affected by tourism development.
Step five of Ceballos-Lascurians process is policy and plan formulation in which
all information gathered in the surveys and the analyses are reviewed and a series of
development options are proposed in collaboration with government officials. The author
emphasizes the importance of providing detailed written reports on the development of
infrastructure, training and human resources, development of transportation for tourism,
coordination with other sectors, setting up of councils, and tax incentives , creation of
regional and local programs, guidelines for promotion and marketing, and guidelines for
minimizing the environmental impacts.
Step six is to provide a recommended development strategy along with
implementation guidelines and the final step of this process is a reminder to include some
form of monitoring program. Figure 1b.3 is a representation of this model.
Figure 1.B.3 Conceptual Representation of Ceballos-Lascurian’s Planning Model
Study objectives determined
By National or Regional
Government
(Normal calling on the
Involvement of Outside
Experts to facilitate planning
process)
Holistic Review of
Development Obstacles
More Specific Short,
medium, and
Long term objectives
developed
Through collaborative
efforts between
Outside Experts and
Government
Officials
A Holistic Review of
Multiple development
Scenarios is conducted
By the Government and
Outside Experts
Survey Conducted by Expert led
team
To Determine potential
attractions
and Unique Features
Detailed Implementation
Strategy
Provide as well as a
Monitoring system
Ceballos-Lascurian’s model combines many elements of both Baud-Bovy and
Lawson and Boo’s model. It promotes a participatory and collaborative decision making
process like Boo using many of the same tools; it takes a much more regional approach to
tourism planning like the PASLOP model.
- 27 –
1-B.3.4 An Integrated Approach to Sustainable Tourism and Resort Development
With the dual mission of conservation and development, Sweeting, Bruner and
Rosenfeld have developed an Integrated Approach to Sustainable Tourism and Resort
Development, which attempts to combine “intelligent policy instruments, sound science,
the use of innovative technology, the establishment of protected areas with environmental
education”. These authors believe that tourism developed with their model can have
minimal environmental impacts and act as a catalyst for social development and
biodiversity preservation. These authors offer a planning model, which depends on
national or regional implementation and acceptance prior to implementation on the local
level. The defining feature about their strategy is that they provide a list of tools for
planners to use and incorporate social and environmental factors into traditional planning
processes. These tools are for both the private and public sector and address issues such
as environmental impact assessment, land-use practices, facility construction and design,
daily operations and tourism activities, guest education, energy use, water use, solid
waste and product purchasing, waste water and sewage, tourist interactions with local
peoples, tourist transportation, and participatory land-use planning, to name a few. The
planning processes suggested by Sweeting, Bruner, and Rosenfeld are very much geared
to larger projects; however, because of the great detail in which they explore the
development of specific tools, their planning model offers a great deal of flexibility and
creative methodologies for adapting these processes to work in different sociopolitical
situations around the world and can even offer some very valuable tools to be used in
small scale development projects.
Aside from Boo’s model, the development strategies discussed above tend to
concentrate on the development of tourism from the national or regional level and place
little emphasis on site specific or small to medium sized development.
1-B.3.5 Nature Based Tourism Planning for Rural America
Concentrating more on the community level, Potts (1994) provides a step-by-step
guide for communities to follow to develop nature-based tourism within the Unites
States. Potts’s model recognizes the importance of community involvement in the
planning process, helps determine feasibility of tourism, promotes awareness of the
positive and negative impacts of tourism on a community and the environment, and
provides easy to follow step by step procedures. Potts’s handbook, however is very much
reliant on the rules, regulations, infrastructure, and organization resources available in the
United States and can be a very useful tool for community based tourism development
elsewhere but has limited applicability in the international arena, especially within
developing nations.
1-B.3.6 Ecosystem Based Planning that Empowers Communities
Jamieson & Noble (2000) recognize that strategic planning and sound
management are crucial when trying to develop sustainable community based tourism or
ecotourism and have developed a model that is not reliant on the infrastructure and
policies that only exist within developed nations. They call on planners to use an
integrated approach in regards to both the municipal concerns about tourism and the
cultural and heritage dimensions of a community. They believe that an integrated view of
destination management serves to:
- 28 –
1.
2.
3.
4.
address the needs of tourists and the economic interests of the tourism industry
approach tourism development in a way which reduces the negative impacts
protect local people’s business interests, heritage and the environment
protect the local environment in part because it is the livelihood of the destination
(Jamieson & Noble, 2000)
Their approach mimics the planning strategies presented by Potts, CeballosLascurian, and Boo discussed above but is unique in that it is ecosystem based and
recognizes local communities as being the final voice in all decision making processes.
To assist planners,Jamesion and Noble provide more than just a conceptual framework
but, like Potts, provide specific tools to implement these concepts.
1-B.3.7 Ecotourism Planning for Individual Businesses
Focusing on the development of individual businesses, Patterson (1997) offers a
linear planning model that focuses on the planning, marketing, and operational
requirements unique to ecotourism businesses. Patterson presents her model in the form
of a handbook and although conceptually it is a based on traditional supply and demand
strategic planning models, she provides methods for integrating environmental ethics and
personal values regarding operating responsible and equitable businesses into all decision
making processes. Unlike other planning models, Patterson presents her model both
conceptually and also provides step by step instructions regarding the implementation of
this model on the ground.
1-B.3.8 Collaborative and Participatory Planning Models
Recognizing that multi-models for integrated tourism planning exist, Ashely and
Roe (2000) and Jamal and Getz (1994) support the notion that sustainable tourism can be
developed using a variety of planning models as long as collaboration and participatory
decision making are embraced in the process. Jamal and Getz provide a set of guidelines
for planners to use throughout the planning process. These include: 1) recognizing
interdependencies, 2) recognizing benefits 3) perception that decisions will be
implemented 4) incorporating key stakeholders 5) specific suggestions for the role of a
convener and the flow of the general process. Ashley and Roe believe that the most
important facet to designing sustainable forms of tourism is ensuring that communities
are informed enough and empowered to be the ultimate decision makers when the
tourism development in question depends on the cultural and environmental resources
which they are the stewards of. Ashley and Roe provide a continuum showing the
different ways communities can be involved in tourism from tourism fully run and
controlled by local communities on one end of the spectrum to tourism run by outsiders
with minimal involvement from the community. Ashley and Roe then provide tools,
which communities can use to ensure that they receive equitable benefits from tourism no
matter what their level of involvement happens to be. Ashley and Roe state there are
three main goals for promoting community involvement in sustainable tourism
development 1) rural development 2) conservation, and 3) industry development.
(Ashley and Roe, 2000)
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1-B.4 Conclusions
In conclusion, the growth of the tourism industry since the 1950’s has had both its
positive and negative effects on societies, economies, and environments around the
world. Researchers have reached the common ground that traditional planning models
based on supply and demand factors have failed to be sustainable, most notably for not
taking into consideration the importance of minimizing the negative environmental and
social impacts of tourism. The call from researchers has been for planners to embrace
integrated or holistic planning models to promote tourism development, which fits into
the concept of sustainable development; however, experts have yet to agree on a singular
model for this type of planning. Whether experts should or need to agree on a singular
planning model is still a question that needs to be determined; however, researchers seem
to agree upon the importance of balancing social, economic, and environmental factors
into the decision-making processes along with the importance of participatory planning.
However, other than these suggestions, the literature on integrated or holistic tourism
planning is seemingly disjointed in that it addresses the subject matter from a variety
perspectives and has little cohesiveness when talking about tailoring the size and scope of
the tourism planning process to the goals, objectives, size and/or scope of individual
projects. The literature also does not provide one plan which:
1. Takes the capacity of local community members for innovation and
entrepreneurship into consideration when determining feasibility of tourism
development options and implementation strategies.
2. Takes Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure into consideration when determining
feasibility of tourism development options and implementation strategies.
3. Addresses the realities of and provides systems to deal with limited funding and
unpredictable political environments which often damper planning efforts.
4. Addresses how to include local people in areas with little or no tourism culture.
5. Makes use of local entrepreneurs and established community organizations
6. Discusses the importance active research particularly the use of pilot projects
and/or providing technical assistance during the planning process.
As discusses earlier in chapter one section A of this report the planning model
developed for this project in Rio Negro attempts to combine the factors listed above into
one model setting this planning model apart from others in the field. The most unique
feature of this planning model is its blending of action research, pilot projects, and the
Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) methodology discussed in the following chapter.
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CHAPTER TWO: THE METHODOLOGY USED FOR THIS PROJECT
2.1 An Introduction to Rapid Rural Appraisal
This project uses a qualitative survey methodology called Rapid Rural Appraisal
(RRA). First defined in 1985 by Grandstaff and Grandstaff, “Rapid Rural Appraisal
(RRA) is a process of learning about rural conditions in an iterative and expeditious
manner. More often than not, it is multi-disciplinary in nature and has an in-built
flexibility in the process of collecting information. It has been defined as ‘any systematic
activity designed to draw inferences, conclusions, hypotheses or assessments, including
acquisition of new information in a limited period of time”(Kashyap, 1992). Dunn builds
on Grandstaff & Grandstaff’s definition and considers RRA to be a “qualitative survey
methodology using a multi-disciplinary team to formulate problems for agriculture and
research development” (Dunn, 1994). This report uses many qualities of RRA while
borrowing from a similar methodology known as Participatory Rural Appraisal.
2.1.1 Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) vs. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) (Dunn, 1994; Chambers, 1992) is an
outgrowth of and often confused with RRA. PRA is an “approach and method for
learning about rural life and conditions from, with, and by rural people” (Chambers,
1992). The key elements of RRA and PRA are quite similar, with the main difference
being that RRA generates information for planners and PRA shifts the “presentation and
analysis of information to community members”. Another key difference between RRA
and PRA is that in PRA “rushing is replaced by relaxation” and there is a strong rapport
with community members (Chambers, 1992).
The methodology used in this report shares some qualities of PRA in that
relaxation and rapport have been heavily emphasized. However, instead of the majority
of investigation, presentation, and analysis being completed only by or for outside
planners or community members; the RRA used for this report has been adapted in that
the investigation was conducted using both outside experts and community members; the
analysis was conducted by outside experts with input from community members and key
informants; and the final presentation has been prepared by an outside expert.
2.1.2 RRA in this Report
There is no standard set of techniques for every RRA process. One of the
strengths of the methodology – and the reason it was used for this report – is its
flexibility. RRA allows the researcher to customize the process to the individual project
and adapt quickly to unforeseen events (Chambers, 1992).
I conducted three main types of data collection for the preparation of this report.
These were:
 Informal rapport building with community members;
 Secondary data collection; and
 Primary data collection.
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The research took place from January, 2001, through April, 2002 and was based out of
the United States. I made field visits to Honduras in January of 2001, April of 2001, and
October of 2001; during these visits I lived in community homes.
2.2 Informal Rapport Building with Community Members
One of the key aspects of the RRA method is that researchers ensure the
participation of the community members in the research process. For this project I
focused on building rapport with community members in order to increase the
involvement of community members, build trust, and solicit candid responses to different
tourism development scenarios.
As explained in Chapter One, I was able to begin rapport building prior to visiting
Rio Negro through my contact with Jose Avilio Velasquez. Upon entering the
community of Rio Negro, I continued to build rapport with Avilio and his friends and
family for several days. This was an important way to build community trust and
momentum for this project, yet it presented a potential research bias because of the close
ties I developed with Avilio and his friends and family.
To minimize this bias, special efforts were taken to meet community members in
informal settings such as the primary school, community meetings, local stores, and work
sites. During these visits I worked independently or without reference to Avilio or his
closest friends or family members. I also made a special effort to be present and active in
important social activities, such as:
 Playing with the children of the community during the school lunch hour,
 Assisting women with cooking activities, especially the making of bread on
Saturdays and Sundays (often a social event),
 Attending soccer games,
 Hanging out at the local store in the early evening after the workday was
over, and
 Riding in the back of pick-up trucks with large groups of people on trips to
Comayagua.
Another step I took to increase community participation was to arrange for
informal interviews with key informants. During these interviews I asked questions
regarding the history of Rio Negro, PANACOMA; the history of development projects
within the region; problems regarding development programs; potential for tourism;
opinions regarding tourism; and barriers to development.
These interviews were conducted with community members, members of the
guide association, town Patronato, primary school, the local conservation corps, national
conservation corps, as well as members of regional organizations such as ECOSIMCO
and the Municipality of Comayagua. A two-to-four person team comprised of one or two
outsiders and one or two community members conducted these interviews.
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2.3 Primary Data Collection
In addition to informal rapport building, I needed to acquire more structured
information about community resources and opinions. Toward this end, I collected
primary data via face-to-face exploratory interviews with community members and
foreign tourists.
2.3.1 Exploratory Interviews with Local Community Members
Two types of exploratory interviews (See Appendix C for a copy of the
questionnaires used) were carried out to collect information from community members.
The surveys were conducted over the course of two weeks by a team of two North
American interviewers (Figures 2.1 and 2.2) and one or two community members
depending on the day. The same North American interviewers conducted the research
throughout the two-week period, and consisted of one male (the author) and one female
both in their late-twenties. We selected one or two different community members each
day to assist with the interviews. A conscious effort was made to minimize bias by
choosing volunteers from different demographic backgrounds (Figures 2.3-2.7).
Volunteers who helped conduct the interviews varied in age from 14-60, and the group
consisted of both males and females married and unmarried. Questions for both surveys
consisted of open-ended and closed-ended questions, and limited probing and iteration
were permitted.
Figure 2.1 Dave Kestenbaum
and Sol Florenia in the field
Figure 2.2 Marnie Long (Interviewer)
and Assistant
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Figure 2.3 Suyapa Maldonado
Figure 2.4 Javier Yanez
Figure 2.5 Don Justo Gomez
Figure 2.6 Marina Velasquez
Interviewers walked from house to house and all interviews were conducted in the
homes of community members or in fields or work sites close to their homes. Due to
cultural norms, respondents were predominantly male heads of household; however,
often the male head of the household was not home or available and the female head of
household or older children answered questions. Due to cultural norms, children under
the age of 15 were permitted to answer question only if their input was reiterated or
affirmed by the primary respondent.
The first interview consisted of 15 questions posed to a representative of every
household in the community. This approach was chosen to ensure 100% community
input and create a direct connection between the research team and every household. This
interview was designed to collect socio-demographic information and to assess attitudes
about tourism, desire and ability to work with tourists, and problems within the
community.
The second exploratory interview was designed to gather information through
both direct observations of the researchers and verbal responses of interviewees. Through
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this kind of interview the research team gathered information regarding the quality and
types of physical infrastructure and household resources for the construction of a
community profile.
For the convenience of data collection, researchers conducted the second type of
interview to a subset of the community (36 community members). The reason a sub-set
was chosen was not by design but more for the convenience of data collection. The
reason certain houses were not included in this survey is because the interviews were
conducted in fields or work sites away from the home, or at night when lighting was not
sufficient to inspect the home thoroughly. Although a 100% sample was not used, it was
determined that a large enough sample was collected, to develop significant patterns and
eliminate potential biases.
Both survey questionnaires were designed with the assistance of the Rio Negro
guide association in the context of RRA, to ensure that the questions that were asked used
the correct wording and were not offensive or invasive in any way.
2.3.2 Interviews with Foreign Tourists
A third questionnaire was developed and given to five visiting tourists in order to
gauge the opinions of potential tourists. This questionnaire consisted of 26 open- and
closed- ended questions regarding basic demographic information, their tourist
experience in Rio Negro, and ideas on community development. (A copy of this
questionnaire is available in Appendix C) Respondents were randomly selected travelers
passing through Comayagua, invited to Rio Negro. These tourists were asked, however
not required, to pay a suggested fee for the services they received. Each of the tourists
could choose how long he or she wished to stay – visits ranged from one night up to two
weeks. Upon their departure from the community they were approached and interviewed
face to face. The data collected from this questionnaire is very important in that it is the
first research conducted regarding the experience and opinions of foreign tourists within
PANACOMA. Due to the nature of the small sample size, certain conclusions cannot be
affirmed; however, commonalities and patterns did occur and are suggestive and should
not be ignored.
2.4 Secondary Data Collection
Secondary data was used extensively in this project. The main types of documents
reviewed were:
 Papers on tourism, ecotourism, participatory development and
sustainability.
 Government reports and statistical information.
 Maps readily available in the United States.
 Maps collected from online sources, and on the ground in Honduras.
 Other development projects conducted by Partners of the Americas
Vermont Honduras Partnership.
Research began in January of 2001 at the University of Vermont Library, where
searches were conducted using the library’s online database. Information was gathered
- 35 –
from January, 2001- April,2002 from on line sources. Specific websites were visited to
gather this information and searches were also conducted using the “Google” search
engine.
Information was also gathered from the library at the world headquarters of The
International Ecotourism Society (TIES) in Burlington, Vermont, in July of 2001. In
Honduras information was collected from government agencies and private
organizations. In Honduras access to many government agencies was limited due to
travel constraints within Honduras. For example, one major source, which was neglected
during this research process, was the library system of Honduran Universities.
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CHAPTER THREE: A PROFILE AND ANALYSIS OF NATIONAL PARK
MONTANA DE COMAYAGUA (PANACOMA)
3.1 Introduction
This chapter reviews the environmental factors that affect ecotourism
development in Rio Negro and provides a detailed profile of the National Park Montana
de Comayagua (PANACOMA). The first section of this chapter contains a description of
the park’s geography, policy, zoning, management, administration, major problems, and
plans for the future. The background information on the park is quite detailed; in writing
this section I have paraphrased, summarized, or directly quoted from PANACOMA’s
management plan prepared by Karla J. Cantarero in 2000. (For a greater level of detail
see Cantarero, 2000.) While other sources were available for this information,
Cantarero’s work was the most complete, and provided the most accurate information
available.
After presenting this background information, the chapter shifts its focus to
tourism development as related to the park, including a brief overview of the tourism
resources possessed by other parks within the Honduran park system and a summary and
analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT analysis) that
exist for tourism development in PANACOMA.
3.2 History and Background of PANACOMA
A good starting point is the following excerpt from Cantarero (2000), which
provides brief summaries of the park’s mission, vision, and management objectives:
Park Mission: Guarantee the production of water for the communities in the watershed
and the for the Francisco Morazon Hydroelectric facility while simultaneously improving
the quality of life for the park’s inhabitants in a manner that sustains the environment and
promotes the protection, preservation, conservation, management, and rational use of
natural resources. This will preserve the integrity of the ecosystem and offer
opportunities for ecotourism and investigation.
The Vision: PANACOMA is visualized to be a protected area in which there is active
participation and integration of the communities within the park; these communities will
be involved in the process of preserving the integrity of the landscape in its natural state
and guaranteeing the production of water in a high enough quantity and quality for the
consumption of the communities that depend on the watershed and the Hydroelectric
project El Cajon.
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Management Objectives:
 Guarantee the quantity and quality of the water resources that the park
produces are sufficient for human consumption, agricultural uses,
cattle ranching, and the generation of energy for the El Cajon
hydroelectric facility, with an emphasis on the control of erosion,
sedimentation, and contamination.
 Maintain in perpetuity the different ecosystems and scenic areas within
PANACOMA, through the integration of different sciences, education,
tourism, and genetics.
 Preserve in a natural state the ecosystems of the protected area.
 Achieve the sustainable use of resources in the area.
 Obtain self financing of all the goods and services produced by the
protected area.
 Preserve and protect the genetic resources and biodiversity of the area
without altering the natural processes
 Promote the sustainable development of the communities within the buffer
zone (Cantarero, 2000, translated by D. Kestenbaum).
3.3 Park Overview
(Summarized from Cantarero, 2000)
Parque National Montana de Comayagua (PANACOMA) was officially given
status as a national park on July 1, 1987, by the Honduran government’s passage of
decree 87-87. Covering an area of 30,094 hectares, the park lies within the
Municipalities of Esquis, San Jeronimo, and Comayagua, which are situated within the
Departments of Comayagua and Fransisco Morazon.
Extending from 600 to 2,407 meters above sea level, PANACOMA was declared
a national park primarily for the protection the El Cajon watershed and because of the
region’s potential for tourism development. Located 13 kilometers from the city of
Comayagua, PANACOMA provides water to 80% of the city’s 100,000 (approximately)
inhabitants as well as to the 60 communities, which surround the park. In addition to
supplying drinking water, this protected area contributes 20-25% of the water for
Honduras’s largest and most important power generating facility, the central
hydroelectric facility Francisco Morazon.
PANACOMA is part of Honduras’s “National System of Protected Areas”
(SINAP) and is administered by the “States Forestry Administration of the Honduran
Corporation of Forestry Development” (AFE-CODEFOR). The park is co managed by an
agreement between AFE/CODEFOR; a small non-governmental organization called
“Comayagua Mountain Ecosystem” (ECOSIMCO); and the municipalities of
Comayagua, Esquis, and San Jeronimo. The objective of this co-management agreement
is to promote cooperation between all the parties that have a stake in the park’s
management, including governmental institutions, non-governmental organizations (see
Table 3.1for the list of institutions and organization with a strong presence in the region),
private businesses, and local governments. Together these parties are responsible for
devising and implementing the proper environmental education programs, administrative
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policies, general assistance, and technical training to promote rational use and
conservation of resources for the communities that use the park.
Table 3.1 Institutions and Organizations Working in and Around
PANACOMA
The primary organizations working with communities in and around the park
include:
Organization Name
SANNAA-AID
FHIS
Primary Project Types
Install potable water projects
Pour flush toilets and septic construction
Construction of schools
Provide schools with furniture
PLAN EN HONDURAS
Build homes
CODEFOR
Training natural resource guards
Implement management plans and
regulations
Control forest fires
CENET
Provide train in soil conservation and skill
building courses for women
Municipal governments
Plan and evaluate park’s management
(Esquis, San Jeronimo, Comayagua activities including park protection,
education, and training
Continue marking park boundaries
CCH
Provide environmental education
Coordinate volunteer work
Construct and repair infrastructure
.
(Source: Cantarero, 2000)
3.4 Geographic and Environmental Orientation
(Summarized from Cantarero, 2000)
Oriented from North to South, the mountains of PANACOMA contain broadleafed forests and are home to a number of endangered plant and animal species
including mountain lions, quetzals, orchids, bromeliads, and epiphytes. PANACOMA
owes its biodiversity to the variety of ecosystems and microclimates found within its
borders. Climate factors such as precipitation, temperature, and humidity vary within the
park due to a variety of causes, of which the most influential are time of year and
elevation.
Rain generally falls year round in PANACOMA, with the rainiest season lasting
from the beginning of May to the end of October. The most rainfall occurs in July and
September while February and March are the driest months. The lower regions of the
park receive 1,600 millimeters of rainfall annually; the higher regions receive
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approximately 2,000 millimeters annually. Temperature also varies, depending on the
region of the park, with a median temperature between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius, and
the hottest temperatures recorded in March and April. Relative humidity averages 80% in
the higher elevations and 68% in the lower elevations. According to the park’s
management plan, the factors listed above classify the park’s climate as Bosque Humedo
de alto Presion.
“Using the Hodridge life zone classification system one can identify three distinct
ecosystems within PANACOMA: 1. Bosque Humedo Sub-Tropical (BHS) 2. Bosque
Muy Humedo Montano Bajo Sub-Tropical, and 3. Bosque Muy Humedo Montano SubTropical.” (Cantarero, 2000) Let’s briefly explore these.
1. Bosque Humedo Sub-Tropical
Located between 600-1000 meters above sea level. This area has an average slope
between 15 and 30 percent and is characterized by deep well-draining soils, average
annual rainfall between 1000-2000 millimeters and average temperature between 18 – 24
degrees Celsius.
2. Bosque Muy Humedo Montano Bajo Sub-Tropical
Located between 1,000-1,900 meters above sea level. This area has an average
slope of 30 percent and is characterized by deep well- draining soils, average annual
rainfall between 1000-2000 millimeters, and average temperature between 12- 18 degrees
Celsius.
3. Bosque Muy Humedo Montano Sub-Tropical
Located between 1900-2,407meters above sea level. This area has a average
slope of 30 percent and is characterized by deep well- draining soils, average annual
rainfall between 2,000- 4,000 millimeters, and average temperatures between 12-18
degrees Celsius.
3.5 Management Zones and Subzones
(Summarized from Cantarero, 2000)
As part of the management strategy, the park has been divided into three main
zones according to the “problems within the park, type of vegetation in the area,
economic activities within the sector, satellite information, geo referential data, and the
support and opinions of the technical personnel and communities within the area.” (See
Figure 3.1)
3.5.1 Core Zone
The core zone is 6,600 hectares in size. It includes all areas of the park over
1,800 meters above sea level, and is divided into two sub zones: (1) the Primitive sub
zone and (2) the Recuperation sub zone. The Primitive subzone is made up of one
contiguous unit, which contains 3,232 hectares of virgin broad-leafed forest. The
Recuperation subzone is divided into six non-contiguous units, which contain 3,328
hectares of broad-leafed forest in transition; these areas have been degraded by human
activity within the area. The management objective of the core zone is to preserve and
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restore the ecosystem in order to protect the watershed and allow for scientific
investigation. Uses of this zone are strictly regulated and no extractive uses are permitted.
Figure 3.1 Overview/Map of PANACOMA (source: PANACOMA three fold brochure)
3.5.2 Special Use Zone
The special use zone is comprised of 5,969 hectares that encircle the core zone.
The special use zone contains virgin broad-leafed forest, secondary growth forest,
agricultural lands, coffee plantations, guamiles (types of trees), pine forests, and a
number of specific locations of outstanding natural beauty or historical importance. The
management objective of this zone is to conserve and protect the springs and receiving
areas of the water produced in the core zone.
To meet these management objectives, the special use zone is divided into four
sub zones. The following sections contain descriptions of each of these sub zones, as
well as the management objectives for the different regions.
3.5.2.1 Special Use Subzone
The first of these subzones is the special use subzone, which is made up of
specific locations such as archeological sites, waterfalls, caves, or lookouts, which will be
managed for the recreational use by locals and tourists alike. The special use zone is
further divided into two subcategories – an extensive use area and an intensive use area.
The primary management objective in both sub-categories is to minimize the level of
- 41 –
human impact on these resources while simultaneously providing a venue for recreation
and tourism development. The distinguishing factor between the intensive and extensive
areas is the level of development permitted, with less stringent regulations applying to the
intensive use zone.
3.5.2.2 Primitive Use Subzone
The primitive subzone consists of one contiguous 1,293-hectare unit and is
predominantly virgin broad-leafed forest with a small percentage of broad-leafed forest in
transition, which has incurred degradation due to human activities. The uses permitted in
this area are limited to tourism, scientific investigation, and environmental education, all
of which need to be carried out in a highly regulated setting.
3.5.2.3 Recuperation Subzone
The recuperation subzone consists of 1,390 hectares of land divided into 5 noncontiguous units. The area is predominately broad-leaf forest, coffee plantations, and
guamiles; the land contained in this section has suffered alteration due to human activities
such as farming, forest fires, cutting trees, coffee farming, etc. The primary management
objective for this zone is to restore the ecosystem to its original condition. To fulfill this
objective, the only activities that are permitted within this area must contribute to the
protection or restoration of the environment.
3.5.2.4 Management of Resources Subzone
The management of resources sub zone is the final sub zone within the special use
zone. This area contains “3,286 hectares of land, divided into 3 non-contiguous units
which are home to broad leafed forests in transition, coffee farms, guamiles, pine forest,
and agriculture”. The primary management objective of this sub zone is to promote
sustainable practices while simultaneously increasing production. According to the park’s
management plan, this is the place where it will be the most important to work with both
governmental and non-governmental institutions in order to implement the most
appropriate technologies and practices that will ensure the rational use of resources. The
main activities that are permitted in this subzone are those that promote sustainable
agriculture. The activities that are explicitly not permitted include the use of
agrochemicals (e.g. fertilizers and pesticides), the expansion of human settlement, and the
growth of the agricultural frontier.
3.5.3 Buffer Zone
Covering 58% of the park’s territory, the buffer zone covers 17,524 hectares and
is divided into three subzones. The buffer zone acts as a barrier to the “physical,
biological, chemical and human disturbances that put pressure on the parks resources”.
“There are 49 communities living within this zone practicing coffee farming, the farming
of basic grains, and limited cattle ranching.” (Cantarero, 2000) The main goal of the
park’s management plan is to “promote the sustainable development of the communities
within the buffer zone in order to minimize the negative impacts on the core and special
use zones.” (Cantarero, 2000)
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3.5.3.1 Special Use Subzone
Much like the special use subzone located within the special use zone of the park,
the special use subzone within the buffer zone is made up of specific sites managed for
the recreational use of locals and tourists alike. The primary management objective for
the entire special use subzone is to minimize the level of human impact on these
resources, while simultaneously providing a venue for recreation and tourism
development.
Like the special use subzone within the special use zone, the special use subzone
within the buffer zone is divided into smaller subcategories, two of which are the
extensive and intensive subcategories. There are fewer regulations regarding activities
within the buffer zone’s special use area, but the intensive and extensive use zones are
managed in similar ways with fewer regulations placed on development within the
intensive use area.
The special use subzone within the buffer zone contains a third subcategory called
the administrative special use subzone. This administrative area will be used for the
construction of infrastructure. The park management plan has already identified three
administrative special use subzones. In two of these administrative areas, the park’s
management plans on building houses for park guards. In the other administrative area,
located in the community of Rio Negro, the park’s management plans on building a
tourist lodge.
3.5.3.2 Recuperation Subzone
The recuperation sub zone covers 4,601 hectares and is divided into 20 units
located on the banks of rivers, streams, and ponds that are in need of restoration. Similar
to the recuperation subzones within the core and special use zones, the primary
management objective within the buffer zone’s recuperation subzone is ecological
restoration. The park’s management plan only permits activities that help promote
ecological restoration within this subzone, and has placed a ban on all extractive uses.
3.5.3.3 Management of Resources Subzone
The management of resources subzone is by far the largest subzone in the park; it
covers 13,923 hectares of land – more than the both the special use zone and core zones
combined.
Divided into two units, this subzone accounts for 46% of the park’s territory and
79% of the buffer zone. This sub zone is home to 49 separate communities. The land in
this area is “predominately broad leafed forest in transition, coffee farms, guamiles, and
agricultural lands”.
The management goal in this area is to conserve resources while improving the
quality of life for the communities within the park. To meet these objectives, the park
hopes to work with all members of the community to promote environmental education
and sustainable farming techniques.
3.6 Human Development and the Park
(Summarized from Cantarero, 2000)
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Population pressures place a great deal of stress on PANACOMA. Just outside the
buffer zone are 16 communities that do not fall within the management area of the park,
but are considered to be in a informal “’influential’ zone. When included with the 49
communities within the buffer zone, the average population density in this area is 69.83
inhabitants per square kilometer.”
In and around the park, most people make their living as coffee farmers or cattle
ranchers. A small number of people have cited other job titles, including: shopkeeper,
preacher, day-laborer, plumber, or mason.
The most important source of income in the area is coffee farming; the busiest and
economically most important time of year in the region is the coffee harvest between
October and February. In fact, coffee picking plays such an important role in
PANACOMA that it is typical to have every member of the community involved in the
harvest. During this time, every member of the family can be found working on the
family farm or as a day laborer on neighboring farms. Besides coffee, it is popular to
farm some beans, vegetables, pataste, malanga, yucca, and fruit trees. Most of the harvest
is used for personal consumption, though a small percentage is sold commercially usually
in Comayagua.
The communities within the park are quiet isolated and lack basic infrastructure.
The roads within the area are all dirt and can only be passed by foot, horse, mule, or fourwheel drive vehicle depending on the season or weather conditions. There is no public
transportation within the area, but a few entrepreneurs provide both scheduled and
unscheduled transportation services in and around the area. There is no electricity in the
area, and residents rely mostly on wood for cooking and “candles, lanterns, or oil lamps
for lighting” (Cantarero 2000). Telephone service does not exist, and if citizens need to
use this service they must travel to either the town of San Jeronimo or Comayagua. Only
seven of the 49 communities within the park have potable water, while the majority of
citizens drink water directly from streams and rivers, which can be contaminated with
parasites, agrochemicals (from local farms), and/or fecal matter. Most residents of the
area use pit toilets or simply go to the bathroom on the forest or on their farms. Projects
from international and national organizations have helped to supply fourteen
communities with pour flush toilets connected to underground septic storage systems,
which help to minimize the contamination of local water sources from fecal coliform.
3.7 Future Management Plans
The park’s management plan, which was used as the primary source of
information for this short profile, lays out six separate programs aimed at fulfilling the
management objectives of the park in a manner consistent with the park’s mission. These
six programs, which are to be implemented from 2000-2005, are the:
Integration of natural resources plan
Administration program
Protection and vigilance program
Community development program
Environmental education program
Ecotourism program
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The management plan contains a brief description of each program, an
implementation timeline, and monitoring programs designed to gauge success and
progress.
3.8 Barriers to Development
According to the park’s management plan, a number of environmental and
political problems will need to be resolved if PANACOMA is to meet its management
objectives.
3.8.1 Environmental Factors
Currently the largest environmental problem in the park is that the aquifers have
diminished capacities to absorb water, because of extensive deforestation. This results in
faster flowing runoff, more landslides, floods, damage to infrastructure, as well as an
increase in sedimentation rates at the Francisco Morazon hydroelectric facility. Six other
major problems, which were identified in a 1999 study of the park, were a “lack of
environmental education, deforestation, forest fires, diminishing populations of flora and
fauna, lack of information concerning the parks resources, and lack of infrastructure”
(Cantarero, 2000?).
3.8.2 Political Factors
A variety of political factors have proved challenging to park management.
Paraphrased from Cantarero’s management plan, these include:

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There is a lack of coordination between institutions.
There is no system to regulate the illegal harvesting of park resources.
The lack of political will to apply regulations has resulted in negative
results including the expansion of coffee farming.
Local communities lack the knowledge to utilize resources sustainably.
The use of inappropriate farming technologies has promoted the
advancement of the agricultural frontier and deterioration of the soil.
A law designed to “modernize the Agricultural Sector and Municipalities”
has privatized ownership of the forest and given autonomy to local
governments, without always taking into consideration the need to
establish technical criteria for forest management.
A law designed to increase “incentives for coffee farming” and improve
coffee production promotes expansion of the agricultural frontier.
There is a lack of adequate regulations.
Poorly directed political forces sometimes overlap, causing great conflict
within the legal arena.
The use of inappropriate farming technologies in the agricultural sector
promotes expansion of the agricultural frontier and human migration.
No penal code exists that has established specific sanctions against those
who use natural resources in an irrational manner.
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
The concentration of land ownership by just a few forces the rural poor to
immigrate into protected areas.
3.9 Tourism Development in PANACOMA In Relation to Other Parks
PANACOMA was given national park status with the passage of the Cloud Forest
Law (Ley de Bosques Nublados) Decree No. 87-87 by the Honduran government. This
law granted protected status to all lands over 1800 meters in elevation and resulted in the
formation of 11 national parks. Currently there are 15 national parks in Honduras, 13 of
which protect cloud forests mixed with either pine, subtropical, or tropical forests
(Mader, 1998; Humphrey, 2000; UNEP -- Caribbean Environment Programme, 1996;
Cantarero, 2000; Decree No. 87-87 Ley de Bosque Nublados, 1987).
Because there are 13 parks and two biological reserves within Honduras which
contain similar natural resources, PANACOMA is not a unique attraction and will need
to demonstrate a competitive advantage if it is going to attract tourists. When competing
with other destinations -- in this case, other national parks -- business developers must
position their products relative to their competition.
A business can be positioned by “price, quality, service, location, access, and the
ability to customize” (Patterson, 1997). To position PANACOMA correctly, it is
important to know how it compares with the competition.
3.9.1 Profiles of Other Parks
This section contains a brief profile of each of the other Honduran parks that
contain cloud forests.
3.9.2 National Park Cerro Azul Meambar
Located in Central Honduras on the shores of Lago de Yajoa and in the
departments of Comayagua and Cortes is National Park Cerro Azul Meambar. It takes
1.5 hours to drive from Comayagua to this park and 2 hours from San Pedro Sula and
Tegucigalpa. The park covers a little more than 478 square kilometers and ranges in
elevation from 415 to 2,080 meters above sea level. The park is home to 42 communities,
coffee plantations, lowland humid forests, pine forests, cloud forests, and elfin forests.
Aldea Global, the NGO in charge of park management, is in the process of constructing a
visitor’s center on the San-Pedro Sula-Tegucigalpa Highway. The park also has a trail
system and cabins for overnight stays. Because of its location between the northern
lowlands and the mountainous portion of Central Honduras PANACAM houses an
“unusually diverse population of animals” (Humphrey, 2000; Mader, 1998).
3.9.3 National Park Montana de Celeque
One of the most developed and valued national parks in Honduras is National
Park Montana de Celeque. The park covers 266 square kilometers and is home to
Honduras’s highest peak – Cerro las Minas, which stands at an elevation of 2,849 meters
above sea level. Located in colonial town Gracias in the department of Colon, the park is
a popular stop for visitors interested in both cloud forests and the colonial history of the
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region. The park’s entrance is close to the town’s center and easily accessible by
automobile or foot. The park is home to a great diversity of flora and fauna and has an
extensive trail system with multiple entrance points and a bunkhouse run by an
International NGO called Aldea Global at the visitor’s center (Humphrey, 2000;
Honduras Institute of Tourism, 2002; Dupuis, 2001; Mader, 1998).
3.9.4 National Park Trifinio-Montecristo
Located on Honduras’s border with El Salvador and Guatemala in the department
of Octopeque, National Park Trifinio-Montecristo is only 84 square kilometers in size.
The Honduran, Guatemalan, and El Salvadoran governments manage this park jointly.
The Honduran side of the park is very difficult to access and has very little tourism
infrastructure (Humphrey, 2000; Honduras Institute of Tourism, 2002; Dupuis, 2001;
Mader, 1998).
3.9.5 Cerro Azul National Park
Cerro Azul National Park is 247 square kilometer in size and located in the
department of Copan just five kilometers outside the town of Florida. The major
attractions in this park are its hot springs, archeological sites, cloud forest, and caves. The
park’s caves are easily accessed, however the interior of the park has little infrastructure
and is difficult to access (Humphrey, 2000; Honduras Institute of Tourism, 2002; Dupuis,
2001; Mader, 1998).
3.9.6 National Park Cusuco
Situated in the department of Cortes, just 42 kilometers from San Pedro Sula (one
hour by automobile), is the National Park Cusuco. Cusuco is 222 square kilometers in
size and houses a visitor’s center, a broad array of flora and fauna, as well as an extensive
network of trails. The park has an entrance fee of ten dollars for foreigners and draws
most of its visitors from nearby San Pedro Sula. Travelers will not find as much pristine
forest in Cusuco as in some of the other national parks due in part to the heavy population
pressures in the region and massive deforestation which occurred in the1950’s
(Humphrey, 2000; Honduras Institute of Tourism, 2002; Dupuis, 2001; Mader, 1998).
3.9.7 La Tigra National Park
Established first as a reserve in 1952, La Tigra National Park was Honduras’s first
protected area. Covering 186 square kilometers of territory in the department of
Francisco Morazon, La Tigra is the closest park to Tegucigalpa, approximately one hour
from downtown by automobile. Due to heavy logging during the early 1900’s, La Tigra
does not possess a great deal of pristine forest cover. Most visitors come to La Tigra as
opposed to other parks because of its easy access from Tegucigalpa. The park has an
extensive network of trails, a visitor center, and lodging facilities. Like Cusuco, La Tigra
also charges a ten-dollar entrance fee for foreign tourists. (Humphrey, 2000); Honduras
Institute of Tourism, 2002; Dupuis, 2001; Mader, 1998).
3.9.8 La Muralla National Park
Comprising 275 square kilometers of land in the department of Olancho is La
Muralla National Park. This difficult-to-access park ranges in elevation from 900 to 2,064
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meters above sea level and is revered for its primary cloud forest and high biodiversity.
The park has a visitor’s center, lodging facilities, and an extensive trail network
(Humphrey, 2000;Honduras Institute of Tourism, 2002;Dupuis, 2001; Mader, 1998).
3.9.9 Montana de Yoro National Park
Located in the departments of Yoro and Francisico Morazon, Montana de Yoro
National Park is a remote park covering 125 square kilometers. “Environmental
protection and tourism infrastructure are almost non-existent in this park” (Humphrey,
2000), and much of the local wildlife is scarce due to hunting in the region (Humphrey,
2000; Honduras Institute of Tourism, 2002; Dupuis, 2001; Mader, 1998).
3.9.10 Pico Pijol National Park
Pico Pijol National Park, located in the department of Yoro, is one of the smaller
protected areas within the Honduran national park system. The park covers 125 square
kilometers of territory. It is difficult to access and has very little tourist infrastructure.
Main attractions include caves, biologically rich cloud forest, beautiful waterfalls, and
steep rocky slopes; however, it does not have a marked trail system directing tourists to
these attractions (Humphrey, 2000; Honduras Institute of Tourism, 2002; Dupuis, 2001;
Mader, 1998).
3.9.11 Santa Barbara National Park
Another park that is rather difficult to access is Santa Barbara National Park,
home to Honduras’s second highest peak. Located between the towns of Santa Barbara
and Lago de Yajoa, this park is part of the Department of Santa Barbara and spans190
square kilometers of territory. The park’s main attractions are its waterways and the
broad diversity of flora and fauna it protects. Currently, the only tourism infrastructure
that exists in this park consists of a few unmarked trails. (Humphrey, 2000; Honduras
Institute of Tourism, 2002; Dupuis, 2001; Mader, 1998).
3.9.12 Sierra de Agalta
Sierra de Agalta national park in the department of Olancho is 655 square
kilometers in size, making it Honduras’s second-largest park. This protected area is home
to elfin forest, pine forest, stands of Liquidambar (Type of tree), caves, waterfalls, and
some of the richest biodiversity in Honduras. Visitors to the park will also find the
largest tracts of intact cloud forest that remain in the country.
Because of the its biological wealth, this park is one of the most revered in the
entire Honduran park system although it receives little visitation due to its remote
location and difficult access. Although the park does not have a visitor’s center, it does
possess an extensive network of trails. (Humphrey, 2000; Honduras Institute of Tourism,
2002; Dupuis, 2001; Mader, 1998).
3.9.13 Pico Bonito
Pico Bonito the largest national park in Honduras and spans 1,073 square
kilometers of territory in the departments of Yoro and Altantida. The park is home to
some of the most pristine forests in Honduras, and its centerpieces are the rarely explored
- 48 –
Pico Bonito and Montana Corozal. Although a trail system does exist within the park,
much of it is difficult to access and needs to be bushwhacked. Due to its location close to
the heavily visited Caribbean coast, many of the park’s visitors are beach travelers who
come for day trips (Humphrey, 2000); Honduras Institute of Tourism, 2002; Dupuis,
2001; Mader, 1998).
3.10 Summary of Competitive Factors
When comparing PANACOMA’s potential for tourism development with the
other parks in Honduras, many factors need to be taken into consideration. As mentioned
above, all tourism destinations must have a competitive advantage gained through
differentiating a product from the competition by “price, quality, service, location, access,
or the ability to customize” (Patterson, 1997). Taking these measures into account, the
following sections explore some of PANACOMA’s major competitive strengths and
weaknesses.
3.10.1 Natural Resources
The first factor, related to the types of services which can be offered in
PANACOMA, is the area’s natural resources. PANACOMA is a heavily deforested area
and does not possess outstanding natural attractions such as the extensive stands of
primary forest that exist in larger and more remote parks like Sierra Agalta, Celeque, or
Pico Bonito. Nor does PANACOMA have the highest peaks, most unique local culture,
or greatest biodiversity when compared to other parks. Because the natural attractions
within PANACOMA are not the most exceptional when compared to those in other
parks, travelers are less likely to go out of their way to visit.
3.10.2 Level of Infrastructure
Another factor related to the types of services, which can be offered in
PANACOMA is the level of infrastructure that exists. PANACOMA does not have the
extensive tourism infrastructure that exists in some Honduran parks. Currently, a small
lodge is being built in the community of Rio Negro, but PANACOMA does not have a
visitor’s center, long distance hiking trails, or marketing materials as do some of the other
parks within the country. Ecotourism development within PANACOMA will not attract
large enough numbers of visitors to have a substantial impact on the local economy
unless more infrastructure is developed or steps are taken to compensate for this
shortcoming.
3.10.3 Location
PANACOMA’s biggest assets when compared to other parks are its location and
easy accessibility to the major population centers and attractions in Comayagua,
Tegucigalpa, and Siguatepeque.
3.10.4 Ability to Customize
Because tourism is relatively undeveloped within PANACOMA and the few
businesses that offer tourism services are small informal enterprises, PANACOMA
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possesses a great resource in the ability to customize trips to the region to the needs of
individual consumers.
3.10.5 Major Competitors
PANACOMA’s primary competition within the region is La Tigra and Meambar - both of which possess similar natural and cultural attractions to those found in
PANACOMA. PANACOMA faces a disadvantage in that La Tigra and Meambar have a
longer history of attracting tourists as well as a greater amount of tourism infrastructure.
Both La Tigra and Meambar contain similar ecosystems and must withstand pressure
from similar social forces (e.g. hunting, illegal settlement, illegal forestry)
Another primary competitor for PANACOMA is Celques National Park, outside
of Gracias. Like Comayagua, Gracias is a Colonial city and visitors interested in
combining visits to colonial cities and cloud forests will most likely be choosing between
a visit to Celeques or Comayagua. One factor in PANACOMA’s favor is that it is
fortunate that Comayagua is currently undergoing restoration. Likely this will help both
the city of Comayagua and PANACOMA attract greater numbers of tourists to the
region.
3.10.6 Options for Attracting Visitors
With existing infrastructure and social capital in the region, PANACOMA’s
managing bodies should market visits to the park to both nationals and international
visitors living in or visiting Comayagua, Tegucigalpa, and Siguatepeque. If the
management hopes to attract visitors from further away, they must build a variety of
tourism products in the region and create a destination with multiple attractions. A
vacation into the park could include visits to nearby communities, volunteer work in the
park, a tour of colonial Comayagua, activities with rural communities.
3.11 SWOT Analysis For Tourism Development in PANACOMA
Taking into account background information on PANACOMA, factors affecting
the park’s present and future development, and relative advantages and disadvantages (as
compared to other Honduran parks), I have completed a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, Threats) analysis for tourism development in PANACOMA.
3.11.1 Strengths
 The park is located close to major population centers and transportation
routes.
 The park is easily accessible as compared to other parks.
 Relative to its proximity to large population centers and transportation
routes, PANACOMA is home to a unique and biologically rich
ecosystem.
3.11.2 Weaknesses
 There is a lack of infrastructure within the park.
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Lack of training regarding protected area management and the skills
necessary to provide tourism services.
Access roads from central Comayagua are in poor condition.
The park lacks outstanding natural attractions when compared with other
parks.
The park’s management has a limited ability to enforce the management
plan.
The park’s resources continue to be exploited in an unsustainable manner.
3.11.3 Opportunities
 Motivated individuals and organizations in the area are interested in
tourism development (i.e., ECOSIMCO, UMA, AFE-COHDEFOR).
3.11.4 Threats
 Although individuals and groups involved in the park’s operation are
motivated they are often disorganized and have little capacity to
coordinate amongst themselves.
 The park’s management has had little success meeting management
objectives due to a variety of factors.
 Local citizens generally distrust the larger organizations within the area
and have little faith in these organizations’ ability to serve local
communities in a positive manner.
 Other parks throughout the country have more extensive tourist facilities,
established marketing campaigns, and organized tourism development
strategies.
3. 12 Chapter Conclusions
In comparison to other Parks in the Honduran park system PANACOMA’s major
strength for tourism development is its location and accessibility. PANACOMA’a major
weaknesses are that they are lacking experience, expertise, and the infrastructure that
other parks have, however there is a small group if motivated individuals and
organizations in the are interested in seeing tourism development succeed that may be
able to overcome these weaknesses. These initial results indicate that some form of nature
based tourism that relies on visitation from major population centers and visitors that do
not have the time or ability to access other more remote parks could be successful.
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CHAPTER FOUR: A PROFILE AND ANALYSIS OF THE COMMUNITY OF
RIO NEGRO
4.1 Introduction
Whereas the previous chapter provided an overview of PANACOMA as a whole,
this chapter provides a detailed profile of the specific community on which this project is
focused – Rio Negro. The chapter is organized on a macro- to micro- level; it starts off
with an overview of the community and then proceeds to narrow its focus with a
discussion of issues specifically relating to ecotourism. After a review of factors
affecting tourism in the region, I conclude the chapter with a SWOT (Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis relating to ecotourism development in Rio
Negro.
4.2 History and Background of Rio Negro
About 50 years ago in central Honduras, small groups of farmers began to settle a
770-hectare area of land located between 900-2025 meters above sea level on the steep
slopes of what is today the buffer zone of Montana de Comayagua National Park
(PANACOMA). According to community members, the area was formally called Rio
Obscuro, which literally translated into English means “Dark River.” The land was so
named because upon first glance, the soil type and diversity of colors within the broad
leaf forest make the river in the center of the community – which flows crystal clear –
appear black. Bordered by the Rio Gavilon to the North, Rio Blanco to the South,
Montana El Portillo to the East, and Rio Churunes to the West, the area is now the
incorporated community of Rio Negro, located in the department of Comayagua within
the municipality of Comayagua (CENET, 199?). The surveys (see Chapter 2 two
Methodology for information regarging these surveys) taken during my stay in the
community determined that Rio Negro is home to 360 residents living in 56 homes.
The first settlers of Rio Negro migrated from communities at lower elevations to
farm mostly beans, as well as small plots of pataste, ayote, and malanga. During
settlement of the area, much of the primary Bosque Humedo Sub-Tropical, Bosque
Humedo Montano Bajo Sub-tropical, and Bosque Muy Humedo Montano Sub-tropical
(Cantarero, 1999) were destroyed in order to clear land for agriculture (CENET, 199?;
Personal communication, Rio Negro Guide Association, April 3, 2001). (See Chapter
Three for descriptions of each of these types of ecosystems).
During the 1970s and ‘80s, the Honduran government urged farmers in Rio Negro
and throughout the country to shift away from the production of basic grains and focus on
the production of coffee, which is currently the cornerstone of the regional economy.
Today approximately 91 percent of the land in Rio Negro is dedicated to coffee farming;
the coffee is planted throughout the year and harvested between November and April.
Here, as in communities throughout the park, basic grains, fruits, and vegetables are still
propagated in smaller quantities. While these crops are used typically for domestic
consumption, a small fraction of the harvest is sold commercially. Although farming is
intensive, fragmented stands of primary and secondary growth forest still remain –
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generally within the upper-reaches of the community (personal communication, Rio
Negro Guide Association, April 3, 2001; CENET, 199?).
4.3 Accessibility
The closest city to Rio Negro is Comayagua, just 45 kilometers away.
Honduras’s former capital, Comayagua is home to almost 100,000 people including a
large number of U.S. servicemen, foreign businesses, and university students. With its
rich colonial history (Humphrey, 2001), this cosmopolitan center acts as a major trading
partner and social center for Rio Negro (personal communication, Rio Negro Guide
Association, April 3, 2001).
Travel from Comayagua to Rio Negro normally takes between one and one half
and three hours. The trip begins by heading north 27 kilometers on a well-maintained
road to the town of San Jeronimo, the closest major town to Rio Negro. From San
Jeronimo, the journey continues 17 kilometers southeast up a mountain valley, via a dirt
road. This road takes between one and two and one half hours to traverse, and can only
be ascended by four-wheel drive vehicles.
Because public transportation does not exist, two pick up trucks travel daily
between Rio Negro and Comayagua, leaving Rio Negro around 5:30 a.m. and departing
Comayagua between 1 - 3:30 p.m.. Local drivers charge approximately two U.S. dollars
each way for the trip (personal communication, Rio Negro Guide Association, April 3,
2001)
Construction has recently started on a new road to Rio Negro; if this road is
completed, it should cut the driving time from Comayagua down by half an hour to an
hour in each direction. Though the road is scheduled to be completed shortly,
construction has halted and local citizens are unsure and even skeptical that construction
will resume (personal communication, Rio Negro Guide Association, April 3, 2001).
4.4 Livelihood
I conducted interviews with 55 households, and 53 reported that coffee was their
primary source of income. Of the two individuals for whom coffee was not the primary
source of income, one is a day laborer and the other is a construction worker who visits
his family on weekends and holidays. A few citizens had secondary sources of income,
which were important enough to mention in the survey; these included one teacher, two
taxi drivers, and one administrative officer for a non-governmental organization. Along
with coffee farming, most citizens in the community contract their services as day
laborers constructing houses, making adobes, washing clothing, or working on
neighboring farms.
Animal husbandry – which is generally limited to free roaming chickens used for
eggs or meat – is a very important means of supporting households in Rio Negro. While a
few community members own horses, pigs, or cows, almost every home cares for
chickens. Fish farming is also gaining popularity as a way to feed a family, and a few
households have small ponds in which they are raising black and red tilapia as well as
carp.
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4.5 Infrastructure
Research for this report shows the average household size in Rio Negro is 6.5
people, and land holdings vary in size from .35 hectares to over 30 hectares for a few
large landowners. (Due to certain cultural norms, regarding the willingness of larger
landholders to disclose the specific size of their landholdings, more accurate data
regarding landholdings was unable to be gathered due to the limitations of this study.)
Residencies are distributed throughout the community, but are clustered more intensely
around the central road. Most of these homes are made out of adobe while a few homes
have been constructed using wood, concrete, or a combination of wood, concrete and/or
adobe. Roofs were traditionally constructed from clay tiles or wooden shingles, in
general these materials have been replaced by corrugated steel, which is more efficient
and less expensive.
4.5.1 Potable Water
Rio Negro is one of the few communities in PANACOMA with either potable
water or toilets with septic storage systems. The potable water project was constructed
during the mid-1990s with the assistance of Servicio Nacional de Agua y Alcantarillado
(SANNAA), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the
Peace Corps. Pipes carry water for the community from a stream within primary growth
forest located at a elevation of 1,450 meters above sea level. The water passes through a
filtration system before it is stored in a water tower and then distributed throughout the
community.
In a survey of 38 randomly selected homes, 29 reported having potable water.
Those households not connected to the potable water system receive water directly from
a river, stream, or one of the 10 permanent or 4 seasonal springs in Rio Negro. The main
reasons families do not have potable water are that they did not participate in the
construction of the water system or that their homes were built after the water system was
installed and have not gotten around to installing hook ups. Pour flush toilets and a
simple form of septic tank were also installed in Rio Negro with the assistance of a
development organization. During the same survey, 26 families reported having pour
flush toilets, nine had some form of pit toilet, and three reported using neither type of
system.
4.5.2 Refuse Disposal
Unlike black water , little has been done in an effort to assist the community in
developing methods for disposal of other household refuse. The majority of citizens rely
on a combination of burning, burying, or throwing their waste into their fields.
4.5.3 Electricity
Central electricity does not exist in Rio Negro, but a few households have devised
creative strategies to supply their own homes. Of 38 randomly selected households, 28
reported having no type of electricity within their homes. The ten respondents who
reported having electricity use a variety of sources. Six households bring car batteries to
their homes and use them to power such items as lights, radios, or televisions. A
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gasoline-powered generator was present in one home. Two households have constructed
micro-hydro generators using car alternators to produce electricity. Another family has
installed two solar panels.
4.5.4 Communication
The closest telephone to Rio Negro is located 18 kilometers away in San
Jeronimo, and most communication with the outside world takes place through word of
mouth or written messages. One member of the community, who travels for work, has a
cellular phone and allows others to use it for emergencies when he is in Rio Negro.
4.5.5 Health Care
The closest health center to Rio Negro is located four kilometers away in the
community of Planes de Churunes. According to the nurse in the health center there, the
biggest problems in Rio Negro are respiratory illnesses, “women’s sicknesses”, Varicela,
and Dengue fever. The nurse also reports that 57 percent of the children under five years
old suffer from malnutrition, possibly caused by their limited diet. The typical diet for all
residents of Rio Negro consists of rice, beans, eggs, chicken, bananas, plantains, and
cassava root. (CENET, 199?).
Other than the health center, many people visit Beto Yanez, a practitioner of
traditional naturopathic medicine. There is also a doctor in San Jeronimo, and numerous
clinics and hospitals in Comayagua.(CENET, 199?; B. Yanez, personal communication,
April 7, 2001).
4.5.6 Crime
Crime in Rio Negro is not a major problem. Violent crime is almost non-existent;
however, petty theft of items left around the house as well as the theft of chickens is
common. There are no police in Rio Negro, but the town does have a vigilance
committee that is in charge of security issues (B. Gonzalez Velasquez, personal
communication, April 7, 2001).
4.5.7 Education
Education in Rio Negro is limited to a primary school, which employs two
teachers who divide the duties of teaching first through sixth grade. The school has 86
students ranging from six and one half through 14 years old. Each student attends classes
for approximately five hours a day (B. Gonzalez Velasquez, personal communication,
April 7, 2001).
4.6 Organizations and Civic Structure
Rio Negro has a number of local organizations. The community’s main governing
body is the Patronato, or town government. The Patronato is made up of a President, Vice
President, Secretary, Treasurer, Fiscal Officer, two Vocales, and two Auxiliary
representatives. The community elects these officials every two years. As the official
voice of Rio Negro, the Patronato represents the community in its relationship with the
municipality and department. The Patronato has no regular meeting schedule and tends to
hold more meetings when something is going on in the community, i.e., development of
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the potable water project. According to members of the Patronato, there are
approximately 12 meetings a year, eight of which just the representatives attend and four
in which the entire community is invited (Patronato, personal communication, April 10,
2001
4.6.1 Local Organizations
In addition to the Patronato, a variety of local organizations exist in in Rio Negro.
Table 4.1 provides an overview of these groups and their missions.
Table 4.1 Local Organizations and Their Missions
Organization
Mission
Sociedad de Padres de la Familia
Literally translated to mean Society of the Parents
of the family, this organization is responsible for
making sure the local school system is
functioning properly.
This is a small, locally-managed and locallyfunded bank created by the community as a way
to promote local investment, and to provide
micro-business loans to the community.
This is a local council responsible for the
administration and maintenance of the potable
water project.
Caja Rural
Junta de Agau Potable
Junta Rural Productores de Café
This group’s name, literally translated, means
Rural Coffee Producers Group. The group is
responsible for managing the reforestation and
road building projects with the funds given to the
community from APROCAFE (the association of
coffee producers).
Grupos Productivos
This is a collection of five smaller groups, with
six to twelve members in each. The goal of these
groups is to work together in order to improve the
production of crops within their farms. These
groups meet together to receive technical
workshops from outside organizations, to assist
each other on their farms, and to exchange
information concerning farming techniques.
Dedicated to environmental issues in the area,
this group raises awareness through meetings and
informal lobbying methods within the
Comite Ambientalista
- 56 –
community.
Guide Association
This group is composed of individuals interested
in being guides.
Local CCH Chapter
This group holds work camps to integrate youth
from around the country with members of the
local community in order to work on
conservation projects in the local community.
These projects include reforestation, creating
barriers to reduce runoff from trail erosion and
farming, constructing interpretive trails, and
generally promoting local conservation efforts.
Committee de Vigelancia
This is a locally elected committee in charge of
monitoring and assisting with criminal matters in
the community.
(Compiled from sources including: CENET 199??; Rio Negro Patronato, personal
communication, April 10, 2001; J.A. Velasquez, personal communication April 14, 2001;
B. Gonzalez Velasquez, personal communication, April 14, 2001).
4.6.2 Outside Organization Operating Within Rio Negro and the Region
In addition to local organizations, many government institutions as well as
national and international organizations are working within Rio Negro. Table 4.2 lists the
most active of these organizations as well as the primary activities they participate in
within Rio Negro.(CENET 199??; Rio Negro Patronato, personal communication, April
10, 2001; (J.A. Velasquez, personal communication, April 14, 2001; B. Gonzalez
Velasquez, Personal Communication April 14, 2001).
Table 4.2 Outside Organizations and Their Missions
Organization
Mission
CENET
The national center for worker education.
CENET offers a variety of courses in a variety of
subject matters designed to increase worker
capacity. Some courses they teach are: reading,
writing, organizational administration, business
planning, business management, resource and
administration
- 57 –
COHODEFOR
ECOSIMCO
National Forestry Department which oversees the
management of all the protected areas within
Honduras including PANACOMA. In Rio Negro
COHDEFOR is primarily concerned with
environmental protection within the community
and PANACOMA
A local non-governmental organization created to
protect and manage PANACOMA. ECOSIMCO
is working within Rio Negro on projects that
strive to minimize the environmental impact of
human settlement and resource exploitation both
within and around the park. They are also
working hard on campaigns that strive to
minimize the amounts of forest fires within the
area, increase educational outreach, improve
health and sanitation, and assist farmers with the
implementation of sustainable farming techniques
that minimize soil run off.
BANCAFE
A bank founded by the original coffee producers
in the country. They placed a percentage of all
coffee sales into a fund to create a bank, which
provides loans to small producers.
APROCAFE
The association of Honduran Coffee producers.
They promote the management of roads in coffee
producing regions as well as offer loans or
technical assistance regarding crop diversification
and maintenance.
PROYECTO EL CAJON
In charge of management of the El Cajon
watershed. Until recently they provided most of
the funding for ECOSIMCO however, their
funding has recently run out and it does not look
like their project will continue
SALUD PUBLICA
In charge of providing basic medical assistances
to the community. They stop in the community a
few time a year to give vaccinations or during
emergencies.
(compiled from sources including: CENET 199??; Rio Negro Patronato, personal
communication, April 10, 2001; J.A. Velasquez, personal communication, April 14,
2001; B. Gonzalez Velasquez, personal communication, April 14, 2001).
- 58 –
4.7 Special Events and Leisure Activities
Sundays serve as an important meeting time for Rio Negro, a predominantly
Catholic community that is also home to a small number of evangelists. On a typical
Sunday, citizens gather at the church to pray, hold meetings for local organizations, or
meet at the soccer field for a game or tournament. (CENET, 199?; J.A. Velasquez.,
personal communication, April 14, 2001).
4.7.1 Fiesta Patronal de Cristo Negro
From January 13th through 15th, the town hosts hundreds of outsiders for its
“Fiesta Patronal de Cristo Negro”. This festival draws people interested in celebrating the
word of God and/or playing in a soccer tournament. Many community members generate
income during the festival by selling products such as food, drinks, or crafts (CENET,
199??; J.A. Velasquez., personal communication, April 14, 2001).
4.7.2 Ferria Artesenal
About three years ago a small group of citizens started hosting a “Ferria
Artesenal,” or artists’ festival. During this festival, citizens of the community celebrate
their ability to produce crafts; in addition, they hold a soccer tournament. Year by year
this festival has grown, and according to community members the Ferria Artesenal
attracted from 500 to 1000 visitors in both August 2000 and 2001 (Rio Negro Guide
Association, personal communication, October 14, 2001).
4.7.3 Recreation
As in other communities in Central America, soccer is perhaps the most popular
recreational activity in Rio Negro. Other popular activities include listening to music,
swimming in the rivers and waterfalls, and games such as cards or jacks. (CENET,199?;
Rio Negro Guide Association, personal communication, October 14, 2001).
4.8 Problems and Challenges Facing Rio Negro
During a survey conducted of 55 households in Rio Negro, my research team and
I asked community members to name the two biggest problems in the community. Of the
110 responses, the most popular were: lack of electricity (32 responses), lack of a health
center (24 responses), and lack of a kindergarten (10 responses).
On the whole, the types of problems community members cited also could be divided
into three main categories, with a fourth serving as catch-all for miscellaneous replies.
Figure 4.3 lists these major problems broken down into these four categories.
- 59 –
Table 4.3 Major Problems Cited by Residents of Rio Negro.
Health
24 no health center
07 General health
Total Respondents:
31
Education
10 no Kindergarten
08 lack of education
02 high school
01 organization to
teach and train the
teenagers
01 Lack of
understanding of
how to properly
exploit the resources
Infrastructure
11 poor road
32 No electricity
02 poor infrastructure
01 no flush toilets
01 no potable water
02 housing
01 poor
communication with
outside world
Other
1 bad economy
01 forest fires
01 loss of animals
due to extinction
02 no work
01 poverty
01 Church
22
49
7
Due to a high birth rate, the population of Rio Negro is continuing to grow and
exert pressure on the community’s fragile ecosystem and limited resources. Along with
the problems listed above, the community is experiencing a 1 percent out migration to
urban areas (CENET, 199?) ,where many of the young talented people seek more
professional opportunities. (Rio Negro Patronato, personal communication, April 10,
2001).
The community is also facing an extremely difficult year due to the declining
price of coffee on the international market. During informal conversations conducted
during this study, many of the residents expressed a concern that they would have to
leave the area because it is becoming more and more difficult every year to make a living
(Rio Negro Patronato, personal communication, April 10, 2001).
4.9 Human Resources
This research also asked representatives of 55 households to cite special skills
they might possess, such as cooking, music, crafts, etc. Responses fell into the following
three categories: technical skills, cooking, and art. Table 4.4 provides more detail, with
specific responses and number of respondents citing each skill.
- 60 –
Table 4.4 Skills Cited by Survey Respondents
Technical Skills
2 build,
design, and give tours
of a micro-hydro
facilities that use a
car alternator, a small tube of
water, and a turbine to
generate electricity
2 work with
tourists to explain the
coffee process
1 plant gardens
1 speak English
1 drive
1 plant querta
1 farm work
1 practice traditional medicine
2 make medicinal teas
Cooking
Art
1 make bread
8 play “music”,
3 make food
guitar, violin, or singing
12 sew
3 crochet
12 make pastries
5 make furniture
3 honey or caramel carpentry ( chairs,
12 preserves(pineapple dressers, mantles)
orange camote)
12 sew
4 make wines from 9 crafts, aztecas, keys chains
potatoes or oranges 1 ceramics
1 Mexican, Italian
Caribbean food as well
as cook and clean in restaurants
1 soy milk and soy cereal
1 malanga
1 tamales
1 alcetron
1 pasalitos
1 tacos and enchiladas
Although all of the skills cited are important skills needed in the tourism business,
residents of Rio Negro will need to learn to adapt these skills to provide for the needs of
tourists. Cooking is a good example of the need for skill adaptation. During April 2001,
seven foreign visitors stayed in Rio Negro between two and 30 days apiece. During this
time these guests ate meals at either a Honduran Conservation Corps work camp or in the
homes of community members. Of these seven visitors, four experienced food poisoning
within the first five days of their visits, including one case of dysentery. The experience
of these tourists indicates that additional training in food safety and sanitation will be
required. Training and skill adaptation is discussed in greater detail in chapter seven.
4.10 Rio Negro, PANACOMA, and Tourism
One of the primary reasons given by the Honduran government for declaring
PANACOMA a protected area was to preserve the land for its tourism development
potential (Cantarero, 2000). Unfortunately, other management objectives have taken
precedence over promoting tourism development within PANACOMA, and very little
tourism exists. The park’s management plan prepared in 2000 discusses the idea of
- 61 –
developing tourism within the park, with the idea that ecotourism will help fulfill the
roles of promoting environmental education, environmental preservation, and – most
importantly – promote sustainable development. The management plan promotes
ecotourism specifically within the communities of Rio Negro, El Horno, and Tamarindo.
“The principle strategy for the implementation of this program (developing
ecotourism) is to help support and coordinate communities, institutions, and private
businesses, thereby establishing different mechanisms for the generation of funds and
resources that can contribute to the self-financing of PANACOMA and the residents
within the area. Some of these mechanisms include”: (Cantarero, 2000).
1. Agreements promoting inter-institutional cooperation.
2. Contracts, sponsorship, and financing for the promotion of the park
and -- more importantly -- private businesses within the tourism sector.
3. Non-governmental organizations and forms of communication.
4. Marketing campaigns and the creation of a web page.
5. Participation of the communities in the sales of tourism services.
6. Helping train community members to work in ecotourism (Cantarero,
2000).
During a discussion in April, 2001, I asked a representative of ECOSIMCO the
following two questions: (1)”Why was Rio Negro chosen as a site to be developed for
tourism?” and (2)“What actions have the park’s management bodies taken to begin
development of this ecotourism program?”
I was told that Rio Negro was chosen because, of the 49 communities within
PANACOMA’s buffer zone, Rio Negro is the most interested in and organized for
tourism development.
I was also informed that ECOSIMCO was very interested in promoting the
ecotourism component of the park’s management plan, but that little work has been done.
The municipality has purchased a piece of land in Rio Negro and has plans to build a
tourist lodge, but as with the development of the ecotourism program, other management
priorities have taken precedence over the development of this site. Furthermore, although
local community members are excited about outside support for tourism development
within Rio Negro, they are concerned that if an outside organization comes into Rio
Negro, the community will be left out of the process. The community is also afraid that
in such a case, little or none of the benefits will be received in Rio Negro.
4.11 Profile of Tourism in Rio Negro
4.11.1 History
Rio Negro is currently the only community in PANACOMA preparing for
tourism development. Around 1995 Rio Negro worked with ECOSIMCO to construct an
interpretive trail within PANACOMA called “Paso del Lion”. Currently this is the only
tourist trail in PANACOMA, making Rio Negro the gateway community to the park.
When ”Paso del Lion” opened in 1996, a registration book for visitors was placed
at the house of Don Maximo, which is located 2 kilometers away from the trail’s
entrance. Because the park’s management has provided no information to visitors
concerning the existence or location of the registration book, the book has been signed
- 62 –
only when a local guide brings visitors to Don Maximo’s house. This inefficient
registration process precludes the gathering of accurate visitor statistics for the park.
Table 4. 5 lists the number of visitors recorded in the registration book each year along
with an estimate of the actual number of visitors given by the president of Rio Negro’s
guide association.
Table 4.5 Number of Registered Visitors vs. Estimated Actual Visitors to
PANACOMA/Rio Negro.
PANACOMA/Rio Negro Visitor statistics
Year Visitor Book
Estimate given by Guide Association President
1996
50
unavailable
1997
247
300
1998
61
450
1999
58
500
2000
84
600
4.11.2 Tourism Resources and Public Opinion
Aside from day visitors coming to see the park, there is no history of tourism
within Rio Negro nor is there any tourism infrastructure. While gathering information for
this project, my research team and I interviewed representatives from 55 households in
Rio Negro. During the interviews we posed various questions regarding individuals’
opinions on tourism development. According to survey responses, strong support for
tourism development exists concurrently with concern regarding the negative impacts of
tourism.
When asked “Would you like it if tourists came to visit Rio Negro?” 100 percent
of respondents answered “Yes.” When asked: “Why would you like tourists to come to
Rio Negro?” respondents’ answers varied; however, the most popular response by far
was that tourists would bring business, progress, development, or improve the
community. Table 4.6 lists the reasons community members gave for wanting tourists to
come to Rio Negro.
Table 4.6 Why would you like it if tourists came to Rio Negro?
Number of Responses
40
13
4
1
1
Responses
To bring business, progress, development, or make
the community better.
Some improved form of cross-cultural exchange,
with answers such as: to share in our lives, to share
in their lives, to get to know other types of people.
To bring projects or support to the community
(referring to community development projects such
as a potable water project which was constructed
with the help of foreigners).
To help with the environment
I don’t know
- 63 –
4.11.3 Attractions in Rio Negro
An important part of the ecotourism development process is to find out what types
of attractions Rio Negro has to offer tourists. To determine this, we asked community
members the following question during the interviews: “Why would tourists visit Rio
Negro?” The responses to this question varied but answers fell into three main categories.
Most citizens thought that tourists would visit in order to: (1) help the community, (2)
learn about local culture, or (3) see the environmental attractions in the area.
Table 4.6 contains a list of responses divided into categories.
Table 4.6 “Why would tourists visit Rio Negro?”
Environment (71 total)
Volunteer Work (6 total)
14 See the mountain
13 National Park
9 The waterfall
4 Trees or Forest
4 Fresh or uncontaminated water
3 Fresh air
3 Biodiversity
3 Animals fauna, bird
1 Climate
1 To camp
1 Flora, plants, flowers
6 Help the community or work on development/
conservation projects
Culture (4 total)
4 Get to know the community or learn from it
1 Learn about conservation
techniques
Other (1 total)
1 Good health
4.11.4 Gauging Visitor Reaction
In researching this project, community members and I invited five tourists to
spend time in Rio Negro. When they departed from the community, we conducted an exit
interview during which the tourists were asked, “Why would tourists come visit Rio
Negro?” As part of this question we asked visitors to list both natural and cultural
attractions.
- 64 –
Under the category of natural attractions, tourists’ responses included the
following:
 beautiful forest
 birds.
 trees.
 natural environment.
 unspoiled setting.
 remote.
 tranquil.
 waterfalls.
 wildlife.
 beats the heat of Comayagua.
Under the cultural attractions category, one individual found no cultural attraction
to the area while the other four respondents cited the following as potential tourist
attractions:
 contact with locals.
 plucking a chicken.
 traditional cooking.
 sharing in life.
 working in the community.
 learning sustainable agriculture techniques.
 playing games.
 stepping back in time.
 home stays.
In addition to the observations made by community members, our tourists, and the
data provided in this chapter’s sections profiling the park and community of Rio Negro, it
is worth mentioning the community is also home to five waterfalls, a great diversity of
flora and fauna (see a copy of the park’s management plan for a complete list)
spectacular views, unusual natural attractions (such as a petrified tree), and an abundant
supply of naturally-occurring edible fruits, vegetables, and plants
4.11.5 Inventory of Tourism Resources
Rio Negro and PANACOMA have much to offer potential visitors to the region in
the way of natural attractions, but it is also important when developing tourism to
understand the human and cultural resources that exist in an area. Understanding these
resources can assist in developing the correct types of products and identifying the proper
training needs.
4.11.6 Residents’ Prior Experience Working with Tourists
To better understand these resources in Rio Negro, we asked community members
the following question: “Have you had any previous experience working in restaurants or
with tourists?”
- 65 –
As it turns out, only four people answered this question in the affirmative. Of
these four, one individual had lived in the United States for a few years; he worked as a
cook in various ethnic restaurants and can speak some English, A second individual
worked as a cook in Honduras for a short amount of time, and a third is president of the
local guide association and takes care of tourist groups when they come to Rio Negro or
stay with the CCH. The fourth individual never worked with tourists but has lived in a
tourism zones and understands the nature of the industry.
4.11.7 Residents’ Desire to Work With Tourists
We then asked representatives from each household the following: “Would you
like to work with tourists if they came to Rio Negro?” The responses were as follows:
Yes (49 respondents).
No (2 respondents).
Maybe (4 respondents).
If an individual expressed interest in working with tourists, we then inquired as to what
types of service their household was interested in providing. Because tourism is new to
the region, many people were unsure of the types of services the industry required.
Respondents were also unsure of how to adapt their skills in order to meet the needs of a
tourist.
Overall, the responses we received varied greatly, with some community
members listing specific services and others confidently exclaiming that they could do
everything. Based on the information we gathered that there is no shortage of citizens
interested in providing services to tourists, even if training is needed. Table 4.7 contains a
list of responses along with the corresponding number of citizens interested in providing
theses services.
Table 4.7 “What Type of Services Would you Like to Provide?”
Number of Respondents
25
21
19
18
14
5
5
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Type of Service
Provide guide services
Everything/ any type of work
Provide Laundry service
Provide lodging
Provide food/ meals
Provide Transportation
Provide security
Explain water turbine system
Share waterfall on property
Take people swimming
Play guitar or music
Clean rooms
Teach horse and lasso
Sew
Sell items such as: pastelitos,
donuts, ajuelas, semintes carrot bread, other breads, tamales,
and tamalitos
Don’t know - 66 –
4.11.8 Potential Deterrents
We then asked community members “Why wouldn’t tourists visit Rio Negro?”.
This question solicited a broad range of responses, ranging from the fact that Rio Negro
does not have a health center to a lack of support from outside organizations. Many
individuals also gave the following responses:





Poor communication (either due to the road or lack of a telephone system).
Rio Negro’s lack of tourism infrastructure such as lodges or a restaurants.
Lack of organization within the community.,
Tourists’ lack of knowledge about Rio Negro.
A few people felt that the community would not welcome the tourists.
Table 4.8 provides a list of responses grouped by categories.
Table 4.8 “Why Wouldn’t Tourists Visit Rio Negro?”
Response (by category)
Number of Responses
Bad road
11
Lack of support/ funds for tourism projects
11
Local people lack skills or capacity to attend to tourists
11
Tourists do not know about Rio Negro
(there is a lack of information about the park)
9
Poor communication with outside world
7
Community members will not be receptive
to tourists
4
No Lodge
3
Community is disorganized
3
Area is deforested due to community negligence
2
Long trip
1
Somebody (referring to regional
Or national authorities) does not permit tourists to come
1
Tourists are not interested
1
Community does not pay enough attention to the idea
of developing tourism
1
Poor overall infrastructure
1
No formal transportation service
1
Cold climate is a deterrent
1
No answer
1
4.11.9 Potential for Negative Impacts of Tourism
Because tourism development often comes with a variety of positive and negative
impacts, we asked citizens the following: questions: “Are you afraid of the negative
impacts of tourism?” and “If you are afraid of the negative impacts, what impacts are you
afraid of?”
- 67 –
While many people understood this question, others were unaware of negative
impacts tourism could bring. For this reason, in many cases the interviewer provided a
brief explanation of these impacts, citing examples such as “environmental degradation
due to an increase in population” and “social impacts such as tourists smoking cigarettes
or listening to loud music and disturbing others”.
Of the 55 households surveyed, only 18 individuals were afraid of the negative
impacts of tourism. Social impacts raised the greatest concern, with seven individuals
mentioning alcohol, five mentioning smoking, two mentioning drugs, two mentioning
prostitution, and one mentioning bad language. Six individuals gave more general
responses, such as the idea that tourists could simply have a bad influence on the
community. Two individuals took this idea a little further and said that they were
concerned because the people were “different”. Only four individuals mentioned
environmental impacts; these four were worried that visitors might contaminate the water
or the environment. Tables 4.9 and 4.10 provide a summary of responses to these
questions.
Table 4.9 “Are you afraid of the negative impacts of tourism?
Answer
No
Yes
Number of Responses
37
18
Table 4.10 “If you are afraid of the negative impacts, what impacts are you afraid of?”
Answer Group by category
Alcohol Use
Smoking
Drugs
Prostitution
Bad language
Tourist could just be bad
Influences
Afraid of the unknown, because
Tourists are “different”
Contamination of water or environment
Number of Responses
7
5
2
2
1
6
2
4
4.12 SWOT ANALYSIS of Factors Related to Tourism Development within Rio Negro
Taking into account background information on Rio Negro as well as public
opinion, internal resources, and the remaining factors discussed throughout this chapter, I
have completed a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis for
tourism development in Rio Negro.
- 68 –
4.12.1 Strengths
 Rio Negro is generally a safe community.
 The community is centrally located and relatively close to population hubs
like Tegucigalpa and Comayagua.
 The community strongly supports the idea of developing tourism in the
region.
 Support exists from ECOSIMCO and the municipality for making Rio
Negro a gateway to the park.
 Foreign tourists find many of the natural and cultural resources attractive.
 Many individuals in the community are ready to provide a diversity of
tourist services.
 Local organizations and government are already in place to assist with
policy formulation and enforcement of regulations.
 The community possesses levels of Environmental Social Infrastructure
(ESI), represented particularly in the capacity for resource
mobilization and quality social networks.
4.12.2 Weaknesses
 There is no tradition of tourism in Rio Negro.
 The access road leading to the community is poor.
 Residents of the community lack the training necessary to provide for
tourists.
 Foreigners require a higher quality of services than is currently available
in Rio Negro.
 Poor communication with the outside world creates a barrier to effectively
marketing the community as a tourist destination.
 There is a lack of emergency medical services.
 The existence of petty theft in the community could make tourists wary.
 There is a lack of investment capital.
4.12.3 Opportunities
 If the new road is completed, it will provide easier access.
 A lodge is being constructed and is scheduled to be completed in a few
months.
 Established festivals and soccer tournaments provide potential consumers
for tourist products as well as a potential draw to attract new clientele.
 Cellular phone reception is great, giving a relatively inexpensive, and
instant solution to improving communication.
 Lower coffee prices may result in more human resources available for
tourism development
 Development of tourism may reduce population outflows and provide
economic growth in side industries (Bernard, 1978 cited in CeballosLascurian, 1996).
- 69 –
4.12.4 Threats
 The community distrusts larger non-profits and development agencies.
 The community suffers from a lack of organization on certain levels.
 Sanitation standards are not up to service standards for foreign guests.
 Lower coffee prices may result in lower amounts of capital available for
investment in tourism projects.
4.13 Chapter Conclusions
The results of this research shows that the community of Rio Negro possesses
many strengths which will support the development of tourism within their community
however, it also points out many of the weaknesses that exist. The main strengths that
exist for tourism development within Rio Negro are its location within PANACOMA, its
levels of social capital especially levels of entrepreneurial social infrastructure, the
communities close location to Comayagua and Tegucigalpa, and most importantly the
desire of local community members to work with tourists. Unfortunately, certain
deficiencies exist most notably a lack of skills developed specifically for the tourism
industry and a lack of investment capital. These and other points will be discussed further
in chapter 7 however before a detailed analysis can be completed a review of the market
place (chapter 5) must be conducted.
- 70 –
CHAPTER FIVE: A PROFILE AND ANALYSIS OF THE MARKET
5.1 Introduction
This chapter begins by looking at tourism trends worldwide and narrows its focus
with a discussion of tourism in Honduras. Later sections narrow the focus further with an
overview of tourism in the Comayagua region. Similar to previous chapters, this chapter
concludes with a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of
tourism development in Rio Negro based upon the market factors discussed.
5.2 Tourism Worldwide
Tourism has become the world’s largest industry over the last half century,
producing 8 percent of all export earnings worldwide (WTO, 2000). The industry is
growing at an average rate of 7 percent annually, up from approximately 25 million
tourist arrivals in 1950 to 664 million arrivals in 1999. International tourism receipts
including those generated by international fares amounted to an estimated 532 billion
U.S. dollars in 1998, higher than any other trade category (WTO, 2000). According to
the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism is currently responsible for 8.2 percent of
employment worldwide, and projections indicate that it will be responsible for indirectly
producing 5.5 million jobs per year during the next decade (WTTC, 2001a).
The year 2000 saw a growth rate of 7.4 percent in tourist arrivals -- the largest
growth in over a decade. This growth can be attributed to a strong global economy and
“special events held to commemorate the new millennium”(WTO, 2001). In fact, the
year 2000 marks the largest number of international tourist arrivals in history, with over
697 million (WTO, 2001).
In 2001, worldwide growth in tourism took a downturn for only the second time
since 1980, with tourist arrivals dropping by 1.3 percent to 689 million arrivals. Some
factors to which this downturn is attributed include: a slowdown in growth of the global
economy; the September 11 attacks in New York City; and growth in worldwide
terrorism and political unrest. Other factors include outbreak: of foot and mouth disease
in Europe and the economic crisis in Argentina (WTO, 2002).
Barring worldwide disaster, the World Tourism Organization (WTO) predicts
that the “tourism industry will pick up its habitual rhythm of growth by the second half of
2002, as business travel resumes and consumer confidence returns”(WTO, 2002).
Further, the WTO predicts international tourist arrivals will grow at an average
rate of 4.1 percent from 1995-2020, with 1.56 billion arrivals in the year 2020 (WTO,
2001). Figure 5.1 illustrates the trends in tourist arrivals during the period 1950-2020
Figure 5.1 International Tourist Arrivals, 1950-2020.
- 71 –
Source: World Tourism Organization web cite www.wto.org
5.3 Tourism in Central and Latin America
According to the WTO, Central America has experienced a 9.7 percent annual
increase in tourist arrivals between 1995 and 1998, and a 16.7 percent increase in 1999;
,tourist arrivals jumped from 3,433,000 in 1998 to 4,080,000 in 1999 (WTO, 2000).
The WTTC estimates that growth will continue in this market with an estimated
4.6 percent annual growth in tourist arrivals to Latin America between 2001-2011
(WTTC, 2001a).
5.4 Tourism in Honduras
5.4.1 Arrivals at a National Level
Between 1995 and 1999 Honduras experienced 10.6 percent annual growth in
tourist arrivals. Of the 4,080,000 arrivals to Central America in 1999, 371,000 were to
Honduras. This represents 9.1 percent of the Central American market, which is the
second lowest percentage in the region.
In 1999, tourism grew at a rate of 9.1 percent in Honduras – from 318,000 visitors
in 1998 to 371,000 in 1999. In comparison to its Central American neighbors, tourism
growth in Honduras was rather slow considering Guatemala and El Salvador saw 29
percent and 21 percent increases in arrivals respectively in 1999. Worthy of mention is
the fact that Hurricane Mitch caused a significant slowdown in Honduran arrivals during
the later part of 1998, but did not have a significant affect in 1999 (Honduran Instituto de
Turismo, 2000a).
- 72 –
5.4.2 Tourism Revenues at a National Level
Tourism revenues in Honduras have outpaced the growth of arrivals, indicating
that the average tourist is spending more money. Between 1995 and 1999, tourism
revenues have grown at a rate of 22.4 percent annually -- from $80,000,000 U.S. dollars
to $195,000,000 U.S. dollars. (Honduran Institute de Turismo, 2000a).
Tourism in 1999 accounted for approximately 3.6 percent of Honduras’s Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) or 8.18 percent of export earnings. Coffee was the only export
in the country to generate more in export earnings (United States Department of State,
1999). Estimates for 2001 indicate that tourism may account for as much as 11.2 percent
of export earnings (WTTC, 2001b) that year.
The WTTC has predicted that travel and tourism will produce $933.6 billion U.S.
dollars (or 14.1 billion Honduran limpera) of economic activity in Honduras in 2001,
accounting for 4.4 percent of Honduras’s gross domestic product (GDP) that year.. This
would account for 3.9 billion Honduran limpera, or $257.8 million U.S. dollars (WTTC,
2001b). The WTTC also predicts that tourism will grow at “an average rate of 4.5
percent per annum, in real terms, between 2001-2011” (WTTC, 2001b).
5.4.3 Tourist Origins and Ports of Entry
In 1999, 44 percent of travelers to Honduras came from North America, 41
percent from Central America, 9 percent from Europe, and 3 percent from South
America. The United States supplied 39 percent of the total market.
Of the total travelers, 61 percent arrived by air, 37 percent by land, and the
remainder by sea. The percentage of visitors traveling by each means of transportation
varied, depending on the travelers’ nationality. Ninety percent of North Americans and
63 percent of European travelers arrived by air.
Of the four international airports in Honduras, 24.51 percent of visitors arrived at
Toncontin Airport in Tegucigalpa, while 26.7 percent arrived at Villeda Morales Airport
in San Pedro Sula (Honduran Institute de Turismo, 2000a).
5.4.4 High and Low Season Travel Patterns
January, March, June, July, August, and December are normally considered the
high season and February, April, May, September, October, and November the low
season for travel to Honduras. However, the variation in numbers of visitors between
these periods fluctuates only slightly; for example, in 1999, July was the busiest month
with 10 percent of all arrivals while the slowest month, February, received 7.2 percent of
arrivals – only a 2.8 percent difference in arrivals between the busiest and slowest months
of the year (Honduran Institute de Turismo, 2000a).
5.4.5 Types of Travel
Of the travelers to Honduras, only 6.21 percent purchased packaged tours, while
an overwhelming majority (93.79 percent) traveled independently. This indicates that
either the type of traveler that Honduras is attracting prefers to travel independently, or
that tour companies are not marketing packaged tours to Honduras (Honduran Institute de
Turismo, 2000b).
- 73 –
5.4.6 Travel Motives
Travelers come to Honduras for a variety of reasons, the most common of which
is business/professional travel, followed by recreation/vacation travel.
Table 5.1 shows the types of travelers that come to Honduras along with the percentage
of the market they represent (Honduran Institute de Turismo, 2000b).
Table 5.1 Why Travelers Visit Honduras
Motive for Travel
Business/Professional
Percent of Market
41.19
Recreation/Vacation
Visit Friends
Study/Conference/Convention
Health
Other
29.32
12.28
5.81
0.2
15.58
(Source: Encuesta del gasto Turistico, 1999, IHT).
5.4.7 Length of Stay
The average visitor to Honduras spends 9.27 nights in the country and $640.27
U.S. dollars. These numbers vary according to a variety of factors, including the origin of
the traveler. Table 5.2 breaks down visitors’ average length of stay and spending per
visitor by origin; Table 5.3 breaks down average spending according to travel motive
(Honduran Institute de Turismo, 2000b).
Table 5.2 Origin and Visitors’ Average Stay/Spending (given in U.S. Dollars)
Region of Residency Average Stay
North American
11.13
European
12.94
Central American
7.08
The Rest of the World 6.35
Average spending during staySpending per day
711.30
63.91
775.89
59.96
502.21
70.93
742.18
116.88
(Source: Encuesta del gasto Turistico, 1999, IHT).
Table 5.3 Travel Motives and Visitors’ Average Stay/Spending
- 74 –
Motive for Travel
Average Stay
Business/Professional 7.38
Recreation/vacation 11.11
Other Motives
15.03
Average Spending during Stay
649.47
659.50
583.11
(Source: Encuesta del gasto Turistico, 1999, IHT).
5.4.8 Travel Spending
The money spent by travelers is distributed in a variety of ways, with some of it
going to purchase food or accommodations and some of it going toward transportation or
entertainment. Spending patterns by travelers also differ according to a variety of factors.
Table 5.4 contains a breakdown of spending according to travel motives. Currency is
given in U.S. dollars.
Table 5.4 Travel Spending and Travel Motive
Costs
Recreation/Vacation
Lodging
29.82
Food and Beverages 32.59
Entertainment
14.89
Local transport
7.34
Purchases
8.59
Other
6.78
Business
49.70
26.78
4.32
7.41
5.76
6.04
Other
21.38
35.89
7.9
9.17
12.77
12.89
(Source: Encuesta del gasto Turistico, 1999, IHT).
The average North American traveler spends 34.12 percent of total spending on
lodging, 30.38 percent on food, and a total of eight to nine percent on the remaining
categories listed in Table 5.4.
5.4.9 Tourist Demographics
According to the “Perfil del Turista” or “Tourist Profile” study conducted by the
Honduran Institute for Tourism, most travelers to Honduras are between the ages of 25
and 55, have graduated from university, generally travel alone, and have come to
Honduras for business or because it was recommended to them by a friend. Tables 5. 5
through 5.8 contain a compilation of various relevant charts and data extracted from this
publication(Honduran Institute of Tourism, 2000c).
- 75 –
Table 5.5 Distribution of Tourists’ Ages
Age category
24 or younger
25-34
34-44
45-55
55 or older
All Visitors
7.9
26.3
29.3
23.8
12.4
North Americans
9.9
17.8
27.1
17.2
.02
Europeans
9.9
37
22.6
17.5
12.4
Table 5.6 Distribution of Tourists’ Level of Education (highest completed)
Level of education
Attended Secondary
Graduated Secondary
Attended University
Graduated University
Masters or Post-graduate
All Visitors
1.4
8.8
10.6
48.1
30.8
North Americans
2.2
11.9
14.6
38.4
32.8
Europeans
.6
9.9
9
19.2
30.8
North Americans
Europeans
Table 5.7 Annual Income Levels of Tourists
Annual Income
All Visitors
20,000 or less
20,001 to 30,000
30,001 to 40,000
40,001 to 50,000
50,001 to 60,000
60,001 to 70,000
70,001 or more
No information
13.6
12.5
14.1
12.9
08.2
08.8
17.3
12.6
11.4
8.9
12.5
10.9
11.3
8.8
25.4
1.08
15.3
11.6
15
12.1
5.4
8.8
14.4
17.5
Table 5.8 Travel Status of Tourists (Source: Perfil de Turistica, 1999, IHT).
Type of traveler
All Visitors North Americans
Europeans
Solo
With a Spouse
With a Spouse/children
With Friends
Other
69.2
6.5
5.1
17.5
1.6
61.4
7.7
7.4
20.5
2.9
- 76 –
61
7.6
5.9
21.6
.8
5.4.10 How Tourists Learn About Travel to Honduras
Most travelers to Honduras first learned about visiting Honduras as a result of a
business or professional experience, or from friends or family. Other sources of
information about travel to Honduras were magazines such as “Scuba Diving,” “Skin
Diving,” and “Audubon,” as well as information posted on the Internet. Travel research is
showing a general increase in the importance of the Internet in marketing a destination,
and it is probable that the Internet is playing a much more important role today than in
1999.
From this information, it is clear that word of mouth recommendations are more
effective marketing sources than other media outlets, or that the quality or quantity of
marketing through these media outlets is deficient. For a definitive answer to the cause,
more research is needed, but the conclusion stands that word of mouth travel suggestions
between friends plays a large role in marketing and that all destinations should strive to
exceed visitor expectations to help capitalize upon this type of marketing. Destinations
should also pursue a campaign that encourages travelers to share information with their
friends, families, and co-workers upon their return from travel. Properly placed, targeted,
marketing in magazines or Internet sites also appears to be an effective tool (Honduran
Institute of Tourism, 2000 c).
Table 5.9 summarizes the various sources of information from which visitors
learned about Honduras. Figures are given for visitors from North America, from
Europe, and for visitors from all origins combined.
Table 5.9 How tourists learn about travel in Honduras
Source
All Travelers North American
(High season) (High Season)
Friends
Travel Agent
Tour Operator
Magazines
Television
Internet
Business/Professional
Visit family
Data
Missionary or evangelical
Data
Other
21.2
.5
.8
2.6
.3
2.3
51.4
No Data
20.2
.7
.7
1.5
.3
2.9
18
14.15
31.4
.6
2.5
6.5
0.0
3.1
33.8
No
No Data
19.92
No
22.7
22.63
25
(Source: Encuesta del gasto Turistico, 1999, IHT).
- 77 –
European
(High Season)
5.5 Tourism Infrastructure and Attractions in Honduras
5.5.1 Attractions and Destinations
Aside from business opportunities, Honduras has much to offer tourists in the way
of attractions. Some of the highlights include:
:
 A large number of protected areas, including 15 national parks
 Scuba Diving
 Luxury hotels
 Beautiful beaches
 Archeological ruins
 Cigar factories
 Colonial cities
 Local art and culture
 White water rafting, and
 A chance to experience rural life (Dupuis, 2001).
According to John Dupuis, editor of “Honduras Tips” magazine, “every
destination has improved and offers more to the traveler” (Dupuis, 2001).
A high season survey conducted by the Honduran Institute of Tourism (1999),
showed that 47.8 percent of all tourists visiting Honduras felt that the nature and
adventure attractions were the most important attractions Honduras had to offer the
visitor. Twenty-seven percent of visitors found that beaches held the most allure, while
19.6 percent cited archeological sites, 17.7 percent cited diving, 8.8 percent cited the
general category of other, and 7.3 percent held that colonial cities were the biggest draw.
In general, North American travelers -- the largest percentage of the travel market
– felt that the beaches were the most important attraction. 22.7 percent gave this
response, followed by nature and adventure (18.7 percent), archeological sites (18.2
percent), diving (17.3 percent), and colonial cities (10.8 percent).
Europeans placed a higher emphasis on nature and adventure (56.2 percent),
followed by beaches (34.2 percent), diving (32.5 percent), archeology (24.9 percent), and
colonial cities (4.5 percent)(Honduran Institute of Tourism, 2000 c).
The most popular Honduran destinations which attracted visitors (for at least one
night) were as follows:
 Tegucigalpa (visited by 43.2 percent of travelers).
 San Pedro Sula (visited by 41.2 percent of travelers).
 The Bay Islands (visited by 21.7 percent of travelers).
 La Cieba (visited by 14.7 percent of travelers).
Although these were the four most popular destinations for all travelers, visits to
each of these locations varied according to travel motives. Vacation travelers were more
likely to visit the Bay Islands, Copan, and the Pacific coast as opposed to business
travelers, who were more apt to spend time in big cities like Tegucigalpa and San Pedro
Sula (Honduran Institute of Tourism, 2000 c).
- 78 –
5.5.2Hotels and Tourism Services
Hotels in Honduras are not classified by a star system but rather by the number of
services they provide and whether they are located in rural or urban settings Table 5.10
outlines the Honduran hotel classification system for hotels in urban and in rural areas.
According to the “Bulletin of Honduran Tourism Statistics,” there were 558 hotels
in Honduras in 1999. This number is up from 405 hotels in 1995, although since 1996
127 hotels have gone out of business or changed their names (Honduran Institute of
Tourism, 2000a).
Table 5.10 Honduran Hotel Classification System
Number of Services Provided (In urban areas)
11-15
7-10
4-6
1-3
Classification
First class
Second class
Third class
Fourth class
Number of Service (In rural areas)
6-10
3-5
1- 3
First class
Second class
Third class
.
Source: Boliten Estadistico de Turismo, IHT, 1999).
Aside from hotels, Honduras is home to 1,872 restaurants, 139 travel agencies, 26
tour operators, 36 car rental agencies, 184 artist shops, and 139 transportation companies
that provide service throughout the country (Honduran Institute of Tourism, 2000a).
5.6 Tourism in Comayagua
This section narrows the focus from Honduras in general to Comayagua in
particular. Information includes data on visitors to the region and a discussion of
Comayagua’s tourism infrastructure.
5.6.1 General Visitor Statistics
Approximately 2.37 percent of all travelers to Honduras (or 8,793 travelers)
visited Comayagua in 1999. Travelers coming to Comayagua generally come for
business; 1.7 percent of all business travelers came to Comayagua while only .84
percent of all vacation travelers came to Comayagua in 1999.
A further analysis of this information by the Honduran Tourism Institute indicates
that 1.8 percent of all North Americans and 1.31 percent of all European travelers to
Honduras visited Comayagua during 1999 -- equal to 2,937 and 431 visitors,
respectively.
The average stay in Comayagua is between 11-12 days, which is much longer
than any other destination in the country. As with many other factors, it can be assumed
- 79 –
that visitor stays vary according to the traveler’s place of origin and reason for travel.
Unfortunately, data analyzing how the length of a visitor’s stay in Comayagua varied
according to place of origin or reason for travel was not available for this report. It is
safe to assume that due to the lack of tourist attractions/infrastructure and the large
number of foreign businesses in Comayagua, most of these extended-stay visitors were
business/professional travelers and not vacation/recreation travelers (Honduran Institute
of Tourism, 2000a).
5.6.2 Tourism Infrastructure and Services in Comayagua
Of the 134 hotels in central Honduras, 24 are located in Comayagua with a total
of 392 rooms and 552 beds. Comayagua’s hotels account for 3.06 percent of all rooms in
Honduras, or 4.3 percent of hotels. Of these hotels, there are none in the first class
category, four in the second-class category, six in the third-class category, and 14 in the
fourth-class category (Honduran Institute of Tourism, 2000a).
Traditionally, travel services within Comayagua have been geared toward
satisfying the needs of business travelers. Recently, however, the city has been looking
toward creating a market for recreation/vacation travelers. As the city is almost five
hundred years old, it has a rich colonial history and a historic district of town that was
declared a “national monument” in 1972. In 1996 the “Master Plan for a Historical
Center” was sponsored by international and national agencies and organizations to help
preserve and restore the historic center of Comayagua, which consists of over 500
houses. This project has already begun to work; it has made many improvements in the
city, which have gradually begun to attract more tourism. One guidebook author writes
“while Comayagua is unlikely to become the next Antigua, Guatemala, the renovation
project will certainly be a welcome change” (Humphrey, 2000).
The major attractions for recreation/vacation travelers in Comayagua are all
cultural or historical attractions and include: The Cathedral of Santa Maria, Colonial
Museum, Archeological Museum, San Francisco Church, The colonial tax collection
house, La Merced Church, San Sebastian Church, and La Caridad llescas church
(Humphrey, 2000).
In addition to, Comayagua’s cultural and tourist attractions, the region is also
home to 91 restaurants, a variety of night clubs and disco-techs (which are rumored to be
dangerous for foreigners to visit), two travel agencies, four artist shops, and four
transportation companies.
As of 1999, there were 26 tour operators in Honduras, only ten of which were
located in the central zone and none of which were located in Comayagua (Honduran
Institute of Tourism, 2000a).
5.7 SWOT Analysis of the Marketplace in Relation to Tourism Development in Rio
Negro
Based on the information presented in this chapter, I have completed an analysis
of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to tourism development within
Rio Negro.
- 80 –
5.7.1 Strengths
 Past trends and future projections indicate the demand for tourism in
Honduras will continue to grow in the foreseeable future.
 Foreign tourists indicate an interest in visiting nature and adventure
destinations.
 Tourists express an interest in seeing colonial cities.
 Rio Negro is located close to Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, the largest
ports of entry into the country.
5.7.2 Weaknesses
 Only 2.37 percent of tourists in Honduras visit Comayagua.
 North Americans, who make up the largest travel segment within
Honduras, express more interest in beach destinations and
archeological ruins than in nature/adventure destinations or colonial
cities.
5.7.3 Opportunities
 The average traveler to Honduras spends over $U.S.60.00 per day; if only
a small percentage of travelers visit Rio Negro, this can still have a
substantial positive economic impact on the community.
 The average length of stay for travelers in Comayagua is between 11-12
days -- higher than any other destination in Honduras
 8,793 travelers visited Comayagua last year, spending an average of $U.S.
60.00 per day with a average length of stay between 11-12 days
apiece. Using a conservative estimate of 11 days per visit, this means
that tourism generates approximately $U.S. 5,803,380 per year in
Comayagua. If Rio Negro can capture just 10 percent of visitors to
Comayagua for 2 nights, this could make an impact of $US 35,168 on
the local economy. (This assumes no leakages, and that tourists spent
an average of U.S. $ 20.00 per day.)
5.7.4 Threats
 The world travel market, although relatively stable over the last fifty
years, is becoming competitive; furthermore, it is prone to sharp
fluctuations directly related to global security and natural disasters.
This susceptibility is evidenced by the sharp downturn in global travel
after the September 11 attacks on New York City, and locally with the
immediate decrease in tourism following Hurricane Mitch.
- 81 –
5.8 Conclusions
Banning world-wide disaster, current projections indicate an increase in
international business and recreation travel to Honduras. With an increase in demand for
travel services on Honduras, many opportunities exist for entrepreneurs on the supply
side of the industry. This chapter indicates that Comayagua is not a traditional tourist
destination, however that the cities colonial restoration and close access to a national park
could help break this tradition. This chapter also indicates that if the community of Rio
Negro can capture just a small percentage of tourists visiting Comayagua, it would
contribute a substantial amount of revenues to their small economy.
- 82 –
CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSIONS AND REVIEW OF EXTERNAL AND
INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTS IN RELATION TO TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
IN RIO NEGRO
6.1 Introduction
Now that a thorough review of the external and internal environments have been
completed, it is necessary to examine this information to determine if the proper
conditions for tourism development exist – and if they do exist, what type of tourism
should be developed. This chapter will identify the major barriers and opportunities for
tourism development that exist and that will be discussed further in the implementation
strategies presented later in chapters of this report.
The following section contains a compilation of all of the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats identified at the ends of Chapters Four, Five, and Six (ie, based
on analyses of PANACOMA, Rio Negro, and the tourism marketplace) ; as well as a
summary and conclusion related to each of these categories.
6.2 Summary of Strengths from Previous Chapters














Past trends and future projections indicate that the demand for tourism in
Honduras will continue to grow into the foreseeable future (unless an
unforeseen disaster devastates the travel industry).
Foreign tourists -- especially Europeans -- indicate an interest in seeing
nature and adventure destinations.
Foreign tourists -- especially Europeans -- express an interest in seeing
colonial cities
Rio Negro is located close to Tegucigalpa one of tbe largest ports of entry
in to the country.
In general, Rio Negro is a safe community.
Rio Negro is centrally located close to population hubs like Tegucigalpa
and Comayagua.
The community strongly supports the idea of developing tourism in the
region.
ECOSIMCO and the municipality supports the concept of making Rio
Negro a gateway to the PANACOMA.
Foreign tourists find many of Rio Negro’s natural and cultural resources
attractive.
Many individuals in the community are claim they are ready to provide a
wide range of tourist services.
Local organizations and government are already in place to assist with
policy formulation and enforcement of regulations.
PANACOMA and Rio Negro are easily accessible when compared to
other parks.
Motivated individuals and organizations are part of the local community.
Comayagua’s colonial development project is making the city of
Comayagua a tourist destination.
- 83 –


Rio Negro has a unique and biologically rich ecosystem relative to its
proximity to large population centers and transportation routes.
The community possesses levels of environmental social infrastructure
represented particularly in the capacity for resource mobilization and
the quality of social networks.
6.2.1 Conclusions from list of Strengths
Rio Negro’s attractive natural environment, rich local culture, low crime rate,
location in a national park, and positioning close to large population centers are the basic
building blocks from which tourism can be developed. Other assets that will be helpful to
developing tourism in Rio Negro are the community members’ interest in developing
tourism and learning new skills, together with their friendly personalities and motivation
to share their lives with tourists. These factors, combined with the existing levels of
Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure and the support of ECOSIMCO make Rio Negro a
prime location for the development of community-based sustainable tourism, which
is run locally and centered around the area’s natural attractions and rural lifestyle.
6.3 Summary of Weaknesses from Previous Chapters










Only 2.37 percent of tourists in Honduras visit Comayagua.
North Americans -- who make up the largest travel segment within
Honduras -- express more interest in beach destinations and
archeological ruins than nature/adventure destinations or colonial
cities.
No tourism tradition exists within Rio Negro.
The access road is poor.
The existence of petty theft could make tourists wary.
Lack of training.
Foreigners require a higher quality of services than is currently available
in Rio Negro.
Poor communication with the outside world creates a barrier to market and
sell effectively.
There is a lack of emergency medical services.
There is a lack of investment capital.
6.3.1 Conclusions from the list of Weaknesses
Developing tourism in Rio Negro will be a difficult process due to a variety of
factors. Honduras – and, more specifically, Central Honduras -- has never had a large
tourism industry, and generally lacks most of the basic infrastructure and human
resources needed for tourism-related businesses. Citizens of Rio Negro possess many of
the rudimentary skills needed for work in the tourism industry (i.e., the ability to cook,
clean, and interact in a positive manner with guests), but these skills will need to be
refined and adapted further if the community is to supply the high quality of service
tourists expect.
6.3.1.1 Need for Skill Development
- 84 –
During April of 2001, seven foreign visitors stayed in Rio Negro for visits ranging
from two to 30 days. While in the Rio Negro, these guests ate meals at either a Honduran
Conservation Corps work camp or in the homes of community members. Of these seven
visitors, four experienced food poisoning within the first five days of their visits,
including one case of dysentery.
Although there are many people in Rio Negro who cook for their family and
friends on a daily basis, generally the food safety and sanitation procedures that exist in
family kitchens are not acceptable when preparing meals for foreigners on a regular basis.
If tourism is to be developed, extensive training will be needed in the following areas:
 Food safety and sanitation.
 Hospitality
 Basic English
 Environmental interpretation
 Guiding
 Housekeeping
 Marketing
 Business management.
This may seem like a lot of training, but if implemented slowly, with motivated
students, it can be accomplished quite easily.
6.3.1.2 Need for Improvement in Infrastructure
The second biggest problem, which needs to be addressed, is the lack of
infrastructure such as lodging, long-range communication systems, good roads,
electricity, and a health care facility. Although it is unrealistic to expect the construction
of large-scale projects (i.e. paving the road or providing telephone services to the entire
community), small-scale projects, which help mitigate the negative effects of these
deficiencies, will need to be pursued if tourism is to be successful.
6.3.1.3 Need to Address Safety Concerns
A safe environment is normally considered to be a prerequisite to tourism
development and, luckily, Rio Negro has such an environment. However, although the
crime rate is quite low in Rio Negro, petty theft is common and will need to be curbed if
tourism is to prosper.
6.3.1.4 Need to Make Tourists Comfortable with Harsh Aspects of Environment
Environmental factors such as the chilly and rainy climate may deter tourists who
are not used to these conditions. Therefore, steps will need to be taken to make tourists
feel comfortable in this often-harsh setting.
6.3.1.5 Need to Address Competition
During interviews with both community members and foreign tourists,
respondents thought the natural environment was most attractive asset in Rio Negro. As
discussed previously, PANACOMA is not the most pristine natural park in the country
and is still threatened by unsustainable human activities in the area. For these reasons,
Rio Negro will have to find a way to compete with other, more unique and outstanding
- 85 –
protected areas, and to curb the exploitation and degradation of the very resources around
which tourism will be centered.
6.3.1.6 Need for Marketing
Central Honduras has never been a popular travel destination, especially for
foreign vacation/recreation travelers. Steps to deal with this issue will be discussed in the
implementation strategy attached to this report, but intensive and targeted marketing to
other segments of the travel market will be needed in order to compensate for this factor.
6.3.1.7 Lack of Capital
The lack of capital available for investment in tourism projects will very much
hinder the community’s ability to procure training, build infrastructure, and embark on
marketing campaigns. However, this lack of capital should in no way prevent the
development of tourism in the area. Instead, creative problem solving should be used to
work around this issue by creating a form of tourism, which is feasible to develop and
maintain on a local level.
6.3.1.8 Need to Improve Institutional Relations
Unfortunately, many community members have lost faith in the governmental and
non-governmental organizations, whose missions are to help provide capital, technical
assistance, and training for development. Community members report that these
institutions are inefficient or corrupt, with little or no capacity to assist.
When developing tourism in Rio Negro, it will be important for community
members to work with and solicit assistance and support from these external
organizations. However, in the case that these organizations cannot be depended upon to
follow through, community members must take matters into their own hands and look for
creative ways to solve their own problems. If empowered to solve these problems on
their own, community members will be caught in fewer bureaucratic hassles and have a
greater chance of developing successful tourism ventures.
6.4 Summary of Threats from Previous Chapters






The world travel market, although relatively stable over the last fifty
years, is growing extremely competitive and is prone to sharp
fluctuations directly related to global security, natural disasters, leisure
patterns, and disease (Goodwin, Kent, Parker, Walpole, 1998). This
susceptibility is evidenced by the sharp downturn globally after the
September 11 attacks on New York City, and locally with the
immediate decrease in tourism following Hurricane Mitch.
The community distrusts larger non-profits and development agencies.
There is a lack of certain forms of organization within the community.
Sanitation standards are not up to service standards for foreign guests.
Lower coffee prices may result in lower amounts of capital available for
investment in tourism projects.
The park’s management has had little success meeting management
objectives due to a variety of factors.
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



Local citizens generally distrust the larger organizations within the area
and have little faith in their ability to serve local communities in a
positive manner.
There is a lack of consistent funding for ECOSIMCO, the Honduran
Conservation Corps, and Projecto El Cajon.
Other parks throughout the country have more extensive tourist facilities,
established marketing campaigns, and organized tourism development
strategies.
Some community members are concerned with the negative social and
environmental impacts of tourism.
6.4.1 Conclusions from the list of Weaknesses
As discussed in Chapter Three, competition from other national parks like Cerro
Azul Meambar and La Tigra can be a threat to the economic prosperity of this project. It
is quite possible that because of their larger budgets or more aggressive marketing
campaigns, it will be difficult for PANACOMA to compete.
Community members are concerned with negative environmental and social
impacts of tourism, so steps will be need to be taken to minimize all of these negative
impacts.
The communities within the park’s boundary have little confidence in the
Municipal government, and in larger not-for-profits and development agencies within the
region. The park’s management plan states that the municipality has purchased land
within Rio Negro to be used for the construction of a small lodge and visitors center. A
potential conflict may arise between the community and the municipality around this
venture, and steps should be taken to minimize any problems, which do arise.
Although the obstacles for this project seem numerous, it is important to
remember that numerous barriers exist when developing any project. There is little reason
why creative problem solving and a motivated and committed community cannot
mitigate or completely eliminate the negative impacts associated with the problems listed
above.
6.5 Summary of Opportunities from Previous Chapters



The average traveler to Honduras spends over U.S.$ 60.00 per day; if only
a small percentage of travelers visit Rio Negro, this can still have a
substantial positive economic impact on the community.
The average length of stay for travelers in Comayagua is between 11-12
days -- higher than any other destination in Honduras.
8,793 visitors visited Comayagua lain 1999, spending a average of $US
60.00 per day with an average length of stay between 11-12 days
apiece. Using a conservative estimate of 11 days, this means that
tourism generates approximately US$ 5,803,380 per year in
Comayagua. If Rio Negro can capture just 10 percent of visitors to
Comayagua for 2 nights each, this could make a impact of US$
35,168 on the local economy. This assumes that there are no leakages
and that tourists spent an average of US$ 20.00 per day.
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




If the new road is completed, it will provide easier access.
A lodge is being constructed and is expected to be completed in a few
months.
Established festivals and soccer tournaments provide potential consumers
for tourist products, as well as a potential draw to attract new clientele.
Cellular phone reception is great, and offers a simple and inexpensive
solution to many of the communication problems, which exist.
Motivated individuals and organizations in the region are interested in
tourism development.
6.5.1 Conclusions from the list of Opportunities
Located just outside Comayagua , which has the longest average stay for travelers
of any destination in Honduras and is home to numerous foreign businessmen and
servicemen, and may start attracting more tourists as a result of the historic center’s
restoration project. Rio Negro has the opportunity to capitalize on tourism development
within the park because it is the only community in the marketplace preparing for
tourism. This, combined with the forecasted growth in tourism for over twenty years and
the Honduran governments’ multiple-incentive program for tourism development, makes
now a good time for Rio Negro to further develop its tourism industry. If planned
properly, tourism can assist the community not only by providing revenues, but also by
promoting conservation and providing employment, training, and funds for development
projects.
6.6 Final Review
Rio Negro is a prime location for the development of what many researchers call
“ecotourism”. According to author Martha Honey, ecotourism is defined as “travel to
fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas that strives to be low impact and (usually)
small scale. It helps educate the traveler, provides funds for conservation; directly
benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities;
and fosters respect for different cultures and for human rights.” (Honey, 1999).
Development of ecotourism in Rio Negro will not occur without the
implementation of strict regulations, extensive training programs, and infrastructure
construction and renovation projects. If tourism is to be developed in Rio Negro,
implementation strategies that strive to “optimize multiple goals rather than any
particular end” (Flora& Flora, 1993) will be needed. These implementation strategies
must focus on improving the skills of individual entrepreneurs, the quality of communal
resources and infrastructure, and Rio Negro’s entrepreneurial social infrastructure.
It is not likely that ecotourism will become the center of Rio Negro’s economy,
but if developed correctly and carefully, it does have the potential to become a key
revenue-generating activity and secondary source of income for the community.
In order to help the community of Rio Negro properly implement ecotourism
development, the following chapter provides a series of tutorials, which provide
recommended strategies for developing ecotourism. Along with these tutorials, the
chapter will explain the reasoning behind each of the recommendations as well as
methods for implementing ecotourism within the community.
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CHAPTER SEVEN: AN IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPING
ECOTOURISM WITHIN RIO NEGRO
7.1 Introduction
One of the most important parts of any planning process is an implementation
strategy detailing various ways of capitalizing on identified opportunities. Broken into
sections, this chapter provides a series of tutorials, which the community of Rio Negro
can follow in order to meet the most basic requirements of developing quality ecotourism
products and to capitalize on the opportunities that exist.
I have purposely provided these implementation strategies in the form of tutorials,
because both the funding for this project and the community’s access to outside resources
are limited. Therefore, the community will have the opportunity to assume responsibility
for implementing the strategy on their own if outside assistance turns out to be nonexistent or unreliable in the future.
Each tutorial is structured and presented differently to emphasize the most
important points of each section; however, these tutorials do follow a basic outline in
which they present a recommended implementation strategy, explain how and why each
implementation strategy is being recommended, and provide instructions as to how the
community can implement this strategy. In many cases, the tutorial also provides
methods the community can use to amend or respond to the recommendations provided
in this report.
7.1.1 List of Tutorials:
Tutorial One: How to Involve the Community in Using this Plan
Tutorial Two: Developing and Pricing Products
Tutorial Three: Developing a Marketing Plan for Rio Negro
Tutorial Four: Developing a Marketing Strategy
Tutorial Five: Identifying Effective Marketing Activities
Tutorial Six: Developing and Maintaining a Community Image
Tutorial Seven: How to Ensure Everyone in the Community Will Benefit from Tourism
Development
Tutorial Eight: Minimizing the Negative Environmental and Social Impacts of Tourism
Tutorial Nine: Creating a Contract with Outside Agencies interested in Developing
Projects within Rio Negro
Tutorial Ten: Further Training
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Tutorial One: How to Involve the Community in Using this Plan
7.2.1 Tutorial Goals:
1) To familiarize the community with this plan.
2) To ensure community participation and leadership in all aspects of
the tourism development process in Rio Negro.
7.2.2 Why Community Involvement Important?
The main tourist attractions in Rio Negro are the natural and cultural resources of
the park and the community. These resources include the clean streets, friendly
neighbors, safe and secure environment, and the landscape and forests which are
preserved through conservation efforts from the local community. These resources do not
exist as a result of actions taken by a specific organization or individual. Rather, these
resources exist as a result of years of efforts by multiple organizations and community
members.
Because these resources belong to every community member, it is important that
the entire community promotes the right of every community member to build his or her
own private business, ensures that every community member is involved in all decisions
regarding the use of these communal resources, and guarantees that every community
member benefits from the exploitation of this communal resource.
.
7.2.3 Ensuring Full Community Participation
The following steps provide guidelines to ensure that the entire community is
involved in the ecotourism development process.
Step One:
The first step in involving the entire community with the implementation of this
plan will be to present the plan to the community. Since the Rio Negro Guide Association
stands to benefit the most from tourism development, and since they have gained a good
deal of strength within the community since the research for this project commenced, the
group should take the lead in organizing this process.
Step Two:
Members of the Guide Association should:
1. Familiarize themselves with the entire report.
2. In a separate journal, make notes regarding parts of the implementation
strategy that they like or dislike. They should also take note of
specific changes they believe should be made.
Step Three:
The Guide Association should call together the entire community for a meeting.
Step Four:
At the meeting the guide association should:
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1. Present this report to the community.
2. Share with the community the comments that members of the organization
have made regarding their likes, dislikes, and changes they feel should
be made.
3. Make copies of the report available to any community members interested
in gathering further information about this process.
Step Five:
The Guide Association should then call a second meeting with the specific
purpose of soliciting feedback from the community.
Step Six:
Depending on the results of the feedback generated from steps one through four,
the Guide Association will make any necessary changes to the suggested implementation
strategies suggested in later sections of this chapter.
Step Seven:
The Amended Plan will be presented to the Patronato for review.
1. If the revised plan is not acceptable to the Patronato, steps one through
five should be repeated.
2. If the revised plan is acceptable to the Patronato, move onto step seven.
Step Eight:
The Guide Association should organize small management teams of two to four
people each, to be responsible for implementing each of the tutorials provided in this
chapter. If possible, these management teams should include individuals who are not
members of the Guide Association and should also promote the involvement of many
other organizations within the community.
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7.3 Tutorial Two: Developing and Pricing Products
7.3.1 Tutorial Goals:
1) Assist community members in developing tourism products.
2) Assist community members in creating a price structure for these
products.
3) Help community members gain insight into how tourists think about
Rio Negro.
4) Avoid the mistake of marketing Rio Negro as an ecotourism
destination prior to developing a line of quality products.
7.3.2 Why is Developing and Pricing Products Important?
Ecotourism has been a popular buzzword in the international arena since the early
1990’s. Many development agencies, governments, and non-profit organizations have
embraced the idea of ecotourism as a quick fix to underdevelopment in and around
protected areas. Unfortunately, most of these projects have had little success for a variety
of reasons. One problem that has plagued many projects is poor planning and inadequate
technical advice.
Many people are under the impression that they can simply put the word
‘ecotourism’ on a sign and advertise tours, hotels, and restaurants, and people will appear
and start spending money. Unfortunately, when these short-sighted methods are
employed, tourists often arrive at a location and are disappointed when the local
community asks for money and does not have any interesting activities planned. These
kinds of practices may be a great way for a community to earn a little money quickly, but
will hurt a community in the long run. When tourists are not happy with the service they
receive or believe that they have paid too much for a service, word will spread amongst
other tourists and in tourism business.
To prevent this scenario from happening in Rio Negro as well as to help the
community develop quality products, this tutorial presents a list of products, which can
be developed in Rio Negro with a minimal amount of financial investment or training.
Also provided is an explanation of the methodology used to identify these products,
information regarding tourists’ opinions regarding these products, and a set of guidelines
which can be used to create a reasonable pricing structure. Along with these
recommendations, this section also provides a list of steps that community members can
take to repeat the process used in developing these product definitions and prices. In this
way the community will be able to amend or improve upon the recommendations already
made.
- 92 –
7.3.3 Part I: Product Development
This section contains the methodology used to create the product ideas for Rio
Negro. The steps involved in this process were as follows:
Step One:
A comprehensive review of the information gathered for chapters four, five, and
six (review of the human, cultural, and natural resources in the area) was conducted.
Step Two:
A review of products offered by other community-based ecotourism projects
around the world was conducted.
Step Three:
The information gathered in steps one and two was compiled. This information
was then used to identify potential activities that would not require extensive
training or financial investment and could be developed in Rio Negro.
Step Four:
These activities where then compiled in a list.
Step Five:
A focus group consisting of five tourists was asked to review this list. For each
suggested activity, members of the group were asked for their opinion regarding:
a. Levels of interest.
b. Desire to experience.
c. Willingness to pay.
Members of this focus group were asked to give their answers using the following
scale of 1-5, with the numbers corresponding to the individual’s levels of interest:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
1= Low (L)
2= Low/Meduim (LM)
3=Medium (M)
4= Meduim/high (MH)
5=High (H)
Step Six:
The focus group of five tourists then met with community members and the
research team. A discussion was held in which each activity was described to the
tourists. Each tourist then picked a few activities to participate in.
Step Seven:
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Each member of the focus group then participated in activities and was asked to
pay a voluntary fee for each activity. The focus group then reconvened and
shared their experiences with our research team and the other focus group
members.
Step Eight:
The focus group then revisited the list, and repeated step number five.
Step Nine:
The answers were then compiled, averaged, given a letter value based on the 1-5
scale described in Step Five. The results from this exercise are listed in Table 7.1.
Table 7.1 Results of Focus Group on Activities Available in Rio Negro
Product
Interest Level Desire to Experience Willingness to pay
Food & Lodging
Spending the night at
a local lodge
Overnight home stays
Meals
H
H
H
H
MH
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
MH
H
H
H
H
LM
LM
H
H
H
H
H
MH
H
H
H
H
M
L
Nature-Based Activities
Hiking within
the national park:
Visiting the mountain
peaks and the primary
rain forest
Hiking Paso de Leon
Swimming in waterfalls,
rivers
Visiting caves
Cultural Activities
Horseback riding
Learning the complete
coffee process
(Pick, Peal, Dry, Roast
, Grind, Brew, and
Drink coffee
Listening to local
musicians
Playing soccer
- 94 –
Preparing
Typical meals
Making bread
Making adobe bricks,
adobe ovens, or
building other adobe
structures
Practice, learn, and
assist with the development
of conservation techniques
Beekeeping
Making Tamales
Learning about or
helping to construct
micro-hydro projects
Making traditional/natural
Medicines
Making Soaps, Shampoos
Making tortillas
Picking the harvest
Making Cosmetic products
Making Wine
Fish farming
Making ceramics
Making traditional
Arts and crafts
Making pastries
and desserts
Planting Crops
Playing Cards
Cleaning the farm
and preparing the land
Lassoing Horses, Cattle
Working in the kitchen
and preparing
traditional food:
Making Cereals
Planting an ornamental
garden
Sewing
H
H
MH
M
M
M
H
M
M
MH
MH
MH
MH
MH
MH
MH
MH
MH
MH
MH
MH
MH
MH
MH
MH
M
M
M
M
MH
MH
MH
MH
M
M
M
M
MH
MH
M
M
M
M
L
L
M
L
L
LM
LM
LM
LM
LM
L
M
LM
L
LM
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
7.3.3.1 Conclusions/Results
From this research we found that:
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




Tourists were more interested in and willing to pay* for lodging, meals,
and nature-based activities than they were in cultural activities.
Interest in many cultural activities was high; however, willingness to pay
was low.
The cultural activities needed to be refined more.
The cultural activities are non-traditional tourist activities, and the tourists
are not used to paying for them
The nature-based activities were more refined and organized; therefore the
tourists found themselves more willing to pay*.
* Please note: “willing to pay” and “willingness to pay” often implies the use of contingent valuation,
which was not used in this study.
7.3.3.2 Case Study: The Story of John, the Chicken, and Potential for Profit
To illustrate the conclusions of our research, let me present the true story of one
tourist named John and his encounter with an anonymous chicken.
Figure 7.1 John
Figure 7.2 The Chicken
Figure 7.3 Profit
John, a tourist from Ireland, is a self-described professional traveler. He and his
girlfriend have been traveling the world for the last five years, stopping for extended
periods in major cities like London and New York for a few months to work and save
money.
John came to visit Rio Negro and stayed about 5 days to participate in a
Honduran Conservation Corps work camp. During his stay, he participated in a number
of activities such as trail hiking, a tour of the community, a farm tour, working on
conservation projects, and preparing a traditional meal.
When John was just about to leave Rio Negro, I asked him to name his favorite
and most memorable parts of his visit. John explained that while helping to prepare a
group meal for the work camp, he was asked to pluck a chicken. He proceeded to inform
me that plucking a chicken was the most interesting part of visiting Rio Negro, and will
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make his visit to Rio Negro stand out compared to the rest of his travels in Central
America.
However, John went on to explain that although plucking a chicken was more
interesting than hiking within PANACOMA, he would never pay somebody for the
experience of plucking a chicken. John explained to me that although plucking a chicken
was an activity, it also seemed like work, and so he as a tourist would not feel
comfortable paying for the right to work.
John and I then discussed this issue with the other tourists in Rio Negro. These
tourists also concluded that many of the cultural activities in which they participated
enhanced their visit to Rio Negro, but they somehow felt awkward paying a separate fee
for doing things that seemed like everyday work. (i.e., making tortillas or cleaning the
farm).
These tourists suggested that many of the cultural activities such as cooking
bread, preparing meals, or making crafts be included in the price of other activities such
as guide services or lodging. In this way, the provider of this service will be compensated
for his/her time and energy and the tourist will not directly associate paying someone for
the privilege of assisting in that person’s work.
7.3.3.3 How Community members Can Improve Product Offerings:
Step One:
Community members should familiarize themselves with the product definition (?)
process used in the first part of this section.
Step Two:
Community members should look to create a number of new products to add to the
list developed above. (optional)
Step Three:
The entire product definition process above should be repeated with a larger number
of visitors recruited for focus groups. (optional)
Step Four:
The community should improve its ability to offer all activities that ranked above
‘low/medium’ (LM) in regards to tourist desire to experience and willingness to pay.
Step Five:
All cultural activities should be improved and refined.
Step Six:
Cultural activities should be promoted, but packaged with lodging and nature-based
activities.
Step Seven:
Cultural activities should be promoted, but the costs should be buried in other fees.
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7.3.4 Part II: Pricing the Products
Price is an important factor in selling a product to a consumer, but it is not the only
factor. Nor is it the most important (Patterson, 1997). Because the tourism services in
Rio Negro are young and the entrepreneurs within the community still have a lot of
learning to do (before they have very high quality products), it will be important for
community members to keep prices low for the first few years and resist the urge to
charge high prices.
If Rio Negro can offer the highest quality product at prices similar to what would be
paid at the inexpensive or moderately priced attractions elsewhere in the region, then the
community can build the capacity and experience to offer a higher quality product and
charge higher prices in the future. If customer expectations are exceeded, clientele may
return and recommend Rio Negro to other tourists.
Table 7.2 contains a list of suggested prices for community members to charge for
certain services. To compute these recommendations the following factors were taken
into consideration:
 The cost of labor in Rio Negro.
 Average annual incomes in Rio Negro
 Costs associated with providing services.
 Suggested prices given by tourists traveling in Honduras.
 Prices of similar services listed in Honduran Guide Books.
 Suggested prices given by community members.
Table 7.2 Suggested Price Structure for Tourist Services
Product
Home stay
(Per person per night including
Breakfast)
Price in Limpera
75-130
Private Rental of Avilio’s lodge
(including breakfast)
Number of Occupants:
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
150
250
325
400
475
525
Shared Room at Avilio’s
lodge including breakfast
Per Person per night
100
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Meals
(Charges for meals at private homes will
depend on what is being served.
Obviously a typical meal will cost less than
a specially prepared meal, but the
price should fit into the range
suggested below.)
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
25-45
35-65
40-80
Tour guides
Half Day (4 hours)
Full Day (8 hours)
40-75
75-150
Music by Brothers Yanez
Per half hour
45
Farm-based Cultural Activities
Half day (4 hours)
Full day (8 hours)
30
60
Working in the Kitchen and Preparing
Traditional Food
Short session (.5-1.5 hours)
Half day (2-4 hours)
Full day (5-8 hours)
15
30
60
Micro-Hydro Education
Short visit/explanation
15
Micro-Hydro Construction
Half day (4 hours)
Full day (8 hours)
30
60
Sewing
Do not charge for this activity
Making Adobe Bricks, Adobe Ovens,
or Building Other Adobe Structures
Half day (4 hours)
Full day (8 hours)
50
100
Making Traditional Arts and Crafts
Do not charge for this activity
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Making Traditional/Natural
Medicines, Soaps, Shampoos, or
Cosmetic Products
Half Day (4 Hours)
Full Day (8 Hours)
50
100
Making Traditional Ceramics
Half day (4 hours)
Full day (8 hours)
30
60
Horseback Riding
Half day (4 hours)
60
Full Day (8 hours)
120
____________________________________________________________________
How Community Members Can Implement, Amend, or Improve the Recommended
Pricing Structure:
Step one:
Now that we have attached a suggested price to each activity, the price list should
be reviewed and revised by the Guide association in conjunction with any community
members wishing to provide any of the services listed above.
Step Two:
Once the price sheet is revised with the input of community members, a final draft
should be ratified by the Guide Association and distributed with the marketing materials
to any potential suppliers.
Step Three:
The Guide Association should then monitor the pricing structure by soliciting
feedback from tourists, local entrepreneurs, and suppliers. Depending on the feedback
received from these groups, the Guide Association should repeat Step Two and make any
necessary changes to the price structure.
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7.4 Tutorial Three: Developing a Marketing Plan for Rio Negro
7.4.1 Tutorial Goals:
1. Familiarize community members with concept of marketing.
2. Identify the importance of creating a marketing plan.
3. Provide the necessary tools for the community to develop a marketing
plan.
7.4.2 Why is Developing a Marketing Plan Important?
This phase is important because it will help the community:



Identify potential customers.
Inform potential customers about tourism in Rio Negro.
Convince customers to come to Rio Negro and purchase the tourism
products, which have been developed. (Patterson, 1997).
From a business perspective, this is perhaps the most important part of the tourism
development process. Rio Negro has the opportunity to develop the most spectacular
tourism projects in all of Central America, with beautiful lodging, nature trails, and
outstanding guides; however, without good marketing no customers would come to Rio
Negro and all of the local businesses would go bankrupt.
7.4.3 How This Section is Organized
This section presents a marketing planning process used to develop a
recommended marketing strategy for Rio Negro. First I have provided a general overview
of the steps involved in marketing planning, defined each of these steps, and described
how conclusions were drawn from each of these steps in the case of Rio Negro.
Community members are encouraged to review this section and implement the
recommended strategies. They are further encouraged to repeat the process presented and
improve upon the recommendations provided here.
7.4.4 What is Marketing?
“Marketing is the process by which you determine the potential buyers of your
product, what their needs are, and how you can respond to their needs in a way that will
encourage them to visit your business” (Patterson, 1997).
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7.4.5 What is a Marketing Plan?
According to Patterson, “a good marketing plan has the following” components or
steps:









Business Objectives.
Situational Analysis.
Market Analysis.
Competitive Analysis.
Product-Market Match.
Marketing Objectives.
Positioning.
Marketing Strategies.
Marketing activities.
There is a certain strategy to developing a marketing plan and the steps listed above
should be completed by a business in a particular manner. Patterson provides the
following framework, illustrated in figure 7.4:
Figure 7.4 Marketing Planning Process
(Source: Patterson, 1997 page 42).
If prepared correctly, a good marketing plan will help the community of Rio
Negro to identify potential customers, inform potential customers about the possibility of
visiting Rio Negro, and convince customers to come to Rio Negro and purchase the
tourism products which have been developed (Patterson, 1997).
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In preparing this report, I utilized Patterson’s framework for developing a
marketing plan and applied the principles to the specific circumstances present in Rio
Negro. The following sections explain the relevance of each step in more detail and
explain how these apply to Rio Negro in particular.
7.4.6 Understanding Business Objectives and the Situational, Marketing, and
Competitive Analyses
Many of the steps necessary to complete a marketing plan are similar to those
used to develop the overall strategic plan, which we have already completed. Following
Patterson’s model, we have already identified the objective of this project: to create an
ecotourism development strategy for the community of Rio Negro.
In presenting profiles of PANACOMA, Rio Negro, and the tourism marketplace,
Chapters Three, Four, and Five have already presented the necessary situational,
marketing, and competitive analyses. However, even thought these steps have been
completed, it is important to understand how they can be applied toward developing the
marketing plan.
Business Objectives
Identifying the business objectives early on in the development phase of the
marketing plan will help guide the marketing process and keep the community well
focused (Patterson, 1997).
Situational Analysis
The situational analysis is an important part of any planning process, not just the
marketing planning. This is the part of the process when one asks the important questions
that provide an understanding of the surrounding world. Basically, during this phase of
the process one needs to know who?, what?, where?, why?, and when? These are all the
important questions to ask because they help determine all of the factors that will
positively or negatively affect a business’s ability to meet the requirements of potential
customers.
The results of the situational analysis are the product definitions. Just as earlier
chapters presented the findings of situational analyses, earlier sections of this chapter
have already presented guidelines for product definitions. The product definitions are
simply the list of products that can be offered in Rio Negro (Patterson, 1997).
Market Analysis
The reasons for conducting a market analysis are similar to the reasons for
conducting a situational analysis. It is just as important to determine the who?, what?,
where?, why?, and when? of the marketplace as it is to understand the situational
circumstances.
By conducting a thorough market analysis, one should be able to identify who
your potential customers are and what market segments to target. “Market segments are
groups of travelers that are linked by a common interest, origin, or demographic
information; can be accessed by marketing to the segment; and are large enough to make
marketing efforts worthwhile” (Patterson, 1997).
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By targeting the proper market segments, Rio Negro can minimize time and
money spent on marketing and ideally attract the right number and type of customers in
an efficient manner. After a review of the profiles presented in Chapters Three, Four, and
Five, I have identified eight primary market segments appropriate for Rio Negro. These
include:








Foreign professionals and servicemen living in and around Comayagua.
Foreign business travelers in Comayagua.
Foreign recreation travelers in Comayagua.
Honduran school children, university groups, civic organizations in and
around the Comayagua area.
North American and European high school, university, and civic
organizations.
North American and European vacation travelers between the ages of 1834 who are already in Honduras.
North American and European tourists who use tour operators to book
trips.
Missionary groups.
Competitive Analysis
This is the part of the planning process when a business needs to find out the
who? what? where? why? and when? concerning the competition. A competitive
analysis is important in this case because it will allow Rio Negro to determine if the
market is saturated, what strengths and weaknesses the competition poses, how to
distinguish Rio Negro from other destinations, and in which areas the community can
best compete with the competition (Patterson, 1997).
The competitive analysis completed for this report concluded that Rio Negro’s main
competition will be other national parks – specifically Cerro Azul Meambar, La Tigra,
and Celeque.
Like many of the parks in Honduras, all three of these parks possess similar
ecological attractions to those found in PANACOMA. La Tigra and Meambar are a
threat because they are both located quite close to PANACOMA and both have more
extensive tourist facilities including visitor centers, hiking trails, and lodges.
Although it is more difficult to access, National Park Celeque poses competition in
capturing international tourists because it is home to more extensive tracks of virgin
forest, more complex and better-maintained hiking trails, and a greater diversity of flora
and fauna. It also contains the highest peak in Honduras and is located next to the
colonial city of Gracias Limpera. From an ecological standpoint, Celeque has much more
to offer the foreign tourist whose main interest is visiting the cloud forest.
Another factor which makes Celeque a key competitor for PANACOMA is its
location outside of the colonial city of Gracias Limpera. Just as PANACOMA’s location
outside of Comayagua makes it an attraction for those tourists interested in visiting both
the cloud forest and colonial cities, Celeques’s location offers a similar advantage.
It is very likely that tourists who do not have extended periods of time to explore
Honduras will want to combine a visit to a colonial city with a visit to a cloud forest,
- 104 –
creating competition between packaged tours to PANACOMA and Comayagua or
Gracias Limpera and National Park Celeques.
If Rio Negro is going to be successful, then it must distinguish itself from the
competition by having a competitive advantage. According to Patterson, there are five
main ways to “develop a unique advantage and compete effectively.” These are:





Price.
Quality.
Service.
Access.
Ability to customize (Patterson, 1997).
Since price was discussed earlier in this chapter, it will not be discussed in detail here.
However, it bears repeating that it is better to offer the best value versus the best price.
Instead of relying on price as Rio Negro’s competitive advantage, it is the
recommendation of this report that Rio Negro follows the pricing tutorial provided earlier
in this chapter in order to develop a fair pricing policy.
Rio Negro can distinguish itself in each of the other four categories as described in
the following sections.
Service
In looking around the market place, I have determined that there are currently no
other businesses in Honduras marketing the products that can be offered in Rio Negro.
Rio Negro is perhaps the first community in Honduras preparing to create a truly
community-based ecotourism program. If this project is to succeed, the community
members should continue to strive to develop this program. Rio Negro can distinguish
itself through the types of products offered.
Quality
“Quality is the minimum level of service that a firm chooses to provide in order to
satisfy its target clientele. At the same time, it is the degree of consistency the firm can
maintain in providing this predetermined level of service” (Inman, Whelan, Sundblad,
1998; Horowitz, 1990).
The community should also strive to distinguish itself by offering high quality
service. This can be done by ensuring that residents receive training and following strict
regulations in regards to the following areas (some of which will be discussed in later
sections of this report):







Food Safety and sanitation.
Hospitality training.
Sustainable design and construction.
First aid.
Sewage treatment.
Management of the community fund.
Environmental interpretation.
- 105 –
Access
Access to Rio Negro is relatively difficult due to the poor condition of the road,
but in comparison to the entrances to other national parks in Honduras it is relatively
easily accessible. As discussed in earlier sections, one of the key marketing advantages
for Rio Negro is its close proximity to major cosmopolitan centers such as Tegucigalpa
and Comayagua. These areas are home to large numbers of both nationals and
foreigners, and are important ports of entry.
Ability to Customize
Because Rio Negro is still in the development phase and because the tourism
industry is small-scale and has the support of almost the entire community, Rio Negro
can also distinguish itself from the competition by its flexibility in customizing tours to
meet the needs of different groups or individuals.
Other advantages include the fact that the community has yet to invest in large
amount of infrastructure and the relatively low cost of labor; these factors will allow
individual entrepreneurs to be creative and to customize tours relative to the particular
needs and wants of different clients.
7.4.7 Product-Market Match
The next step of the marketing planning process is to develop a product-market
match. This is done by determining which of the products developed earlier would most
likely be sold to each of the primary market segments identified in earlier stages of the
process. This product-market match process facilitates the selection of the most effective
“advertising strategies” to reach each market segment (Patterson, 1997).
7.4.7.1 How this section is organized
This section is further divided into sub-sections, which present recommended
product-market matches for each of the eight market segments that were identified in the
market analysis section of this report. Each subsection describes the characteristics of
each market segment being discussed and lists potential product matches for each market
segment based on the group’s characteristic.
7.4.7.2 Foreign Professionals, Missionaries and Servicemen Living In and Around
Comayagua
This is potentially the most lucrative market segment for Rio Negro to target.
Informal interviewing with many of the servicemen from the Palmerola Military base
indicate that they are constantly looking for recreational activities during their off hours
and are interested in visiting the park and learning more about life in rural Honduras. This
group lives close to the park and has access to transportation and should be easy to reach
via direct marketing. This segment is also more accustomed to Honduran service
standards than many tourists who have just arrived in the country for a short stay;
therefore, this is a good segment to target while the community is still learning how to
offer level of service required by international tourists.
Suggested Product-Market Match for “Foreign Professionals, Missionaries, and
Servicemen Living in and around Comayagua” Market Segment
- 106 –
Following is a description of a tourist package matched for this market sector.
_________________________________________________________________
Name: Weekend Getaway Package
Length of stay: Two nights
Type of Accommodations: Ecolodge
Itinerary:
Day 1


Arrive early Friday evening.
Friday night dinner at local home.
Enjoy half hour of music entertainment after the meal by the
“Brothers Yanez.”


Traditional Breakfast.
Morning of hiking with much time spent in primary growth
forest.
Lunch.
Relaxing afternoon making bread or tamales.
Dinner
Free evening activity.
Day 2-




Day-3-
 Breakfast
 Farm and Community tour
 Lunch
 Depart for Comayagua around 1 pm
________________________________________________________________________
7.4.7.3 Foreign Business travelers in Comayagua
As Comayagua is home to many international businesses, business travelers often
pass through. Of the approximately 8,793 travelers who visited Comayagua in 1999,
more than half came for business. On average, these travelers stay in the region for 11.64
nights; if Rio Negro can attract just a few of these travelers for a day or so, it would add a
substantial amount of capital into the local economy (Honduran Institute of Tourism,
2000).
Informal interviews conducted in Comayagua show that most business travelers
are looking for recreational and leisure opportunities while they are in Comayagua. If Rio
Negro markets itself correctly, these travelers will likely visit the community in order to
take a quick break from their work.
- 107 –
Suggested Product-Market Match for Foreign Business Travelers in Comayagua
Following is a description of a tourist package matched for this market sector.
________________________________________________________________________
Name: Business Travelers Getaway Package
Length of stay: 1-1.5 day and 0-1 nights
Type of Accommodations: Ecolodge
Itinerary:
Day 1




Arrive in the afternoon.
Tour the community.
Eat a specially prepared traditional dinner at a local home.
Half hour of musical entertainment after the meal by the
“Brothers Yanez.”
Day 2


Eat specially prepared traditional breakfast.
Tour the national park with visits to primary rain forest and
waterfalls.
 Afternoon lunch.
 Return to Comayagua.
________________________________________________________________________
7.4.7.4 Foreign Recreation Travelers in Comayagua/ North American and European
Vacation travelers Between the Ages of 18-34 Who Are Already in Honduras
Of all vacation travelers to Honduras last year, .84 percent visited Comayagua. If
Rio Negro could capture a small number of these visitors, it would create a substantial
impact on their local economy.
Currently there are only a few tourist attractions in Comayagua. Even with limited
marketing, it is reasonable to anticipate that more of these tourists would spend time in
Rio Negro. Concurrently, the recent renovations to Comayagua’s colonial architecture
and the creation of the city’s first tour company should start to attract more foreign
vacation travelers to the region.
Interviews conducted in Comayagua indicate that vacation travelers to the region
are interested in visiting the cloud forest and learning about patterns of rural life.
Suggested Product-Market Match for Foreign Recreation Travelers in Comayagua/North
American and European Vacation Between the Ages of 18-34 Who Were Already in
Honduras
________________________________________________________________________
- 108 –
Name: Custom Tour Package
Length of stay: Multiple nights, between 1 and - 3
Type of Accommodations: Ecolodge or Home-stays
Customized packages, which vary in length and price, should be marketed to this
segment. Each package should contain a combination of the following activities:

Tour of the national park’s primary rainforest, waterfalls, and
caves.
 Tour of the community.
 Tour of a local farm.
 Cultural activities of the tourist’s choice, i.e., making tamales,
adobes, bread, or playing soccer.
_______________________________________________________________________
7.4.7.5 Honduran School Children, University Groups, Civic Organizations In and
Around the Comayagua Area.
One of the primary advantages of marketing to Honduran nationals is that the
members of this market segment are familiar with traditional service and sanitation
standards as well as with Honduran food and culture. A major disadvantage to marketing
to these groups is that they generally lack large amounts of discretionary income.
Most nationals coming to visit will probably come from urban communities and
have little experience with rural living. Packages for theses groups should focus on
educating clients about the natural environment and rural culture. A typical trip for these
groups could center around volunteer work, farm work, and environmental education.
The outline below describes a multi-day tour, which could be marketed to this sector.
Suggested Product-Market Match for Honduran School Children, University Groups,
Civic Organizations In and Around the Comayagua Area
________________________________________________________________________
Name: Educational Multi-day Tour
Length of Stay: 1-4 days
Type of Accommodations: Home Stays or Ecolodge
Day 1





Arrive in Rio Negro during the late afternoon.
Welcome session and orientation.
Bring everyone to their accommodations.
Traditional meal.
Welcome celebration.
Day 2
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





Traditional Breakfast.
Morning tour of the national park.
Traditional Lunch.
Afternoon learning to cook bread in an adobe oven.
Traditional Dinner.
Evening session socializing and playing games with local
community members.






Traditional Breakfast
Morning working on farming activities.
Traditional Lunch.
Afternoon soccer game with local community members.
Special Celebration Dinner
Evening celebration.


Breakfast.
Depart for home.
Day 3
Day 4
________________________________________________________________________
7.4.7.6 North American and European High School/University Students and Civic
Group; North American and European Tourists Who Use Tour Operators to Book Trips
Marketing to these segments will be much more difficult than marketing to groups
or individuals already within Honduras. The main challenge in marketing to these groups
is that they are more difficult to reach. In order to reach meet this challenge,
representatives from Rio Negro must be vertically linked into the international
marketplace. The cheapest and easiest way to do this is for community members to
distribute brochures and press packets to tour agencies and civic organizations within
Honduras and negotiate contracts and design tours around the following themes:
A) Intercultural exchanges, environmental education, and volunteer work for
“North American and European High School, University, and Civic
Groups”.
B) Recreation, nature-based tourism, and culturally-based tourism for “North
American and European Tourists Who Use Tour Operators to Book
Trips”
C) Multi-day packaged tours highlighting the colonial aspect of Comayagua
for part of the trip, and the natural and cultural resources of Rio Negro
for the other part of the trip. These tours would be aimed at “North
American and European Tourists Who Use Tour Operators to Book
Trips”.
- 110 –
As discussed previously, these groups not only pose a greater challenge in marketing,
but also require a higher level of service than most of the other sectors. It is very
important that the community can guarantee the following at all times:





Food is prepared in a sanitary manner.
The group is prepared for emergency scenarios.
All activities are of a high quality.
All lodging is adequate for international clients.
All promises regarding the quality and quantity of services are upheld.
Although working with these groups poses a greater challenge, many benefits do
exist. These groups often have large amounts of discretionary income, and as a group
members can expend large amounts of money in a short period of time.
Suggested Product-Market Match for North American and European High School,
University, and Civic Groups
________________________________________________________________________
Name: Multi-Day Intercultural Exchange Tour
Length of Stay: 1-4 days
Type of Accommodations: Home Stays or Ecolodge
Day 1





Arrive in Rio Negro during the late afternoon.
Attend welcome session and orientation.
Bring everyone to their accommodations.
Eat a traditional meal.
Welcome celebration.






Traditional Breakfast.
Morning tour of the national park.
Traditional Lunch.
Afternoon learning to cook bread in an adobe oven.
Traditional Dinner.
Evening session socializing and playing games with local
community members.





Traditional Breakfast.
Morning working on farming activities.
Traditional Lunch.
Afternoon soccer game with local community members.
Traditional Dinner.
Day 2
Day 3
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Day 4






Traditional Breakfast.
Pick and peel coffee.
Traditional Lunch.
Dry, roast, and grind Coffee to bring home and brew for
immediate drinking.
Celebration Dinner.
Evening celebration with music and dance.
Day 5
 Traditional Breakfast.
 Depart
____________________________________________________________________
7.4.7.7 Suggested Product-Market Match for North American and European Tourists
Who Use Tour Operators to Book Trips
Below is a sample itinerary, which can be marketed to this market sector. Notice
that this package highlights the entire region of Comayagua and not just Rio Negro.
Name: Comayagua Package Tour
Length of Stay:
4 days
Accommodations: Hotel in Comayagua; Ecolodge in Rio
Negro
Day 1





Arrive in Comayagua for lunch at Villa Real.
Tour colonial museums and churches.
Dinner in local restaurant.
Visit PANACOMA (?) in the early evening.
Spend the night in a local hotel.
Day 2







Breakfast in Comayagua.
Leave for Rio Negro
Arrive in Rio Negro and have snacks and refreshments.
Take a tour of a local farm.
Have a special lunch.
Tour the community.
Dinner accompanied by local music.
Day 3
 Traditional Breakfast.
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

Day 4





Full day tour exploring park mountain tops, primary forest,
waterfalls (carry boxed lunches).
Return in the evening for a specially prepared dinner at the
home of a local family.
Traditional Breakfast.
Morning tour of the community.
Traditional Lunch.
Spend the afternoon learning all aspects of the coffee
process from start to finish: picking, peeling, drying,
roasting, and grinding coffee to take back home and to
brew and drink immediately.
Special Dinner.
Day 5
 Special Breakfast.
 Morning spent learning to make traditional medicines.
 Traditional Lunch.
 Return to Comayagua.
________________________________________________________________________
7.4.7.8 Product-Market Match Conclusions
The examples given above are just the first step -- starting points which the
community can use to become more familiar with developing a product-market mix in
order to begin a targeted marketing campaign immediately.
It is suggested that since the research used to develop the product-market mix in
the previous sections was limited, the community continue this process.
A good way to refine the process is through survey research. The community
should develop a simple interview, which they can conduct with tourists in Comayagua
or with tourists visiting the community. This survey should determine what market
segment the traveler is a member of and what type of activities they find most interesting.
Simple research can be conducted regarding product-market match by readapting
the research process, which was used in the section of this report on product
development. For assistance with this research, the community may want to contact the
Honduran Institute of Tourism or a Honduran university with a travel and tourism
department.
7.4.8 Marketing Objectives
After determining business objectives; completing the situational, market, and
competitive analyses; and completing a product-market match, the next step of the
marketing development process is to develop marketing goals and objectives. These
should identify specific desired results, provide direction, and assist in monitoring the
success of all marketing efforts and activities.
- 113 –
The marketing goals for Rio Negro should be “broad-based with a high level of
expectations…. should be measurable, time bound, and realistic” (Patterson, 1997).
Community members are encouraged to develop their own set of goals, but for the
purpose of assisting the community, a list of suggested marketing goals is provided
below:
7.4.8.1 Recommended Marketing Goals for Rio Negro
1. Sell 100 bed-nights in Rio Negro between August 2002 - August 2003.
2. Sell 250 bed-nights in Rio Negro between August 2003 - August 2004.
3. Sell 400 Bed-nights in Rio Negro between August 2004 - August 2005.
Marketing objectives differ from goals “but provide specific work tasks or activities
needed to reach” the overall goals (Patterson, 1997).
As with the goals, community members are encouraged to develop their own
objectives, but for the purpose of assisting the community a list of suggested marketing
objectives are provided below.
7.4.8.2 Suggested Marketing Objectives for Rio Negro:
1. Form a contract with the Palmerola military base to attract servicemen by
September, 2002.
2. Finish construction of Avilio’s Ecolodge by April, 2002.
3. Identify households ready to accommodate tourists for home-stays by
April, 2002.
4. Form linkages with business in the area that have international staff by
September, 2002.
5. Form a contract with inbound tour operators by September, 2002.
6. Develop and distribute brochures in Comayagua by September, 2002.
7. Attract at least 10 foreign tourists to the Ferria Artinsanal and Ferria
Patronato over the next two years.
Now that we have developed marketing goals and objectives, we need to “develop
specific actions and strategies to increase awareness of our product (i.e., ecotourism in
Rio Negro) so that travelers are motivated to buy it.
7.4.8.3 Understanding How to Market Tourism
Part of the challenge of marketing tourism is the fact that there is more being sold
than simply the tangible goods. As Patterson explains in the following excerpt, in order
to effectively market a tourism program, one must understand how to market a “feeling.”
(Patterson, 1997).
- 114 –
(Source: Patterson, 1997 page 50).
Examples
This section deals with how to apply Patterson’s theory toward marketing
tourism in Rio Negro. For instance, a poor approach to marketing the rainforest
attractions might involve the following:
“Please come enjoy a typical Honduran meal and walk in the Rainforest.”
The approach could be worded better, and made to appeal to the feelings of
tourists considering a trip. For instance:
“Come to Rio Negro and enjoy the purest air while exploring one of Honduras’s
most pristine ecosystems. Families in Rio Negro will provide you with safe, secure, and
comfortable service during your stay. Here you can help support a community while
sharing in their lives and learning about the richness of Honduran culture. Sit down with
real Honduran families and share in a traditional meal as they share with you stories of
the rainforest, in a setting few tourists ever get to experience.”
While the first statement only spoke of the activities, the second statement was
stronger because it had “emotional appeal and provided a reason they (tourists) would
benefit from the trip” (Patterson, 1997).
When developing marketing materials, remember that you are not just selling
tangible items such as a bed or a meal, but rather you are selling an “experience” or
“feeling”.
- 115 –
7.5 Tutorial Four: Developing Marketing Strategies
These are the specific “actions and strategies” that will “ increase awareness and
attractiveness” of the products developed in Rio Negro “so that travelers are motivated to
buy” (Patterson, 1997). When developing marketing strategies, most people talk about
the “four (or sometimes five) P’s” of marketing. These are
1. Product or Program
2. Position
3. Price
4. Placement
5. Promotion
Pricing, Positioning, and defining Products have already been discussed in earlier
sections of this report. What has not been discussed in great detail are product promotion
and placement.
7.5.1Product Promotion and Placement in the Domestic Market
Placement is “concerned with getting the right product to the target market”
(Patterson, 1997). This is the part of the marketing planning process when a business
should find the most cost-effective way to distribute its products. This section contains as
list of suggested strategies for properly placing the Rio Negro products within the
marketplace.
As Rio Negro lacks much of the international experience and communication
infrastructure needed to reach international markets, it would be wise to place a greater
emphasis on attracting local customers. These would include the following segments,
identified and discussed in previous sections of this chapter:
 Foreign professionals, Missionaries, and Servicemen Living in and around
Comayagua.
 Foreign Business Travelers in Comayagua.
 Foreign Recreation Travelers in Comayagua.
 Honduran School Children, University Groups, Civic Organizations In and
around the Comayagua Area.
These groups are local and easy to access through networks that are already in
place or that can be developed quickly. Another benefit to marketing to these groups is
that they have access to transportation, disposable income and are generally accustomed
to the condition of Honduran roads, accommodations, food, etc.
Marketing should be directed toward these local groups through a direct sales
approach which could include face-to-face meetings or sales “via telephone, fax, e-mail,
or mail” (Patterson, 1997) if individuals can find access to each of these mediums.
- 116 –
7.5.2 Product Promotion and Placement When Marketing to 1) Foreign Professionals,
Missionaries, and Servicemen living In and Around Comayagua and 2) Foreign Business
Travelers in Comayagua.
To market to each of these groups, members of the Rio Negro community should
make appointments to meet with representatives of:
 The Palmerola Military Base
 All major foreign-owned or export businesses in the area.
 All foreign aid or development agencies within Honduras.
 All major missionary organizations within Central Honduras.
 All major bars, restaurants, and hotels which foreign residents and visitors
to Comayagua frequent.
At these meetings, of the representative community members should bring:
 A press kit.
 A few brochures.
The main topic of these meetings should be the history of tourism in Rio Negro
and the improvements the community has made to ensure that it is ready to receive
guests. The individuals who are going out to each of these organizations should also be
empowered to offer discounted weekend packages to representatives or friends of the
organization being visited.
It would also be wise to place brochures and posters in many of the local bars,
restaurants, hotels, and snacking establishments frequented by Comayagua’s foreign
population. Potential guests would have the option of booking a tour directly with
members of Rio Negro or with the local businesses or organization helping to distribute
the brochures.
If the product placement strategy is followed, it could result in a significant
windfall to the local economy. For instance, it is rumored that some 1,000 U.S.
servicemen are currently stationed in Palmerola (Due to U.S. government policy, actual
number are not disclosed to the public). If just two visitors from the Air Force base
visited Rio Negro for two nights each month, that would mean the annual sale of 48 bed
nights.
If each visitor spent 40.00 U.S. Dollars per visit, it would bring an additional
2000.00 U.S. Dollars into the local economy and would already bring Rio Negro already
half-way to the first year’s marketing goal of selling 100 bed nights in 2002. This is a
relatively easy goal to meet, and potentially a very lucrative market.
________________________________________________________________________
7.5.3 Product Promotion and Placement when Marketing to Foreign Recreation
Travelers in Comayagua
In targeting this group, members of the Rio Negro community should arrange
meetings with all major bars, restaurants, and hotels frequented by foreign residents and
visitors to Comayagua. In these meetings, representatives should bring:
- 117 –


A press kit.
A few brochures.
As it was with the previous market sector, the main topic of these meetings should
be the history of tourism in Rio Negro and the improvements the community has made to
ensure it is ready to receive guests. The individuals who are going out to each of these
organizations should also be empowered to offer discounted weekend packages to
representatives or friends of the organization being visited. They should also offer the
employees and owners of these establishments a commission or incentive programs that
will encourage them to send tourists to Rio Negro.
7.5.4 Product Promotion and Placement When Marketing to
Honduran School Children, University Groups, and Civic Organizations In and Around
the Comayagua Area.
Although these groups traditionally do not much money to spend, they can be a
valuable source of income because of their large numbers. To market to these groups,
representatives of Rio Negro businesses should:
 Speak to schoolteachers and administrators within the Comayagua and
Tegucigalpa areas.
 Present these schools officials with press kits and brochures.
 Explore the potential of developing various programs that would teach
students about the environment or about life in rural Honduras.
 Offer special discounted prices for these groups.
7.5.5 Product Promotion and Placement for International Tourists
The three international tourist markets identified by our market analysis were:
 North American and European High School, University, and Civic
Organizations.
 North American and European Vacation Travelers Between the Ages of
18-34 Who Are Already in Honduras.
 North American and European Tourists Who Use Tour Operators to Book
Trips
As discussed previously, Rio Negro should not aggressively market toward these
groups until 2003. This will give the community’s tourism businesses time to mature and
adapt to the high level of service expected by the foreign market. Although it may be
feasible to attract these market segments immediately, it is important for the community
to be patient and resist the urge to attract customers before it is ready to provide the
quality of service which these tourists expect.
Due to lack of experience with international business and unreliable channels of
communication, it is unrealistic to expect members of the Rio Negro community to
efficiently conduct direct marketing to an international clientele. Instead, citizens of Rio
- 118 –
Negro should look toward developing working relationships with tourism wholesalers,
tour operators, travel agents, visitor bureaus, travel associations, educational institutions,
and the Honduran Ministry of Tourism in order to sell their products to an international
clientele.
Developing relationships with these businesses and organizations will not be an
easy process. The following steps would be a good starting point for the community of
Rio Negro:
1. Gather a list of all the tour operators in Honduras from “Honduras Tips
Magazine”.
2. Ask to set up a meeting to discuss conducting business with each tour
operator.
3. Send each tour operator a press kit.
4. When sending the press kit, include an invitation for each tour operator to
spend a free night in Rio Negro.
5. Contact “Honduras Tips” and have the magazine place travel information
about Rio Negro in each publication.
6. Develop tour packages with the Comayagua Guide Association, making
sure to include package tours to colonial Comayagua and
PANACOMA.
7. Work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the Honduran
Conservation Corps to provide sites for volunteer vacations.
Attracting international travelers is a complex, difficult, expensive, and timeconsuming process due to a variety of factors, including stiff competition in the global
market. If the community of Rio Negro, feels it is ready to attend to international guests,
it is more likely to be successful if working with third parties that are vertically linked
into the international market (i.e., the Honduran Conservation Corps or the United States
Peace Corps).
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7.6 Tutorial Five: Identifying Effective Marketing Activities
The next step of the marketing planning process is to find the correct marketing
activities that will let potential customers know about Rio Negro (Patterson, 1997).
Different types of marketing activities include:











Direct sales
Brochures
Video
Internet
Signage
Print media
Trade shows
Conferences
Television/Radio
Publicity
(Patterson, 1997).
In order to market most effectively, it will be important for members of the Rio
Negro community to select the most appropriate marketing activities from this list.
7.6.1 Effective Marketing Activities for Rio Negro
Since community members have very little experience in the marketing field, it
would make sense to keep the marketing activities simple and inexpensive. It is the
recommendation of this report that community members utilize the following marketing
strategies:
 Direct sales
 Brochures
 Signage
 Print Media
 Publicity
7.6.1.1 Direct Sales
“Direct sales” refers to selling directly to the customer via telephone, fax, mail, or
in person” (Patterson, 1997). This is an extremely important marketing strategy for small
ecotourism operations. Methods of making direct sales include visiting, calling, and
sending letters to potential clients. Since Rio Negro is new to the tourism market, it will
be important to build a trusting relationship with potential clients; direct sales provide the
personal contact necessary to accomplish this goal. Research also shows that ecotourists
rely on “word-of-mouth as the best way to learn about products.” Using direct sales and
maintaining personal contact with past, present, and future clients will ensure that these
tourists will “remember and recommend you.”
As the previous section on promotion and placement discussed simple direct sales
methods for each of the market segments, this information will not be reviewed here..
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7.6.1.2 Brochures
A good brochure will be inexpensive to produce and will be perhaps the most
important marketing tool for attracting tourists to Rio Negro. The particulars involved in
developing a marketing brochure will be discussed in an upcoming section of this report.
7.6.1.3 Signs
Signs will be an inexpensive way to help Rio Negro tell potential visitors about
the community, and its location. They can also be a useful way of providing
interpretation when tourists arrive. An upcoming section addresses how to build effective
signs and important places where signs should be placed.
7.6.1.4 Print Media
If produced correctly, print media will be an extremely cost-effective way of
marketing Rio Negro. “Print media encompasses directory listings, brochures,
newspapers, and magazine advertisements” (Patterson, 1997). An upcoming section
discusses some specific recommendations for using print media for advertising Rio
Negro.
7.6.1.5 Publicity
Good publicity can increase a Rio Negro’s visibility by providing “free coverage
through the radio, television, magazines, other business’ flyers and newsletter, the
Internet” (Patterson, 1997) and government tourism agencies.
Now that marketing strategies have been identified, the community will have to
work to develop the proper materials to employ each of these mediums.
Toward this end, the following sections contain information on creating a theme
or brand, slogan, logo, press kit, publicity, and signage; a section is also included on
monitoring marketing activities to determine their effectiveness.
7.6.2 Creating a Theme or Brand
One important step that will be useful in all of the strategies discussed is to create
a theme. “This theme will be the main image or message you leave with potential
customers. Identifying a theme early on will keep your marketing activities focused and
help an ecotourist form a clear picture of your company” (Patterson, 1997).
Potts says that “tourism theme development is in practice the development of a
community image”, or brand. In order for a community to develop a successful brand it is
important to involve the entire community in the process. The brand created by the
community and projected to tourists will help set Rio Negro apart from the other
communities in the area and increase Rio Negro’s visibility in the marketplace (Potts,
1994).
If Rio Negro identifies an effective theme, the public will identify the “Rio
Negro” brand of ecotourism as the best brand of ecotourism in the country. Like
“Toyota”, which has different product lines such as the “Toyota Hilux,” “Toyota
Landcruiser,” and “Toyota Camry,’ the “Rio Negro” brand will have different product
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lines such as “Rio Negro’s Alburgue Velasquez,” Rio Negro’s Restaurant Yanez,”“Rio
Negro’s Gonzalez Transportation Company,”or “Rio Negro’s Alburgue ECOSIMSCO.”
Since the objective of this project is to develop ecotourism, and because the
community hopes to distinguish itself in the market by providing high quality service at
moderate prices, it is important to reiterate that whatever theme the community develops
should emphasize these points. Once a theme is developed, consumers will be able to
identify “Rio Negro” as unique in the that it supplies the best tourism in the area. This
will help to convince potential tourists that they should stay in “Rio Negro” rather than
“Rio Blanco” or “Cerro Azul Meambar.
7.6.2.1 Creating a Slogan
One of the most helpful ways for the community to promote a theme is to create a
slogan. This section outlines a process the community can use to accomplish this goal.
Hold a community meeting regarding the creation of a slogan for Rio Negro. At
this meeting, one individual should act as the facilitator and explain that a the slogan is a
catchy, easily remembered, short phrase that describes the community to potential
visitors and tells them why they should visit (Potts, 1994) Rio Negro and what they will
find in Rio Negro.
Since the type of tourism to be developed in Rio Negro is based around the
concepts of ecotourism (nature, community, and cultural preservation), it will be
important to convey this message to consumers. The slogan, once created, can be used on
brochures, signs, and in marketing campaigns to promote Rio Negro. The following
slogans have been used by other destinations and could be used during the meeting as
examples:

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



Costa Rica – No Artificial Ingredients.
Vermont – The Green Mountain State.
New York City – The Big Apple.
Silencio Costa Rica – Desarrollo Humano con Responsabilidad
Ambiental.
Cooprena R.L. – Una Forma Diferente de Disfrutar Costa Rica.
Nicaragua - Land of Lakes and Volcanoes.
Tanzania - The Land of Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.
Potential slogans for Rio Negro might include:






Rio Negro – Pura Agua, Pura Aire, Pura Vida.
Rio Negro – Preservamos Nuestra Pasado Para una Major Futuro.
Rio Negro – Su Entrada a PANACOMA.
Rio Negro – Su Hogar Afuera Su Hogar.
Rio Negro – Su Hogar en la Naturaleza.
Rio Negro – Su Hogar en PANACOMA.
Examples of inappropriate slogans for Rio Negro include:

Rio Negro—Siempre Fiesta.
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

Rio Negro--- Playas Bonitas.
Rio Negro--- Queremos su Dinero.
Once the community members at this meeting understand what a slogan is, the
community should hold a contest in which teams, families, or individuals can
anonymously submit appropriate slogans. Community members could then vote on their
five favorite slogans, and the Patronato together with the Guide Association would
choose the best slogan of the five selected by the community, and this would become the
official slogan of Rio Negro.
7.6.2.2 Creating a Logo
After the slogan is developed, the community can use the same process to create a
logo. A logo is a visual image that will help the public identify with the “Rio Negro”
brand. Ideally a logo should be a simple and attractive icon that projects the image that
the community is trying to sell. The logo should be undistorted when printed in color,
black and white, large, or small. Once a logo is developed it can be placed on business
cards, stationary, advertising signs, etc. (Potts, 1994)
Figure 7.5 shows some examples of logos used by other destinations and
organizations:
Figure 7.5 Sample Logos for Other Destinations/Organizations
Figure 7.6 on the following page shows a few sample logos for Rio Negro that
incorporate the themes of human development, nature conservation, and hospitality:
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Figure 7.6 Sample Logos for Rio Negro
It is important to solicit input from the entire community when developing a logo.
To accomplish this goal, I recommend that the community follow a similar process to
that used develop the slogan.
After the products have been developed, market segments have been identified,
market strategies have been determined, and the slogan and logo has been developed, Rio
Negro can then focus on developing marketing tools. The first marketing tool that should
be developed is a brochure.
7.6.3 Designing and Distributing Brochures
Since Rio Negro is working with limited funds, an individual brochure cannot be
developed for each of the market segments that the community is trying to reach.
Instead, I would recommend that the community work to develop one brochure that is
highly informative and contains the following information:









Details about natural/cultural attractions.
All of the products/tours that are available.
Nearby accommodations.
Locations where meals can be prepared.
Festivals and special events.
Local history.
Background information.
Location of medical facilities.
Distances from airports, major attractions, and population centers.
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


A map that shows how the destination can be reached via the main road or
airport.
Local map.
Addresses, telephone numbers, emails, Internet addresses and fax
numbers, which can be used to make trip arrangements or gather
additional information (Potts, 1994).
Designing a good brochure can be a rigorous and time-consuming task. To do this
effectively, community members should gather as many brochures as they can from
different tourist attractions within the country and use them as models to distinguish the
good from bad.
A good brochure should be easy to read, visibly appealing, and capture the
attention of potential customers. The top third of the brochure is normally the most
important part, because when a brochure is being displayed in a display rack it, only the
top third will be visible. For this reason, it is important to ensure that the top third of the
brochure is visibly appealing and captures the attention of potential customers as they
walk by.
It is recommended that community members work to make special display racks
out of natural materials for the brochures. This will distinguish Rio Negro’s brochure
and enhance the presentation of Rio Negro’s image. Specifically, I suggest making
brochure holders out of bamboo or coffee wood, as both are strong and attractive
resources that are cheaply available within the community.
It is also recommended that community members print or burn Rio Negro’s logo,
slogan, and contact information onto this brochure holder so individuals do not use them
for other purposes -- especially displaying brochures of other businesses.
7.6.4 Developing a Press Kit
A press kit will be used to distribute information about Rio Negro to major
newspapers, radio stations, and television stations with the goal of attracting reporters’
interest in doing stories on the community. The press kit can also be distributed to guide
book publishers, travel magazines, travel agencies, and inbound tour operators. Another
way to use the press kit would be to distribute copies to hotels, restaurants, and
businesses within Comayagua that attract both foreign business and recreation travelers.
According to Potts, a good press kit should include the following elements:
 A black and white photograph (of the area).
 A 35 millimeter color slide.
 A brief story .
 A description of the natural and cultural resources in the area
 Appropriate written materials on the area such as visitor guides, tour
itineraries, packages, etc. (One suggestion is to search out interesting
angles that a writer may pursue for a story) (Potts, 1994).
It is also helpful to include a small gift, such as a key chain, paperweight, pencil
holder, or letter opener with the community’s logo, slogan, and contact information on it.
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This way the person receiving the press kit will have a constant reminder of Rio Negro in
his/her home or office.
7.6.5 Using Signs
Creating and strategically locating signs (both outside the community and within
the community) are important tools for advertising tourism in Rio Negro. The
community of Rio Negro should create a variety of signs to be placed outside the
community. These signs should contain the following elements:

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

The name of the community (“Rio Negro”)
Rio Negro’s slogan
Rio Negro’s logo
List of reasons a tourists should come to Rio Negro
Information concerning how to get to Rio Negro from the sign’s location
Contact information for Rio Negro
These signs should be well designed and keep within the ecotourism theme which
the community is trying to promote. They should grab the attention of passers-by yet
maintain a level of grace and sophistication (Potts, 199?). These signs should be placed
at the following locations:

The intersection of the Carretera de Norte and the Boulevard to
Comayagua.
 Halfway to the end of the boulevard in Comayagua.
 In a location close to the Central Square in Comayagua.
 At the intersection of the road from Comayagua and the turn-off to Rio
Negro.
 At all confusing intersections along the drive to Rio Negro.
In addition, a welcome sign should be placed at the entrance to Rio Negro. This
sign should contain:

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A welcome message.
The name of the community (“Rio Negro”).
Rio Negro’s logo.
Rio Negro’s slogan.
Altitude (Optional).
Population (Optional).
All businesses in Rio Negro should also strategically place signage around the
community to advertise private businesses. It will be very important for the community
to create zoning regulations regarding the placement of signage in Rio Negro. It would be
unattractive and not representative of the ecotourism theme if the streets of Rio Negro
were lined with giant, brightly colored signs that stand out against the landscape. A good
example of regulations concerning signage can be seen in Comayagua, where in certain
sections of town businesses are only permitted to display small wooden signs.
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One method the community could use to ensure that all signage fits within the
ecotourism theme the community is trying to promote would be to require that all signs to
be posted in Rio Negro be reviewed and approved by the Patronato. The Patronato should
also require that all signs be well maintained, because a poorly maintained sign can act to
deter business.
7.6.7 Monitoring Marketing Efforts
Monitoring is an important part of the marketing process that helps measure the
effectiveness marketing efforts. The easiest and best way to monitor marketing programs
is to conduct interviews with tourists who come to Rio Negro, and include in that
interview questions regarding how they heard about Rio Negro and why they decided to
come visit.
Community members should also determine the amount of money spent on each
marketing activity and the amount of revenues that were drawn into the community as a
result of each activity. The community should then use this information to determine the
effectiveness of each marketing activity and design better marketing activities in the
future. The questionnaire below was used as an exit interview for the tourists invited to
Rio Negro to participate in focus groups in April of 2001..
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
viii.
ix.
x.
xi.
xii.
xiii.
xiv.
xv.
xvi.
xvii.
Name
Date of Birth
Country of Origin
Occupation
Level of Education Last Completed
1. Primary
2. High School
3. Trade School
4. University (two year)
5. University (four year)
6. Doctorate
Marital Status
How long have you been traveling ?
What type of traveler are you?
Date of arrival in Rio Negro?
Date of departure from Rio Negro?
Where did you hear about visiting Rio Negro?
Where did you sleep during your visit to Rio Negro?
Where did you eat during your visit to Rio Negro?
What motivated you to visit Rio Negro?
What activities did you participate in during your visit to Rio Negro?
For each of the activities you participated in, please state whether you
believe these activities have the potential to be developed for tourism.
(Only use when developing new products.)
On a scale of 1-10, with one being the lowest and ten being the highest,
please rate your level of satisfaction with each of the activities you
participated in during your visit to Rio Negro.
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xviii.
xix.
xx.
xxi.
xxii.
xxiii.
xxiv.
xxv.
xxvi.
Please describe any problems you encountered during your stay in Rio
Negro that would negatively affect the development of the activities
you participated in as formalized tourist attraction.? (Only use when
developing new products)
Please describe any problems you may have had with your food or
accommodations.
On a scale of 1-10, with one being the lowest and ten being the highest,
did you feel welcome in the community?
On a scale of 1-10, with one being the lowest and ten being the highest,
did you feel safe during your visit?
Why do you think other tourists would come visit Rio Negro?
Why would tourists choose not to visit Rio Negro?
Would you recommend a visit to Rio Negro to a friend?
If a 15% tax on all tourism income was used to develop a project, which
benefited every member of the Rio Negro community, what type of
project would you like the money you have spent to support?
On a scale of 1-10, with one being the lowest and ten being the highest,
please rate your overall experience in Rio Negro?
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7.7. Tutorial Six: Developing and Maintaining a Community Image
Developing programs that beautify the community can also have a very positive
impact on tourism development. The idea behind a beautification project is to make the
community a more attractive place for its citizens to live and for tourists to stay.
Beautification projects are quite easy to implement and require little more than dedication
and hard work. A group of three people should volunteer (or be nominated by either the
Guide Association or the Patronato) to take care of beautification duties on a regular
basis. The particular duties required will be described in the following sections.
7.7.1 Components of a Beatification Project
The Rio Negro Beatification Project will have three main components
1. Community gateway
2. Streets
3. Homes
The community gateway project will work on enhancing the landscaping around
the community entrance at the bridge on the Rio Gavilon. Figure 7.7 show before and
after views the community entrance to demonstrate how simple landscaping can
dramatically improve the aesthetic qualities of the community.
Figure 7.7 Entrance to the community in its current state.
Figure 7.8 Entrance to the community as it would look after minor landscaping
improvements.
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Improvements can also be made with simple landscaping to improve the image
that the streets of Rio Negro convey as seen in Figures 7.9 and 7.10.
Figure 7.9 The main road in its current state.
Figure 7.10 The main road as it would look after minor landscaping improvements.
Beatification in and around homes will be important especially if tourists are
going to stay in these homes. The Best way to do this is to put on a fresh coat of lime,
clean up garbage in the yards and plant gardens as seen the in the examples in figures
7.11 and 7.12.
Figure 7.11 Home and yard in current state.
Figure 7.12 Home and yard after minor landscaping improvements.
Making these simple changes in Rio Negro will help create an community image
and an inviting atmosphere. This will help to attract tourists to the community and create
a distinctive look from other communities.
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7.8 Tutorial Seven: How to Ensure that Everyone in the Community Will Benefit from
Tourism Development
For tourism to prosper in a region, the entire community must support its
development. The resources needed for the successful development of community-based
ecotourism are not only provided by individual entrepreneurs or business owners, but
also by the community as a whole. In the case of Rio Negro, the community is
responsible for the stewardship of the natural lands located within PANACOMA, and for
providing a safe, clean, and friendly environment for tourists to visit. Therefore, if the
entire community is not supportive of tourism development, there is little chance tourism
will succeed.
Since tourism makes use of communal resources, every community member
should take care of the tourism resources around which tourism development will be
centered in Rio Negro. However, in order for individuals to help protect these resources it
will be important to provide them with some of the benefits from tourism. It is not very
democratic if only a few business owners benefit from tourism when the entire
community plays a vital role in making Rio Negro a tourism destination.
7.8.1Creating a Community Development Fund
A good way to ensure that every member of the community will benefit from the
development of tourism in the community is to create a community fund with the moneys
received from tourism. In the case of Rio Negro, it is the recommendation of this report
that 15 percent of all revenues received from all tourism activities should be placed in a
community fund jointly administered by the Guide Association, the town Patronato, and a
third party from outside the community.
To implement this fund, it is recommended that when an entrepreneur creates a
business he or she should be required to register with the Patronato. Upon registration, he
or she will be provided with a small locked box and a sign to display at place of business.
It will be the responsibility of all business owners to record all of their business’s
activities, and to place 15 percent of all the cash revenues and a signed receipt in this
locked box. This should not be derived from an additional fee charged to tourists, but
rather should be considered an operating cost built into the price of tourism services and
paid by the business owner to the community.
The procedure should work in the following manner:
1. Tourist walks into a business and purchases a product.
2. The business owner explains that 15 percent of all revenues goes toward
community development, and shows the tourist the lock-box and the
sign which explains the purpose of the development fund in addition to
the fund’s regulation procedures.
3. The tourist participates in a service and pays the business.
4. When the business receives the cash from the tourist, the business owner
will record in a notebook the services provided, the amount the tourist
paid for these services, and the amount of money (15 percent of the
total) placed in the community fund. This entry will then be signed by
both the tourist and the business owner.
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5. Another copy of this entry will be signed and placed in the lock-box (with
the tourist witnessing) along with the cash donation for the community
fund.
6. Another box with three locks will be placed in the church. The box in the
church will hold the keys for the boxes held by each business. The
keys for the three locks on this box will be held by the president of the
Patronato, the president of the guide association, and a third member
from outside the community to be chosen by the citizens of the
community. Every month, the money collected by the Community
Fund will be gathered, and the community will hold a meeting to
determine how to spend this money in a way that will benefit the entire
community.
During a survey conducted of all 55 households in Rio Negro, we asked
community members what they thought were the two biggest problems in the
community. The three types of problems in Rio Negro cited most had to do with health
issues, education, or infrastructure improvements. During this same survey we asked
residents the following question: “If there was a community fund created from the
revenues generated from tourism, what type of project would you like to support?” The
responses to this question were closely aligned with community members’ opinions
regarding the biggest problems in the community. The three most popular answers were:
1. an electricity program
2. a health center, or
3. a kindergarten.
Table 7.3 contains the list of responses given by community members.
19 Electricity
14 Health center
8 Kindergarten
4 Fixing the road
2 High school
1 A bank for micro-business loans
1 A business organization
1 A house to speak the word of god in
1 A church
1 Help the school
1 A library
2 could not decide
7.8.2 How to Spend the Community Fund
Every month, the community should get together and review the amount of funds
generated from tourism, and decide if these funds should be saved for a larger project or
spent immediately for a smaller project.
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When choosing a project, community members should keep in mind that it will
probably be a number of years before revenues generated from tourism will be high
enough to support an expensive project such as producing electricity for the community
or building an entire health center. Instead, community members should look toward
simple, affordable projects that will still benefit the entire community.
Some recommended projects that could be completed with little money are listed
below:
1. Baby hardwood trees could be purchased for every community member
and planted on each farmer’s land or in an area of the community that
has experience rapid erosion. Each of these trees could help protect the
environment for a period of 10-25 years, after which time the trees
could be cut and sold to help pay for a child’s university education, or
whatever major expense the community members might decide upon.
2. Start a local library by purchasing a few books at a time.
3. In the case of a health center, the community will probably be unable to
afford to build a fully functional health center in town for a number of
years. However, many creative methods might be available to solve this
problem in a less expensive manner. The reason citizens want a health
center in town is so that they will have quick access to health care.
Instead of building a health center in Rio Negro, it might be more
feasible to pay for a traveling doctor or nurse to visit the community
once a week. Another option would be for the community to pay for a
free shuttle once a week from Rio Negro to the health center in Planes
de Churunes (the closest community).
4. In the case of a kindergarten, the community could raise enough money to
pay for the salary of a teacher for one year.
5. For high school students, the community could negotiate a deal with a
local community member who owns a car, and pay that individual for a
shuttle service to take students back and forth from the high school
every day.
No matter how little money is generated, it will always be possible to do
something -- no matter how small -- that will have an immediate effect upon peoples’
lives. If community members see that tourism does provide an immediate benefit to their
lives, then they will be more likely to support all sound tourism projects rather than
hinder them.
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7.9 Tutorial Eight: Minimizing the Negative Environmental and Social Impacts
Associated With Tourism Development
7.9.1 Positive and Negative Impacts of Tourism
Like most forms of development, ecotourism will result in both positive and
negative impacts (Marcouiller, 1997; Milman and Pizam, 1998; Honey, 1999). When
developing tourism in small communities, it is important to take steps to eliminate (or
minimize) negative social and environmental impacts -- otherwise the quality of visitors’
experiences could be degraded, as could the quality of life for local residents and the
integrity of the natural environment. These are just a few of the possible detrimental
effects (Honey, 1999).
Table 7.4 The box below contains a list of selected negative environmental and
social impacts of tourism.
Table 7.4 Selected Potential Negative Environmental and Social Impacts of Tourism
Social Impacts
Increase in crime
Prostitution
Drug Use
Change in dress codes
Change in local value systems
Increase in traffic
Conflict between tourists and residents
Increased pace of life
Shift in work schedules and patterns
Influx of foreign residents seeking
employment
Change in property value
Environmental Impacts
Noise
Solid waste
Water consumption
Water contamination
Trail erosion
Spread of illness
Destruction of landscape development or infrastructure
(Sources: Mathieson & Wall, 1983; Marcouiller, 1997; Milman and Pizam, 1998;
Honey, 1999; Pattulo, 1996)
Both travelers and local businesses that operate within the community can cause
negative impacts. To minimize negative impacts, it is best to take proactive steps early on
in the planning process. This will help support sustainable development (Blangly &
Wood, 1993).
In the case of Rio Negro, some community members were concerned about
specific negative impacts of tourism, including:







Increased/irresponsible alcohol use.
Increased/irresponsible smoking habits.
Increased/irresponsible drug use.
Prostitution.
Bad language.
Water contamination.
Environmental degradation.
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
Outsiders (potential for overall bad influences).
7.9.2 Developing a Code of Conduct
In order to help Rio Negro minimize or eliminate the negative effects of tourism, it is the
recommendation of this report that the community devise a set of regulations or a
voluntary code of conduct for tourism businesses that operate in Rio Negro. The code
should also apply to visiting tourists.
It is recommended the community address the following:








Guest behavior within the community.
Interaction of the guests with the natural environment.
Suggestions as to how guests can assist the community.
Behavior of community members when interacting with guests.
Methods for ensuring a secure and safe environment.
Methods for ensuring food safety and sanitation.
Methods for monitoring the Community Development Fund
Guidelines for lodging conditions.
A Canadian study of best practices in the tourism industry concluded that it was
important to “involve every major stakeholder when developing a set of regulations or
ethics and receive consensus from them regarding the outcome of this process”
(Economic Planning Group of Canada, 1999). This process should be guided by the
community and an outside facilitator (Williams & Budke,1999), which will help to
promote compliance and make the process worthwhile (Economic Planning Group of
Canada, 1999).
In many ecotourism development projects around the world, time and energy are
put into developing strict regulations or codes of ethics without consensus amongst
individuals and organizations that are affected by them. This often results in these
regulations and codes being ignored. In the case of Rio Negro, it will be important to
include, at a minimum, the following groups: community members, the Guide
Association, business owners, the Patronato, and ECOSIMCO in this process.
Once a set of regulations and/or a code of conduct is developed, a monitoring
system should be put in place to gauge the effectiveness of the community’s efforts and
to help facilitate the adaptation of the system so that the community will be able to meet
new needs and challenges as they arise.
7.9.3 Implementation Strategy for Developing Codes of Conduct
Since the tourism entrepreneurs in Rio Negro will stand to benefit the most from
developing a good set of regulations or ethics, they should take the lead in this process.
More specifically, as the Guide Association already exists and is a good representation of
tourism entrepreneurs in Rio Negro, the Guide Association could easily take on this
responsibility.
Step one:
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The first step of the process should involve a meeting between the Guide
Association, the Patronato, and ECOSIMCO. In this meeting the group should discuss:
 The need for regulations or a code of ethics for both tourists and tourism
businesses.
 Different means of promoting compliance to these regulations/codes.
 Review of the steps given below.
 Review of regulations and codes of ethics that exist elsewhere in the
world.
 A sample code to present to the community.
Step two:
The next step of the process would be to hold a community-wide meeting in
which the following points are addressed:
 The need for regulations or a code of ethics for both tourists and tourism
businesses.
 Positive and negative impacts of tourism.
 Different means of promoting compliance to these regulations/codes.
 Review the suggested codes of conduct developed for this report and listed
below.
 Review regulations and codes of ethics that exist elsewhere in the world.
 Receive feedback from the community regarding the suggestions given
below and the sample presented from the first meeting.
 Ask community members to give suggestions of codes or guidelines they
would like to see.
Step Three:
The Guide Association, in conjunction with the Patronato, should then compile
the information gathered at the first and second meeting and prepare a draft of the
ethics/regulations.
Step Four:
Once this draft is prepared, another open meeting with ECOSIMCO, the
Patronato, the Guide Association, and community members should be held. At this
meeting the draft should be presented and amended until consensus is reached.
If a fair consensus cannot be reached, feedback should be taken and Steps Three
and Four should be repeated. If consensus still cannot be reached after Steps Three and
Four are repeated twice, a set of codes should be agreed upon by a vote of the Patronato
and the Guide Association.
Step Five:
Agreed-upon codes of conduct should then be distributed to all community
members, business owners, and visitors to Rio Negro. Good codes of conducts will
explain why they are important for the community and the visitor and lay out simple and
easy to understand behavioral guidelines (Blangly, Wood, 1993). A simple way to
distribute this information to visitors would be through a brochure handed to them as they
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enter the community. Local guides should also make it a point to explain these codes of
ethics and their importance to visitors.
Step Six:
The regulations/codes of ethics should then be reviewed every year and amended
if necessary.
7.9.4 Creating Regulations for Physical Infrastructure
One of the primary attractions for ecotourists coming to Rio Negro is the beautiful
landscape. In particular, the abundance of coffee plantations and forests make Rio Negro
more attractive to tourists than, for example, the hillsides of Tegucigalpa. However, if
Rio Negro were to be deforested or the landscape cluttered with houses, hotels, or visibly
unattractive businesses, the community would no longer be appealing to tourists and Rio
Negro would lose its edge over more densely developed areas like Tegucigalpa or San
Pedro Sula.
Regulating Construction
To help preserve the integrity of Rio Negro’s natural landscape, the community
could set regulations that permit only unobtrusive types of construction.
Some ideas that should be considered include:



Setting a limit on the size and height of all structures.
Limiting the number of structures permitted in a given location.
Requiring all buildings to implement design techniques, which minimize
visibility from afar.
 Imposing setback requirements from roads, fields, etc. (Jamieson &
Noble, 2001).
 Requiring all structures to confirm to traditional architecture. (One
technique would be to require all structures to be made with adobe or
in the style of a adobe home.)
 Placing color restrictions on all new structures -- for example: no bright
orange because it would obstruct the landscape.
 Choosing materials based on sources that minimize damage and maximize
properties such as insulation, durability, recyclability and availability.
 Using recycled and renewable materials whenever practical.
 Instead of using timber harvested from primary forests; seek wood
extracted from tree farms, secondary forests or already degraded lands.
 Taking advantage of natural climate conditions for cooling, energy and
other needs.
 Using native plant species for landscaping and making use of natural
insect control measures such as fish and other animals (Sweeting,
Bruner, Rosenfeld 1999).
Protecting the Environment
Not only can structures be visibly unappealing, but they can also cause great
physical degradation to the natural environment. In order to ensure successful ecotourism
in Rio Negro, the community should review all new construction that will help support
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the tourism industry, and take steps to ensure that these structures are environmentally
friendly (meaning that they take into account ways to minimize negative environmental
impact).
Some basic regulations, which the community should consider include the following:





All electricity must be provided by renewable sources that are locally
available such as wind, solar, or hydro. (All gas or diesel generators
should be prohibited in tourist establishments.).
All tourist establishments must provide systems for wastewater treatment.
(Systems which could be used include constructed wetlands,
composting toilets, and -- at the very least -- septic tanks.) (See
Appendix E for a short tutorial on Constructed Wetlands and
wastewater treatment)
All new construction must be at least 100 feet from stream beds or rivers.
No trees over five years old can be cut to make room for construction.
No harmful paints or toxins can be used (Sweeting, Bruner, Rosenfeld
1999).
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7.10 Tutorial Nine: Creating a Contract with Outside Agencies Interested in Developing
Projects Within Rio Negro
7.10.1 Working With the Municipality
Within Rio Negro, the municipality has purchased a piece of land with which it
hopes to build some sort of tourism project. Some of the ideas being discussed include: a
small Ecolodge, a visitor’s center, a community center, or a restaurant.
According to the Rio Negro Guide Association and members of the Patronato, the
community is concerned that the municipality will come into the community and develop
businesses that compete with the locally-run businesses. This presents an interesting
dilemma for everyone involved, including PANACOMA’s administrative bodies
interested in generating revenues from the park, and for the community members who
also wish to derive benefits from the park.
It is the recommendation of this report that the community of Rio Negro work
closely with the municipality to find development options and agreements that present a
win-win scenario for all those involved.
7.10.2 Avoiding Competition With Locally-Run Businesses
My first recommendation is that the community opposes the construction of any
business that will compete directly with local businesses that have already been
established or business, which local people have the capacity to develop themselves.
Further, I recommend that the role of the municipality should not be to compete
with local businesses, but rather to promote the growth of these business by providing
support through policy making, marketing, technical assistance, and procuring supplies
and equipment that the community cannot procure themselves.
7.10.3 Uses for the Purchased Land
One strategy, which may serve this purpose, would be to create a multiple-use
community center on the land purchased by the municipality. This center can act as a
welcome/visitor’s center for tourists and provide travelers with environmental
interpretation and information about the area’s attractions.
This area can also be used as a regional environmental education training center
to be used for training and educating both the children and adults of the region. A center
like this will provide both community members and tourists alike with much needed
access to education materials and can also act as a attraction for more visitors.
Another option for this piece of land would be to create a center for the
propagation of endangered flora and the rescue, rehabilitation, and reintroduction of
endangered or threatened fauna of the region. Both tourists and community members can
then contribute to this project; the center could become a tourist attraction where visitors
can either pay or volunteer to participate in the restoration of this degraded habitat.
7.10.4 Negotiating a Contract with the Municipality
Whether the municipality decides to create a lodge, restaurant, or community
center with this land, the community of Rio Negro should be empowered with certain
tools to negotiate a legal contract.
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In order to develop a fair agreement with the Association of United Municipalities
(UMA) everyone involved should help to make certain that:
 UMA receives a reasonable “return on their investment, sufficient for the
venture to be profitable.” (Ashley, 1999)
 “The community should get a fair return for the resources it contributes.”
(Ashley, 1999)
 Careful steps should be taken to ensure that development by UMA does
not threaten locally-run enterprises.
 In the case that locally run businesses are threatened, very generous
compensation should be provided to any individuals who are directly
affected.
The following list contains a series of recommendations produced by Caroline
Ashley for formulating tourism partnerships between communities and private operators.
The text was amended slightly from the original, but is essentially a direct quotation of
Ashely’s work.
According to Ashley, a community should ensure that a contract explicitly states
and clarifies the following points:
1.
2.
3.
The Scope of the Agreement
Who (and on behalf of whom) does what (main activities and responsibilities) where (size
and boundaries of the area) for how long (contract length).
Key rights and responsibilities for use of the area and resources
a. What infrastructure is allowed? Any limitations? (e.g, maximum size, materials to be
used)
b. What activities are allowed? Any limitations? (e.g. food service, providing
accommodations, providing guides)
c. Exclusions. (explicit explanation of activities that are not permitted e.g. drug use,
prostitution, etc)
d. Minimum obligations to set up and begin operations by a certain date. (This is
important because if this operation is not set up by a certain date, the community
should have the right to cancel the contract and negotiate a new one as
circumstances change.)
e. What resources does the community need to provide? (e.g. access to farms, water,
security)
f. What is not guaranteed by the community?
g. What activities are not permitted on the part of community members? (e.g. asking
guests fro money or donations)
h. Any commitments to provide privacy and security for the business and its clients.
Financial Arrangements
a. What type of payments are paid to the community in exchange for allowing this
operation to operate? Options to explore are:
i. Offsets. (Described later)
ii. Donations to community fund.
iii. Trust funds.
iv. Percent of revenues. (Described later)
v. Percentage of ownership. (Described later)
vi. Fee per visitor.
vii. Fee per unit sold.
viii. Long-term lease.
ix. etc.
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b.
c.
d.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Changes in payment structure over time.
Currency of Contract (Limpera or U.S. Dollars)
Minimum payment guaranteed (in case the operation never develops or terminates
operations without sufficient warning).
Non-cash Community Benefits
a. Commitment to employ local staff ( Is their a minimum number of local people that
must be employed or a minimum percentage of staff that must come from the
community? ) Is their any role for the community to participate in picking staff and
disciplining staff?
b. What local training will the operator provide? Formal as well as on the job? Does
this include managerial training? For how many people and for how long?
c. Do community members have access to facilities? Use of transport, in general or in
emergencies?
d. Any operator commitments to invest in infrastructure used by local people
(electricity, roads, waters, etc).
e. How will local economic linkages be maximized? ( e.g. Will this operator pay for
local food, use locally-run transportation service, sell locally-produced crafts, use
local guides?)
f. What sort of support will the operator provide for community conservation activities,
local projects, and local education?
Working together: Consultation and Decision Making
a. How will the municipality and the community inform and consult each other
regularly? A joint management committee with representatives from both parties?
Who attends meetings? What will be the distribution of voting power? When does
this committee meet? On what issues is committee approval needed?
b. Management of the enterprise: Is the municipality obliged to consult or inform the
community on strategic decisions of enterprise development? Does the community
have the right to inspect the accounting records or receive regular reports on
enterprise performance?
c. Management of land and resources: Who decides and on what does the committee or
partner need to be consulted?
Environmental Management
a. Commitments to environmentally sound practices (e.g. use of renewable energy) and
other limitations in the use of natural resources.
b. Who will be responsible for environmental monitoring and management?
Implementation, Revisions, and Renewal of Contract
a. How is the contract monitored at periodic review meetings? (Is there any role for
outside monitors?) How can the contract be amended? (e.g., mutual consent?)
b. Can the contract be renewed? Does the operator have an automatic right if they
wish or is it only through mutual agreement? Will the same clauses and financial
terms continue or will it be open to agreement?
c. Who owns the fixed and movable assets, licenses and good name for the enterprise at
the end of the contract and renewal period?
d. Can the operator sub-contract the business and rights with community agreement?
Useful Technical Clauses to Minimize Problems if Things Go Wrong
a. The enterprise must be fully insured and in the event of damage, insurance money
must be used to restore it or handed over to the community. (This is to prevent the
community from being left with a burnt-out shell.)
b. The community has the option to terminate the contract if there is no development
within a specific period of time.
i. There is very low occupancy for a specified period of time.
ii. The operator is insolvent or bankrupt.
iii. Financial benefits owed are not paid or the operator breaches contract in
other ways.
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c.
iv. The operator has the right to terminate the contract if government removes
licensees, changes land uses or the community breaches contract.
v. Legal liability of financial losses rest with the operator.
What is the procedure for resolving disputes and who arbitrates? What is the
procedure for terminating the contract if either part breach results?
7.10.5Types of Financial Arrangements
When large organizations like UMA enter rural communities like Rio Negro to
develop business, conflict often erupts concerning the equity of these arrangements.
Communities by and large feel that they are being exploited and marginalized by
outsiders, and the outside organizations feel that they are only exercising their right to
develop. In most instances an equitable solution can be arrived at by formulating a
contract between the two parties (see previous section). At the heart of these contracts is
normally some sort of financial agreement in which the outside organization developing
the business agrees to compensate the community for the use of the locally-produced
resources. In the case of Rio Negro, community members should be aware of the
following tools, which may be helpful if the municipality decides to open up a business
on the land they purchased within Rio Negro.
7.10.5.1 Offset
The first of these tools is called an Offset. An offset is a required or voluntary
financial or in-kind “contribution by a developer or other entity to conservation or
community development which serves to offset the impact of a project or development”
(Sweeting, Bruner, Rosenfeld, 1999).
In the case of Rio Negro, community members cite a lack of electricity, health
center, and kindergarten as their most pressing social problems. If the municipality were
to develop a lodge, for example, the community could negotiate for the municipality to
provide the resources to install electricity for every member of the community before the
construction of a lodge is built. Another option would be for the municipality to build a
health center or pay the salary for a kindergarten teacher. This type of arrangement has a
lot of potential for compensating the community for the use of its resources.
7.10.5.2 Percentage of All Revenues
Another tool the community might consider using is to require the municipality to
pay the community a percentage of all revenues received by the operation. Since
community members are required to donate 15 percent of all their tourism revenues to the
Community Fund, the community might negotiate an agreement that requires all
businesses that are owned by individuals or organizations from outside Rio Negro to pay
20 percent of all revenues to the Community Fund. It is important to emphasize that the
community should not require a percentage of profits, because it is often easy to
manipulate numbers through accounting practices. Instead the community should
negotiate to receive a percentage of all revenues received (Ashely, 1998).
7.10.5.3 Percentage of Ownership
Another option would be for the municipality to grant the community a
percentage of ownership in the business. In this way everyone will benefit from the
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success of the operation. Again, in this instance, it will be very important to insist upon
transparent accounting.
7.10.5.4 Fee Per Visitor/Fee Per Unit Sold
Still another option is for the community to collect a fee per visitor or fee per
unit sold (Ashely, 1998). This type of system is easy to track and is less complicated than
charging a percentage of revenues; furthermore, it allows for less corruption. The
community can devise a system that requires the municipality to pay a certain dollar
amount for every guest who comes and visits or for every product sold by the
municipality. This money should go to the established Community Fund within Rio
Negro.
7.10.6 Park Visitor Registration
If tourism is to develop further in Rio Negro, it will be important to maintain
accurate demographic information about visitors. This information should be collected in
one central location and be easily retrievable by the public. Currently a registration book
for visits to PANACOMA is held at the house of Don Maximo; however, it is rarely used.
This is either because many people bringing individuals to Rio Negro and PANACOMA
are not aware of its existence or because they do not find it convenient to bring guests to
Don Maximo’s house in order to register.
As a solution to this problem (and to assist the community in tracking visitation to
the park) it is recommended that a new registration book be placed at the house of Don
Maximo. The new book should ask for the following information:







Name
Date
Passport Number
Place of Origin (Mailing Address, country)
Did you visit the park?
E-mail address
Comments
While this will not address the convenience factor (see the following section), the
new book will provide more information on guests to the park and can be used to track
the number of visitors and the time of year each individual came to Rio Negro. The
entries soliciting the visitor’s name and passport number are for safety and security
reasons in the case of an emergency. The replacement book also allows for comments,
which will be easily retrievable for other travelers and community members to review.
The visitor’s e-mail address is requested because that is a quick, simple, and inexpensive
method of contacting individuals. Unlike the exit interview, which takes a great deal of
time and patience on behalf of the guest, registration in the book is a simple and easy
process.
Convenience for Tourists
Don Maximo’s house is located about two kilometers away from the entrance to
Rio Negro which is also the entrance point to the park’s most developed trail system.
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Since many tourists come to Rio Negro simply to hike this trail, they are not likely to go
two kilometers out of their way simply to register their name in a book. Instead, a system
will need to be developed to make registration more convenient.
Perhaps the easiest solution to this problem is to build small kiosks for the
registration book at the entrance to the community and hiking trails. However, after
discussing this option with community members, this idea was deemed unfeasible
because of the threat of vandalism.
Another option, suggested by the Guide Association, is to place a guard or
administrator at the entrance of the community and make that person responsible for
registration of all entering guests. However, this idea is not realistic either because of the
low volume of tourist traffic in Rio Negro and the limited funds to pay an individual to
do this job.
Therefore, I recommend that the community and the municipality work together
to accurately record the number of visitors to the area. To do this they must provide an
incentive for tourists to go out of their way to Don Maximo’s house to register.
A sign should be placed at the entranceway to the community and at the entrance
to all trails, inviting all guests to come to the house of Don Maximo for a gift of some
sort. When visitors arrive at Don Maximo’s house, they can receive their free gift and
also sign the registration book.
This free gift does not have to be expensive, and can include many different
items, some of which may be donated.
Ideas for free gifts could include:
1) A cup of coffee
2) A key chain made out of coffee wood (these can be constructed for free by
the local chapter of the Honduran Conservation Corps. (CCH.))
3) A pen made out of bamboo.
4) A local guide or trail map.
5) A small tree, which could be taken with the tourist or planted in the
community by the tourist. (There are many organizations which are
willing to donate trees for free. Avilio can contact the National CCH
to find out how to collect these trees and start a nursery.)
The registration process would also provide a benefit to Don Maximo in
recompense for allowing the use of his home – when tourists visit his home, he will be
able to use the opportunity to sell them other items such as bags of coffee, lunch, or offer
tours. Thus the system provides a win-win scenario for everyone involved. If Don
Maximo is not interested in this arrangement, the system could be moved to another
home, or perhaps the local pulperia.
7.10.7 Park Entrance Fee
Much confusion and conflict surrounds the concept of charging a park entrance
fee in PANACOMA. Representatives of the park’s administration believe that a
mandatory fee structure should be put in place and that all tourists entering the park
should be charged. However, the administration does not have any staff to monitor this
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process, and cannot afford to hire any staff to do so. In fact, as of October 2001, a set
entrance fee for PANACOMA has not been established.
Community members also believe that an entrance fee to the park needs to be
established; however, in the eyes of some community members, this fee should go either
to individual guides or to the community of Rio Negro rather than to the municipality.
They feel that because it has been members of the Rio Negro community who have built
the trails and maintained the park, there is no reason why the municipality should receive
a share of revenues generated by a park entrance fee.
The main problem with this situation is that no system is in place to monitor,
collect, or distribute revenues, and park visitation is so low and sporadic that the cost of
managing and implementing a properly controlled fee system are higher than the
revenues expected to be generated.
To solve this problem, it is recommended that the park institute a voluntary park
entrance fee for the next year, to be payable at the house of Don Maximo when visitors
sign the registration book. The suggestion donation should be 15 limpera for Honduran
nationals, and between 30-45 limpera for non-nationals.
To control this fund, a locked boxed should be placed in a visible location beside
the registration book in the house of Don Maximo. This box should have three locks,
with the keys to each of these locks held by different individuals -- perhaps one
representative each from ECOSIMCO, the Rio Negro Patronato, and the municipality.
The top of the box should contain a small hole in which money can be deposited.
Next to the box should be a visible and clearly marked sign, which explains what the
funds are for, how they are distributed, and the amount of the suggested donation for each
individual. Every two months, the three individuals with keys can get together and
distribute these funds.
It is recommended that the funds gathered from this collection be distributed in
the following manner:
 One quarter of the funds goes to the Rio Negro Community Fund.
 One quarter of the funds goes to the local CCH for trail maintenance and
park infrastructure improvements.
 One quarter goes to ECOSIMCO or the municipality.
 One quarter goes to Don Maximo for providing this service to the
community.
This system can also be used to collect a mandatory park entrance fee, but there are
many advantages to making this fee voluntary, including the following
1. It will help generate a competitive advantage fro PANACOMA over other
parks by offering a lower-priced service.
2. It can help the community and the Park Service establish a formalized
system to collect revenues.
3. If the fee is voluntary, visitors and local guides may not go out of their
way to avoid registering. If the fee is mandatory, many individuals
may choose not to register. The resultant inaccuracy of park records
would affect projections for future development.
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4. A voluntary fee also allows visitors the opportunity to donate more than
what is required, and many visitors may feel like donating more if they
feel the money is going to a good cause
5. It will free up more traveler dollars to be spent directly into the local
economy, meeting the most elusive objectives of the park management
plan by enabling local communities to benefit from their location in
the park.
This system should be put in place for a year, in combination with the registration
procedures recommended in the previous section. If the registration numbers are
measured accurately, both the community and the municipality can start charging a
mandatory fee once visitor numbers are high enough to generate enough revenues to pay
for a individual to monitor the park entrance and collect fees.
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7.11 Tutorial Ten: Further Training
Tourism is a complex, labor-intensive industry that requires a great deal of
employee training and education in order to be successful. The tourism industry in
Central America has traditionally provided sub-standard services when compared to the
global norm. This is especially true of small and medium privately owned operations
(Inman, Whelan, & Sundbland, 1998), and has resulted in a high amount of economic
leakage to urban centers and the global north.
The lack of competition in Central America’s tourism industry is the reason for
low service standards throughout the region. This problem is perpetuated by “business
owners not being aware or concerned about customer needs, or not (being) willing to
invest in employee training.” The lack of educational resources that results “makes
qualified employees rare” within Central America (Inman,Whelan, & Sundbland 1998).
In order to develop a sustainable tourism industry in Rio Negro, business owners
must place an emphasis on improving the technical and service skills of every individual
professing a desiring to work with tourists. Technical services are specific skills such as
accounting, cooking, cleaning, etc.; service skills refer to the human element of making
guests feel welcome.
Rio Negro is working to develop hospitality businesses that will deal personally
with each guest and provide both technical and personal services in order to guarantee the
security, physical, and physiological comfort of visitors in exchange for money (Inman,
Whelan, & Sundbland, 1998).
Because tourism in Rio Negro is small-scale and still an informal segment of the
local economy, extensive training in every aspect of the tourism industry is not
immediately required. However, if tourism continues to grow, it is highly recommended
that community members seek more extensive and formal hospitality training than what
is suggested below.
On the other hand, some immediate training needs to exist. These include the
following fields:






Food safety and sanitation.
First aid.
Hospitality training/Personal services.
Interpretation.
Speaking and understanding English.
Small business development.
Each of these fields is discussed in more detail in the sections that follow.
7.11.1 Food Safety and Sanitation
Proper food safety and sanitation is very important in order for tourism businesses
to ensure the safety and security of’ guests and enhance the quality of the services”
provided. To achieve this goal, the food served by tourism businesses must be “perfectly
hygienic” (Jamieson & Noble, 2000) one hundred percent of the time.
When unhygienic food is served, it greatly deteriorates the visitor’s experience
and puts his/her health at risk. When traveling, tourists are particularly at risk because
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they are not accustomed to the harmful microbes and parasites that may be present in the
food, air, and water of the places they are visiting and to which local residents have
become accustomed. Tourists are vulnerable and often easily get sick when entering a
new setting. For this reason, extra care should be taken when preparing food for tourists.
In rural Honduras, food safety and sanitation practices are below national and
international standards. It has been my personal experience from working with rural
communities that adapting existing food preparation skills to meet the needs of tourists is
very challenging.
One of the main challenges in teaching food safety and sanitation in rural
communities has to do with local culture. Normally, in rural communities women are the
cooks. They take a lot of deserved pride in their work because they are experts at what
they do. The downside is that it can often be difficult for trainers to explain to these
women that preparing meals for friends and family members is a different process then
preparing food for clients.
When a training program is implemented in Rio Negro, it will be important for
the cooks to understand the importance of food safety and sanitation and not look at the
program as a personal insult, a comment on the quality of the food they produce, or a
insult to their culture. It will also be important for trainers to understand the personal
connections cooks have with their work, and to be sensitive to the cultural forces at work
within the community.
It is beyond the scope of this project to outline an entire food safety and sanitation
training program for the community; however, the following section lists a few
techniques that could be used to improve conditions for tourists until formal training is
available.
7.11.2 Water
Community members in Rio Negro take pride in their water, stating that it is some
of the purest in Honduras. While this may be true, the claim lacks evidence due to the
fact that scientific testing of the drinking water does not take place on a regular basis.
Therefore, steps should be taken to purify the water before guests are permitted to drink
it. All water used for guest drinks should be boiled for 20 minutes or treated with a water
purification solution. In order to make the process simpler, water can be boiled in large
quantities when tourists arrive and stored for them in clean containers for them to use
during the course of their stay.
7.11.3 Food
Only fresh ingredients should be used for guests. All fruits and vegetables should
be inspected in order to ensure that the produce is clean, and free of insects (flies, ants,
etc.) that carry parasites and disease. Fruits and vegetables are safest to serve if they have
a skin which is completely intact.
All meats should be fresh and properly refrigerated before use. All cooked foods
should be freshly prepared, cooked thoroughly and served HOT. Hot foods are the safest
type of food to serve to guests because the cooking process normally kills most
dangerous parasites and microbes.
The most dangerous types of foods that can get tourists sick are raw foods; cold
cooked foods; salads; fruits that have been peeled by individuals other than the those who
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are eating them; and frozen foods such as ice cream. This is not to say that foods such as
salads should not be prepared, but extreme care needs to be taken in the preparation of
these foods. Since these foods present a higher risk, it is advisable that these foods not be
served until further training is conducted.
Even when these precautions are taken, guests can get sick. The most common
type of traveler sickness is diarrhea. This illness can be a result of the cook not washing
his/her hands after a trip to the bathroom, shaking other people’s dirty hands, holding
babies, or touching items in the house or kitchen that are contaminated. Below are some
simple steps cooks can take to ensure that prepared food does not transmit disease.
Simple Steps for Overall Cleanliness

Prior to cooking, the kitchen and all utensils should be cleaned thoroughly
with warm water and soap.
 The sink should be cleaned and disinfected.
 Sponges should be sanitized before cleaning dishes, and utensils should be
sanitized by boiling them for twenty minutes.
 Animals should not be allowed in the kitchen.
 All food should be stored in sealed containers free from bugs, flies, and
animals which carry disease.
 Screen doors could be installed in order to keep the animals out.
 All children should be carefully monitored and not allowed in the kitchen
unless they are extremely clean. They should not be permitted to
touch food or dishes.
 Cooks should not interact or take care of children when cooking. If a cook
does interact with children, she must pay careful attention to washing
her hands afterwards. The same applies if the cook interacts with
other adults while handling food. adults..
 Have designated plates, utensils, and storage containers especially for
guests.
 Cooks should avoid touching their hair, nose, or mouth while preparing or
handling food or utensils.
Because cooks are very used to cooking in their own kitchens for their families and it
is very difficult to change the cooking habits of a person in his/her own home, it is
suggested that separate kitchens be built in which food for tourists can be prepared. In
the new kitchens, a different set of rules would apply than in the home, and training
would likely be facilitated. Building a new kitchen is also a expenses process, so although
a separate kitchen may be beneficial, it is probably not the most realistic option.
Further training will be required if tourism is going to be successful in Rio Negro. A
list of organizations, which may be of assistance in providing this training, is available at
the end of this chapter.
7.11.4 First Aid
- 149 –
Tourism in rural areas can be dangerous -- especially for outsiders who are
unaccustomed to the difficulties of travel in these locations. In particular, the steeps
slopes of farms or slippery trails in the rainforest can prove challenging.
Therefore, steps must be taken to ensure that the local community is prepared for
any emergencies, which arise. Foreign guests will be particularly nervous about
accidents, and will need to feel assured that sound emergency procedures have been
developed in case an accident occurs. The following is a list of recommendations to
assist the community in providing first aid and dealing with emergencies. These steps are
a beginning, however future training is necessary and should be required.
1. All guides, and a number of community members, should be trained in
first aid. If possible they should also be trained in skills equivalent to
the United States Red Cross Wilderness First Responder.
2. Communication infrastructure, such as cell phones or two-way radios,
should be available at all times in case hospitals need to be contacted
or emergency medical evacuation becomes necessary.
3. Tourists should always be brought to the best hospitals within the area.
Check with the United States Embassy regarding the best emergency
medical procedures to follow in Honduras with foreign guests.
4. Have contact information for hospitals and the police readily available.
5. Have a first aid kit available at all tourist establishments.
6. Post signs around the community regarding potential danger (such as
“Beware of Dog” signs near homes with aggressive dogs).
7. Advise guests of proper clothing and shoes to wear before activities begin.
8. Fumigate guest rooms and check for dangers such as scorpions, spiders,
snakes, rats, etc.
7.11.5 Hospitality/Personal Services
Tourism is not merely about providing accommodations to clients. It is also about
making people feel welcome at relaxed while they are visiting your community. To
accomplish this goal, it will be important for all community members to understand how
to communicate with guests and make them feel welcome within the community.
Following are a number of recommendations as to how community members can better
interact with their guests:
 Be friendly and courteous to everyone, including other community
members when guests are around. This can include saying hello,
smiling, or shaking someone’s hand.
 Go out of the way to make guests feel comfortable. Look for creative ways
to be helpful.
 Work with other community members to make guests feel welcome.
 Wash your hands before shaking someone’s hand.
 Communicate through positive body language by looking attentive and
interested, appearing patient and willing to listen to problems, and
making positive eye contact while talking to individuals. Be
respectful.
 Do not make fun of guests in front of them, even if they do not speak
Spanish
- 150 –







Use appropriate and polite phrases when talking to guests.
Use words like ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’
Look for amusing sides to a bad situation.
Remember to treat every guest at least as well as you would like to be
treated yourself.
Never argue with guests.
Take all problems seriously.
Do not yell at guests (the proceeding bullets have been directly quoted
from or summarized from Disney, 1993).
7.11.6 Interpretation
To most people, the word interpretation refers to translating languages, such as
English into Spanish or vice versa. However, teachers, scientists, and recreation
specialists use this word to describe the art of conveying technical or esoteric information
to non-experts.
This concept becomes relevant when considering the goals of ‘ecotourism’.
(Community and guest education in particular.) While there are many academic
definitions of the word interpretation, the most popular and widely accepted definition is:
“an educational activity which aims to reveal meaning and relationships through the use
of original objects, by first hand experience, and by illustrative media rather than simply
to communicate factual information (Tilden, 1977).
Interpretation is based on research about how people learn the best and how to
make the education experience enjoyable for non-captive audiences. Scientific research
shows that people learn more when they are actively involved in the learning process, and
that they retain more when they are using as many senses as possible (Lewis, 1993).
Some of the most common modes of interpretation used by tourism businesses today
include: maps, brochures, magazines, books, marked trails, one-on-one personal
interaction with trained guides, displays, posters, slide shows, and movies(Jamieson &
Noble, 2000).
Many ecotourism operations have failed to properly integrate good, planned, and
organized interpretation into their businesses. McArthur finds this fact ironic because
interpretation it is a valuable tool which helps an operation or community to do the
following:
 Differentiate their tourism product from more mainstream products.
 Attract higher yield clientele.
 Enrich visitors’ experiences and increase client satisfaction.
 Assist the visitor in developing a keener awareness, appreciation and
understanding of the area being visited.
 Contribute to an ethical position held by the operation.
 Encourage thoughtful visitor behavior to ensure that the experience is a
sustainable one.
 Increase guide satisfaction.
 Promote public understanding of protected area management.
(McArthur, 1998).
- 151 –
According to McArthur, high quality interpretation is fundamental to making
ecotourism sustainable. If Rio Negro’s business owners would like to increase their
ability to provide high quality products to their customers and improve the positive
impacts of tourism, they should seek to increase their interpretive skills.
A few guides in Rio Negro have taken short courses on environmental
interpretation with the Honduran Conservation Corps, Partners of the Americas, and the
United States Agency for International Development. Although these guides may not
consider themselves experts they do possess a considerable amount of knowledge and
should to the fullest of their ability apply these skills in Rio Negro.
The community and local entrepreneurs should also look to receive expanded
training on interpretation. One book that is available in Spanish and is easy to use and
understand is Sam Ham’s 1992 book entitled Environmental Interpretation: A Practical
Guide for People with Big Ideas and Small Budgets. This book can be a useful source of
information and may be available through the Honduran Conservation Corps. The Corps
may also be able to provide further information and training in interpretation.
7.11.7 Speaking and Understanding English
The majority of Foreign tourists coming to Rio Negro will not speak Spanish as a
first language -- if they speak Spanish at all. Thus, at the early stages of the tourism
development process, it will be important to have community members and guides who
understand basic English.
Currently, one member of the community – Christino -- speaks enough English to
act as a tourist guide, and two community members have been taking English courses and
should be able to communicate with tourists by the time this report is presented.
Individuals who work with tourists should look for opportunities to learn English;
this will greatly improve the types of services they will be able to offer and increase the
salaries they will be able to earn.
7.11.8 Conclusions
Unfortunately the scope of this section is too limited to provide extensive tutorials
regarding every aspect of the tourism industry where training is needed in Rio Negro.
Instead, this section highlighted the importance and immediate need for training in the
fields of food safety and sanitation, first aid, customer service, interpretation, and
English.
The scope of this report is also too limited to provide complete tutorials within
each of these areas. Instead it is recommended that the community of Rio Negro seek
one-on-one training on the ground in each of these fields. The following organizations
(many of which the community has already been in contact with) may be able to provide
assistance:
 The United States Peace Corps (Contact their central office).
 The Honduran Conservation Corps.
 INFOP (spell out), which has a contract with APROCAFE and may be
able to provide free training.
 The United Nation’s volunteer program (www.unv.org).
 The German Centre for International Migration and Development, which
helps provide technical experts to work in the field (www.cimffm.de).
- 152 –
CHAPTER EIGHT: SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
8.1 Introduction
This document provides Rio Negro with a community-based ecotourism
development strategy designed specifically for the community’s unique needs and
requirements. In preparing this document I adapted a traditional linear business-planning
model to accommodate the theories of Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure from the field
of rural sociology and the methodologies of Action Research and Rapid Rural Appraisal
(RRA), derived from the field of extension work.
The result of this amalgamation is an endogenous circular planning model
(presented in Figure. 8.1) with the ability to operate within a region that has little or no
tourism culture, limited funding, and a limited timeline for tourism development.
The process presented in this document is participatory in nature and respects the
right to self-determination by insisting that community members are the ultimate decision
makers. It places an emphasis on local entrepreneurs and established community
organizations as instrumental in building community trust, testing implementation
strategies, determining feasibility, building experience amongst community members,
promoting greater participation amongst community members during the research and
planning phases, and testing levels of Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure (ESI).
The result of this planning model can be seen on the ground in Rio Negro and
through the materials presented in this text, including: a justification for this work, the
methodology used to develop this strategy; detailed profiles of the community and the
park (PANACOMA), an analysis of the market place; and a series of implementation
tutorials.
It is hoped that this text can be used for the following purposes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
As a guide for the community of Rio Negro to use to develop ecotourism
as a revenue generating activity within their community.
As a source for the community of Rio Negro to better understand the
tourism industry and the tourism development process.
As a tool for assisting large government agencies and non-governmental
agencies within the area realize that tourism development, which
places local community members at the center of the process, is
possible development option.
As a document which can be used to solicit funds for community
development from both national and international development
agencies and non-governmental organizations.
As a document other communities and organizations can use to guide
them through their own tourism development process.
If implemented correctly, this plan has the ability to maximize the level of
positive economic, social, and environmental impacts of ecotourism development and
minimize the negative impacts of ecotourism development
- 153 –
Figure 8.1 Rapid and Active Tourism Development Model
Participatory and
Active Research
Implementation
Tool Kit
Review and Analysis of
PANACOMA
(Natural Resources)
Market
Analysis
Recognized
Desire to Capitalize
on
Ecotourism
Define Project Objectives
Provide
Technical Assistance
Pilot Projects
Monitoring
Summary
and
Analyses
Implementation
Tutorials
Recommended
Products
Recommended
Implementation
Strategies
Development of
Community fund
Review and Analysis of
Community resources
Look For other
Development
Option
- 154 –
Reasoning and
Explanation
for
Recommendations
Monitoring
Recommendations
8.2 Initial Results Shown in the Community Prior to the Presentation of this Report
Initial monitoring has shown this project to be relatively successful. When work
for this project commenced in April of 2001, little or no tourism culture existed in the
community of Rio Negro. PANACOMA’s visitor book listed only a handful of national
visitors per year since the park’s inception in 1987, and talks with community members
revealed that these visitors had relatively no economic impact on the region. Prior to this
project’s inception, a normal visitor to the area would take a day trip, perhaps ask for a
local guide, and would not spend any money in the community for tourism services such
as meal, lodging, handicrafts, etc.
Phone interviews with people living within the region and a visit to the
community in October of 2001 have revealed a great deal of success in implementing the
first steps of the strategy outlined in this report. Technical assistance provided during the
planning and research phases helped to build community trust, test implementation
strategies, determine feasibility, build experience amongst community members, and
promote greater participation amongst community members.
Already, in less than a year, tourism numbers have risen substantially and rough
estimates have assumed at least a 100 percent increase. Along with the increase in visitor
numbers, the number of service providers has increased, as has the community’s capacity
to offer a higher quality of service.
The community has demonstrated its ability to mobilize resources by continuing
to set aside between 10-15 percent of all tourism revenues for a community fund. The
community has used these funds for a variety of purposes including the construction of a
walking bridge over the Rio Negro (the ‘Black River’). Prior to construction of this
bridge, community members had to pass through the river on foot – which, while not
overly challenging during the dry season, was a potential danger during times of heavy
rains, especially for small children and the elderly.
In less than one year from the time this process began, and prior to receipt of this
report by the community, Rio Negro has developed some tourism experience, built a
tourism culture, and developed the skills and confidence to solve their problems and take
initiative without the guidance or support of outside experts.
8.3 An Ongoing Process
Community members should be congratulated on the success they have seen and
the courage they have shown in developing ecotourism thus far. Community members
should also be warned that no matter how well prepared they are, tourism development is
always a difficult process filled with ups and downs.
The recommendations of this report are not a precise formula or a prescription for
success that will ensure development. Rather, the recommendations made here should be
viewed as part of a process leading toward development – a process in which community
members are empowered with information they can use to formulate their own innovative
solutions.
Many of the implementation strategies presented here have been discussed in
greater detail by other authors however, the purpose of this report was not to create the
definitive source for each of the recommended strategies but rather to provide the most
- 155 –
appropriate information regarding the use of each of these strategies for the community
of Rio Negro. Further, the aim of this report was to present this information in a concise
and pragmatic format relative to the specific needs of the community.
When talking about community development, Flora and Flora present the analogy
of the development process as similar to raising a child, in that it is a constant process
that changes every day and cannot be accomplished with a formula designed to obtain
predetermined results. Instead, like raising a child successfully, the successful tourism
development process never ends, and will require ongoing innovation and adaptation to
new challenges (Flora & Flora, 1993).
The community should understand and accept the risks involved in this process,
and should pay close attention to the implementation section of this report in order to
reduce the associated risks. In addition, community members should be prepared to work
hard and remain determined in the face of many of the challenges that lie ahead.
8.4 Conclusions
It is not likely that tourism will ever become the primary source of income in Rio
Negro, but it certainly does have the potential to become a substantial secondary source
of income and serve as another way to diversify the local economy, which at present is
overly dependent on coffee production.
Many community-based ecotourism development projects around the world have
failed in the past because they have overestimated the community’s or communities’
capacity to learn new skills and run tourism businesses. For this reason, the plan
presented in this report contained very detailed tutorials regarding the implementation of
specific tasks for which the community lacks the technical expertise.
By providing these tutorials, it was never believed that the community would
entirely avoid great stumbling blocks or challenges in developing ecotourism. I do
believe, however, that these tutorials can help to empower the community to continue the
process on their own especially in the case that further funding or support for this project
proves unobtainable. The community does need to understand that the recommended
tutorials are just the beginning, and that further training is required above and beyond
what is suggested in Chapter Seven. Further training is most desperately needed in the
areas of food safety and sanitation, hospitality, and first aid.
8.4.1 Recommendations for Future Work Within Rio Negro
In order to assist the community in building the skills necessary for tourism development,
I suggest a continuation of the process outlined in this report. The model I propose is to
obtain funding that would allow this project to continue for another year to year and a
half. The strategy for future work will concentrate on training and technical support that
will promote more successful tourism implementation and provide a limited amount
financial capital to support local entrepreneurs with the purchase of supplies. I suggest
that the community of Rio Negro continue this project by hiring a technical expert to
work on the ground in their community over the next year to year and a half, and that this
expert gradually phase him/herself out as the community builds the necessary skills to
guide the project themselves.
- 156 –
Figure. 8.2 Recommended Framework for Future Work In Rio Negro
Implementation
Tool Kit
Implementation
Tutorials
Participatory and
Active Implementation
Monitoring
Community
Run Project
Recommended
Products
Recommended
Implementation
Strategies
Reasoning and
Explanation
for
Recommendations
Monitoring
Recommendations
Development
Agent
In Community
Assists with
Implementation
Strategy
Small
Matching Grants
For Supplies
Acts as a Buffer
Between Tourists
And Community members
During training stageProvides Quality Control
And attends to tourist
needs
- 157 –
Community is
Empowered +
Tourism is
Culture
Established
New Businesses
Development
Community fund
Development
Agent Leaves
Conducts
Outreach
Provides
Training
Manages
Matching
Grants
Much like an extension worker or even a Peace Corps volunteer, this development
agent will work with community members step-by-step to implement the suggestions in
this plan, and will train individuals and local organizations to manage these projects. This
agent will also work hands-on with community members in their every day dealings with
tourists.
In particular, this agent will work with community members to ensure that meals
are prepared correctly, rooms are clean, and that marketing is done effectively. While
training community members, the agent will at the same time serve as an overseer whose
presence will help tourists feel comfortable dealing with community members just
learning about a tourist-related business. The presence of a technical specialist will also
help to build confidence and direction on the part of local entrepreneurs who are learning
new tourism-related skills. This work will also help to promote the equitable distribution
of benefits to avoid domination by local elites (Mclaren, 1998; Ashely & Roe, 1998).
After a year of technical assistance, members of the Rio Negro community should
have developed a substantial set of skills, and enough of a tourism culture should exist for
the community to survive on its own. At this point outside experts should phase
themselves out and let the community deal with the complex forces of the marketplace on
its own. (A Conceptual Framework of this model is provide in Figure 8.2).
8.4.2 Recommendations for Future Research
Further research should be conducted to monitor the long-term success of this
model, and to make determinations for its applicability and replicability elsewhere in the
world. In the case of Rio Negro, this model has shown initial success; however, further
research should be conducted in order to improve and refine this process.
8.5 Final Words
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who provided technical, financial, and
moral support for the creation of this project. Some of the individuals reading this piece
are community members from Rio Negro and other are academics, members of the
Honduran Conservation Corps, government officials, private consultants, development
agents, or students.
For the members of the community of Rio, I would like to extend the utmost of
gratitude for welcoming me in to your homes and families. I would also like to wish you
and your community the best of luck with the continuation of this project, and say that I
look forward to working with together in order to expand and improve upon what we
have already accomplished.
For the academics, government officials, private consultants, development agents
and students reading this work, I hope you enjoyed the time you spent evaluating this
document and I hope it provided you with some new thoughts and/or insights. Also, I
would like to thank you and your colleagues from around the world who have provided
me with a vast body of literature, expertise, and experience from which to build upon,
without which the ideas and concepts presented in this text would not have been possible.
- 158 –
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Murphy, P. E. (1988). Community Driven Tourism Planning. Tourism Management 9, 2:96-104
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Pattullo, P. (1996) Last Resorts: The Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean. NY: Monthly Review
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Pokharel R.K. & Balla M.K. (1998). A Process for Participatory Rural Appraisal. Retrieved
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Potts T.D. (199?). Developing Naturally: An Exploratory Process Nature-Based Community
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United States Department of State, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (October, 1999)
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- 164 –
APPENDIX A
Partners of the Americas Profile
Retrieved from www.partners.net on May 4, 2002
Founded in 1964 as the people-to-people component of the Alliance for Progress,
Partners of the Americas (POA) is the largest private voluntary organization in the
Western Hemisphere engaged in international cooperation and training. Each of the
organization's 60 "partnerships" links a state or region of the U.S. with an area in Latin
America or the Caribbean and represents an indigenous bilateral organization. For
example, Peru is partnered with Texas and Kansas with Paraguay (see Partnership maps).
Peruvian volunteers work directly with their counterpart chapter in Texas to design and
carry out training and development projects. Each side of a partnership -- the U.S. chapter
and the Latin chapter -- is organized as a private, nonprofit institution in its respective
community with by-laws and regularly elected and rotated officers.
Individuals who make up Partner chapters are local citizens -- professionals active
in health and population programs, environmental conservation, AIDS education and
prevention, small business development, drug abuse prevention, and agriculture -- to
name but a few. Men and women from all walks of life – including doctors, farmers,
foresters, artists, city administrators, university professors, high school students and
leaders of community organizations -- participate in the program.
The two sides of a partnership work together to carry out a wide range of
activities to improve the quality of life in the communities of Latin America and the
Caribbean. Emphasis is given to projects that enhance the quality of life for women and
their families, provide income generating opportunities to young people, promote the
involvement of private citizens in local governance, strengthen the ability of local
organizations to protect the environment, and promote services and training for disabled
citizens.
Besides the time and technical expertise donated by Partner volunteers, a number
of major corporations, foundations and government agencies support the work of the
partnerships. Financial contributions by these organizations are made available to the
partnerships in the form of travel grants, project assistance "seed" grants, and training
opportunities.
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APPENDIX B
Bio
David Evan Kestenbaum
David Evan Kestenbaum has 14 years of experience working in and around the
hospitality and tourism industry with a special focus on Sustainable/Ecotourism
development and education. Between 1992 and 1996, David earned a Bachelor’s Degree
in Hotel Restaurant Management at the University of Delaware while simultaneously
working for and receiving training in a variety of fields from the nation’s premier
hospitality providers including Hilton, Sheraton, and Disney. In the summer and fall of
1996 he attended the University of Colorado’s Law school and studied environmental law
as a part time student while working as a researcher on a planning campaign for the City
of Boulder. During 1997 he worked for alpine skiing companies in Steamboat Springs,
Colorado, and Queenstown, New Zealand. While in New Zealand, David also worked for
local outfitters and the Department of Conservation to help with infrastructure
improvements in remote backcountry lodging facilities. Throughout 1998 he spent 8
months in Costa Rica living and working with cooperative communities, women’s
groups, and youth organizations helping to facilitate the success of a number of
sustainability initiatives. These initiatives included ecotourism product development,
community training, capacity building, constructing a butterfly garden, creating a local
environmental education program, and working with animal rescue and rehabilitation
programs on a number of reintroduction initiatives. David also spent one month working
on a nature documentary as a field assistant tracking animals in Costa Rica’s Corcovado
National Park. During the 1998/1999 academic year David worked as a Program
Coordinator for the International Institute for Peace through Tourism, where he helped
rebuild and relocate a Canadian not-for profit organization within Vermont and organize
an International Conference on Sustainable Tourism in Glasgow, Scotland. Over the last
three years David has worked as a adjunct instructor and Research Assistant at the
University of Vermont designing, teaching, and leading over 30 credits of study abroad
short courses around the subject matter of ecotourism and integrated conservation
development for the University in Costa Rica, Honduras, Tanzania, and Ireland while
working toward a Master’s degree in Natural Resource Planning. Most recently, David
has started a private consulting firm specializing in all facets of Ecotourism training,
management, and education.
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APPENDIX C
Farmer to Farmer Volunteer Trip Report
David Evan Kestenbaum
April 2001
1. Purpose and Primary objective of the trip
The primary objective of my trip to Honduras was to work with members of the
Community of Rio Negro and the Honduran Conservation Corp to develop a variety of
ecotourism products for the community of Rio Negro.
2. What institution/ organization/ group were you primarily providing assistance to
I was primarily providing assistance to the Community of Rio Negro, ECOSIMCO, and
the Honduran Conservation Corp.
Contacts
Honduran Conservation Corps (CCH)
Edificios Paidos/ COPEMH, 5to, piso
BLVD. Centroamerica, Colonia El Hogar
Tegucigalpa, M.D.C. Honduras C.A.
Contacts:
John Chater
Executive Director (CCH)
Carlos Galvez Colindres
Director of Operations
Jose Avlio Vasquez
Assistant to the Director of Operations
Community of Rio Negro
Comayagua, Comayagua
Honduras
Contact:
Jose Avilio Velasquez
Ecosimco
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Edificio Multicentro Plaza
Boulevard 4to. Centenario
Comayagua, Honduras, C.A.
Contact:
Marcos Antonio Cerrito
3. What service/assistance did you provide?
In order to meet the objectives listed above, I worked with members of the
community of Rio Negro on the initial phases of preparing a comprehensive
tourism development strategy, which included:
1. Working with community members to prepare and implement a survey
of the community to collect data concerning
a. Names of citizens
b. Number of people in the family
c. Land distribution and tenure systems
d. Patrimony
e. Opinions on tourism development
f. Opinions on local tourism resources
g. Desire to work with tourists
h. Inventory of human resources
i. Social problems
2. Worked with various members of the local community to inventory
natural attractions and rate their potential for tourism development.
3. Worked with locals to develop a variety of tourist activities and
programs based around local skills and natural resources
4. Brought five tourists from five different countries to participate in and
pay for a variety of tourist activities. Including home stays, cloud
forest tours, volunteer vacations at a Conservation Corp. work camp,
making bread, and a community tour.
5. Developed a control system for recording entrance into Comayagua
National Park (PANACOMA)
6. Developed a community fund, which will be supported by a 15% tariff
on all tourism revenues in Rio Negro and used for a social
development project that will benefit every member of the community.
(The president of the guide association, the town patronato, and the
tourism fund manager will manage the fund. The amount of savings in
the fund will be reviewed at a town meeting each month and when
savings reach a high enough level to support a project, the town will
hold a referendum deciding what type of project to use the money for.)
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7. Laid out plans and commenced construction on the first ecolodge
within the region.
8. Conducted an analysis of the community’s strengths, weaknesses, and
readiness for various levels of tourism development.
What were your observations, and what do you feel like you accomplished through the
activities in #2
Over the short period of time I spent in Rio Negro I saw a great deal of change in
peoples opinions and attitudes towards tourism development. Rio Negro is a rural
farming community dependent of coffee and located two hours away to the
nearest city. The boundaries of the community lie within the nuclear, secondary
use, and buffer zones of Comayagua National Park (PANACOMA). Over the
years the citizens of Rio Negro have heard much talk about tourism development
as a form of promoting conservation and bringing business and employment
opportunities to the community. Over the years various government officials have
come into the community and preached the economic benefits of having a
national park, however the community has seen little results. The park was
founded in 1987 yet has no system of controls to record the number of visitors has
been implemented, there are no tourist accommodations for overnight visitors
either in the park or the surrounding communities, and very little infrastructure
exists to promote tourism within the park.
In the short period of time I spent in Rio Negro we designed and broke
ground on the first tourist lodge in the region, brought tourists to the area for the
first overnight stays in the area, sold a variety of tourism products, generated
revenues for private entrepreneurs, and generated revenues for a locally controlled
social development fund.
I believe the biggest change I witnessed was a change in attitude toward
idea of tourism development. In the past it seemed that the community looked
toward tourism as another top down development strategy, which they would
never receive the benefits from. I believe this project acted to change the
community’s attitude toward tourism, because it did not get bogged down in the
planning process. Instead this project combined long-term planning with the
generation of immediate result. This exposed the citizens of Rio Negro to a form
of Tourism which can be controlled and developed locally, educate the visitor,
educate the host community, and provide funds for locally controlled
development programs.
4. What future Volunteer Assignments do you think are needed, and what are the
next steps in moving the project forward?
Over the next few months I will work to develop a comprehensive ecotourism
development strategy for the community of Rio Negro. This plan should be
presented to the community for them to decide if they would like to implement
the plan, modify the plan in the spirit of discursive democracy, put on a shelf to
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gather dust, or perhaps use it for kindling. I also suggest that if the plan is
implemented or modified by the community an outside expert should be brought
in to facilitate the process, lend advice, and assist with training and
implementation of strategies.
6. Any recommendations/suggestions for future volunteers/ or comments?
Keep an open mind and heart.
7. Please provide some personal comments on how the trip affected you personally
and how you feel generally about the Farmer to Farmer program?
After working for a few years in international development the most exciting part of
this trip was the desire and passion for conservation and international cooperation,
which members of the Honduran Conservation Corp and the Community of Rio
Negro shared with me. I feel the Farmer-to-Farmer program is a great way to promote
a one on one cross-cultural exchange between individuals from different parts of the
world. When individuals meet and share experiences in this one on one setting each
individual has the potential to be an ambassador for peace. I feel the United States
government should be very proud of the pioneering work many individuals involved
in the Farmer-to-Farmer project have accomplished and the government should
promote this type of multilateral communication on a greater scale.
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APPENDIX D
Questionnaires
Used In Rio Negro Honduras In April 2001
Questionnaire One:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Nombre de Familia {Name of Family?}
Numero de Personas en la Familia {Number of People in the Family?}
Cuantos manzanas teine? {How many manzanas of land do you own?}
Cual es su Patrimonio? {How do you make a living?}
Le gustaria que visitarian a Rio Negro los Turistas? { Would you like
it if tourists would come visit Rio Negro?}
6. Porque le gustaria que visitarian a Rio Negro los Turistas?{ Why,
would you like it if tourists would come visit Rio Negro?}
7. Porque visitarian los turistas a Rio Negro? { Why would tourists visit
Rio Negro?}
8. Porque no visitarian los turistas a Rio Negro? { Why would tourists
not visit Rio Negro?}
9. Queiro Trabajar con los turistas? (Si or No){ Would you like to work
with Tourists? (Yes or No)}
10. Que tipo de trabajo quiero hacer para los turistas? { What type of work
would you like to have with the tourists?(What type of work would
you like to have with the tourists?} (some probing and iteration was
provided with this question in certain cases and normally included
providing the following example: ”Such as providing places to sleep,
providing food, washing cloths, guide services, security services, or
other forms of work”
11. Que cosas puede hacer como ser? Como ser Artesania, Hacer Pan,
Costura, etc. { What type things can you do? Such as arts and crafts,
making bread, sewing, etc}
12. Que Experiencia a tenio antes en Restaurantes o con Turistas? { What
experience have you had working in Restaurants or in Tourists?
13. Tiene Miedo de los impactos negativos de turismo? (Si o No) { Are
you afraid about the negative impacts of Tourism (Yes/No)} (Many
people understood this question, but others were unaware of negative
impacts tourism could bring, so in many cases a brief explanation of
these impacts were given using examples such as “environmental
degradation due to an increased in population” and “social impacts
such as tourists smoking cigarettes or listening to loud music and
disturbing others”.)
14. De cuales impactos tiene miedo?{ What impacts are you afraid of?}
15. Cuales son los dos mas grande problemas en la communidad? { What
are the two biggest problems in the Community?}
Que proyectos haria la communidad una vez que huvieron fondos communales del
Turismo? { If there was a community fund from tourism, what project would you make
for the community?}
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xxvii.
xxviii.
xxix.
xxx.
xxxi.
xxxii.
xxxiii.
xxxiv.
xxxv.
xxxvi.
xxxvii.
xxxviii.
xxxix.
xl.
xli.
xlii.
xliii.
xliv.
xlv.
xlvi.
xlvii.
xlviii.
xlix.
l.
li.
Name?
Date of Birth
Country of Origin
Occupation
Level of Education Last Completed?
1. Primary
2. High School
3. Trade School
4. University two year
5. University four year
6. Doctorate
Marital Status?
How long have you been traveling for?
What type of traveler are you?
Date of Arrival in Rio Negro?
Date of Departure from Rio Negro?
Where did you hear about visiting Rio Negro?
Where did you sleep during your visit to Rio Negro?
Where did you eat during your visit to Rio Negro
What motivated you to visit Rio Negro?
What activities did you participate in during your visit to Rio
Negro?
For each of the activities you participated in, please state
whether you believe these activities have the potential to be
developed for tourism? (Only use when developing new
products)
On a scale of 1-10 with one being the lowest and ten being the
highest. Please rate your level of satisfaction with each of the
activities you participated in during your visit to Rio Negro?
Please describe any problems you encountered during your
stay in Rio Negro that would negatively affect developing the
activities you participated in as formalized tourist attractions?
(Only use when developing new products)
Please describe any problems you may have had with your
food or accommodations?
On a scale of 1-10 with one being the lowest and ten being the
highest. Did you feel welcome in the community?
On a scale of 1-10 with one being the lowest and ten being the
highest. Did you feel safe during your visit?
Why do you think other tourists would come visit Rio Negro?
Why would tourists not visit Rio Negro?
Would you recommend a visit to Rio Negro to a friend?
If a 15% tax on all tourism income was used to develop a
project, which benefited ever member of the Rio Negro
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community, what type of project would you like the money
you have spent to support?
lii. On a scale of 1-10 with one being the lowest and ten being the
highest. Please rate your overall experience in Rio Negro?
Survey Three
Infrastructure of Private Property
1. Overall Quality of Home
Good
Fair
Bad
Light/Dark
Comments:
2. Overall Quality of Kitchen
Good
Fair
Bad
Light/Dark
Comments:
Indoor/Outdoor
3.Type of walls
Wood
Brick
Concrete
Mix of Materials
Comments:
4. Yard
Clean
Dirty
None
Comments:
5. Human Waste
Pit Toilet
Pour flush toilet
Bushes, Field, Etc.
River
Comments:
6. Garbage
Burn
Bury
Throw outside
Collect
Comment:
7.Roof
Tile
Thatched
Corrugated
Overall condition
Comments:
8.Water
From Central Water System
Not from Central Water System
Comments:
9. Animals
Penned
Not Penned
Comments:
10.Electricity
None
Battery
Combustion Generator
Micro-hydro
Comments:
11.Overall Home maintenance
Good
Fair
Bad
Comments:
Comments:
- 173 –
APPENDIX E
Waste-Water Management through the Use of Constructed Wetlands
This following section of this report was prepared courtesy of wastewater treatment
specialist and wetlands engineer David Whitney from the University of Vermont’s
Department of Civil Engineering. David has designed wastewater treatment systems for
Agro and Ecotourism destinations in Italy and Mexico. After reviewing many factors and
discussing the options of living machines, composting toilets, and traditional septic
systems it was decided that the most cost effective and most environmentally friendly
method for treating wastewater in Rio Negro, given the environmental and sociopolitical
realities of the community, would be the use of constructed wetlands. David has been
generous enough to provide this project with the review of constructed wetlands below.
He has volunteered his services to the community of Rio Negro to assist them with the
construction of a wetland in the future. David can be via email at dwhit1885@yahoo.com
or via voicemail at (802) 656-1937.
Prepared by: David Whitney
Project: Rio Negro, Honduras
Date: March 26, 2002
Constructed Wetlands: History and Description
Constructed wetlands are a low-cost treatment alternative used for a variety of wastes
including agriculture runoff, industrial operations, stormwater runoff, landfill leachate,
and domestic wastewater. These plant-based systems typically have fewer moving parts
and are less energy intensive than other alternatives that often include complicated
recycling pumping schemes and heavy aeration. Research has shown that constructed
wetlands can efficiently remove nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, reduce the
amount of suspended solids in the waste stream, digest and remove organic compounds,
precipitate metals, remove pathogens, and degrade toxic compounds (Campbell and
Ogden, 1999).
The use of wetland and aquatic plants for water treatment and human benefit is an ancient
practice. Sudanese and Egyptian cultures used wetland plants and clay to purify the
floodwaters of the Nile (Campbell and Ogden, 1999). More recently, constructed
wetlands have been designed and used for treating domestic wastewater, both in the
United States and abroad. They offer a low-cost alternative to traditional wastewater
treatment and have the additional benefit of being less energy intensive and require less
operator attention. These properties have made constructed wetlands an excellent
technology for treating wastewater in developing countries and other regions of the world
where resources are limited.
In general, there are two types of constructed wetlands. The first is referred to as a freewater-surface (FWS) wetland. These wetlands resemble shallow ponds in which the
water is no deeper than three feet. Emergent, submerged, and floating plant species are
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typically planted in these systems. The second type, shown in figure below, is a
subsurface-flow (SF) wetland. In subsurface flow systems, water is maintained at a
constant depth below the surface of the growing media, which is usually gravel, and is
typically 18 inches deep throughout the wetland. The gravel media ranges in depth from
2 to 3 feet. Typically an impermeable liner is installed beneath the gravel to prevent
seepage and contamination of the groundwater. Plant species encountered in SF wetlands
are limited to emergents and others that can tolerate saturated soil conditions for extended
periods of time.
The subsurface-flow wetland design has several benefits over the free-water surface
wetland, especially in cold regions. Constructed wetlands can be considered attached
growth biological reactors. This means that the bacteria responsible for the treatment of
wastewater flowing through the system are primarily found on the surface of the growing
media, the plants, and their roots, rather than freely swimming in the water. Subsurfaceflow wetlands have an estimated order of magnitude greater surface area suitable for
bacterial growth than a FWS counterpart. Bacteria are typically found growing on the
surface of the gravel media and the plant roots. Consequently, SF wetlands have higher
microbial population densities than FWS wetlands, resulting in increased rates of
biological reactions. This translates into smaller, more efficient wetlands. As a rule of
thumb, SF wetlands are about ¼ the size of FWS wetlands designed to treat the same
amount of waste. This can be an important financial consideration for applications where
land is a commodity, such as farms, resorts and housing developments.
Domestic wastewater has high concentrations of organic matter, nutrients and
microorganisms. If large quantities of wastewater are left untreated, or insufficiently
treated, it can produce a strong smelling and unpleasant odor, endanger public health by
risking exposure to pathogenic bacteria, and severely impair water quality and destroy
sensitive aquatic ecosystems. Removing nutrients from wastewater is particularly
important prior to discharge to sensitive ecosystems since excess nutrients can result in
algae blooms and subsequent damage to existing flora and fauna. In the United States
- 175 –
wastewater most commonly receives a secondary level of treatment, which includes
biological and chemical processes to remove organic matter.
There are several methods of treating household wastewater. The simplest form is the
septic system. Originally this was intended to function as a patch for residents living
outside of town until municipal wastewater service reached their homes. Septic systems
are comprised of a sealed settling tank and a disposal field. Although this treatment
method is simple it can be ineffective if inappropriate soil types, vegetative cover and
high groundwater conditions exist in the disposal field. Composting toilets minimize
household water consumption because they require little or no water for flushing.
However, the composting process requires the maintenance of an aerobic environment as
well as specific temperature ranges to minimize odors, facilitate degradation and to
eliminate harmful pathogens and viruses. A small volume of concentrated waste is
produced as a byproduct of this process as well, and must treated before it can be used or
disposed of. Another progressive method of treating wastewater is the living machine.
The living machine, much like a constructed wetland, is a plant based treatment system.
It mimics a natural ecosystem through a series of tanks, each performing a unique
function. These systems tend to be more complicated and require more energy to operate
than constructed wetlands, and therefore may be inappropriate for this specific
application.
Constructed wetlands are an effective method of treating wastewater. Benefits of a
subsurface flow wetland system include inexpensive construction, low operation and
maintenance costs, minimal energy requirements, small surface areas and they can
become an integral part of the surrounding landscape. An example of a small community
that has already taken advantage of wetland technology for treating their wastewater is
Playa de Akumal, a small beach community located on the Yucatan Peninsula in
Mexico’s Quintana Roo. A non-governmental organization called the Centro Ecologico
Akumal has been established to educate visitors and residents about their surrounding
ecosystems and sustainable living. Through their efforts, many of the residents and
businesses of Akumal use constructed wetlands to treat their wastewater. The locals refer
them to as ‘wetland gardens’ and most are seeded with a variety of tropical plants
including oleander, banana trees, wetland palms, elephant ears and canna lilly. These
treatment systems perform a valuable function for the community and enhance the
landscape with colorful flowers and vibrant plants. The wastewater gardens are located
in close proximity to local residences and businesses in Akumal and have functioned
inconspicuously for quite some time. Many people pass by these wastewater treatment
systems without realizing their true identity.
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