1^ST IIPT CARIBBEAN Community Tourism Conference

The 1^st IIPT Caribbean Community Tourism Conference will be hosted and managed by the Sustainable Communities Foundation (SCF) which represents the IIPT Caribbean Chapter from December 6-10 2002 at the Wyndham Rose Hall Resort, Montego Bay, Jamaica.

The Conference Theme is “Building Communities through Community Tourism”

The Sustainable Communities Foundation (SCF) is a non-profit organization fully committed to sustainable community tourism.  The mission of SCF is

To establish a leading organization for education, job-training, promotion and development of sustainable community tourism, recognizing the importance of the human, environmental, socio-economic cultural and heritage resources of communities in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean.

SCF has focused on training for community tourism and has conducted training programs in community tourism including introductions to basic hospitality skills in Jamaica for about 2,000 people from communities in central and south Jamaica. It has also sensitized communities throughout Jamaica and in St. Lucia, Dominica, Cuba, Trinidad, and St. Kitts concerning the benefits of community tourism. SCF works with many NGO’s and community groups and has international affiliations with the Institute for Peace through Tourism (Montreal, Canada) and Counterpoint International (Washington, DC)

Several objectives have been established for this conference:

1.       To raise awareness about community tourism and the potential it offers for meaningful community participation in the tourism sector in Jamaica, including the programs available in Jamaica and the project initiatives already in process.

2.       To provide access to international expertise in the travel trade, managers of other community tourism products and projects in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean and access to the sharing of ideas about tourism.

3.       To provide conference participants with case study material on community tourism product identification, development and implementation. This will be drawn from both Jamaica and international locales.

4.       To provide a forum for networking and to link potential community tourism product representatives with appropriate agencies and organizations which can supply resource support.

5.       Identifying/compiling community tourism standards, building on existing programs such as Tourism Product Development Company’s guidelines, Country Style’s programmes, and international examples.

6.       Exploring mechanisms for financing community tourism products and the potential for a community tourism development fund.

7         To provide a forum (Community Trade Show )to demonstrate the natural, cultural, heritage assets of the Caribbean to the general public, tour operators, travel agents, cruise ship operators etc.  Also to highlight the importance of communities as a viable tourism product which will increase business throughout the Caribbean and improve the quality of life of the people.

The conference is targeted to provide for participation by 300 representatives of communities (including entrepreneurs in communities) which will include community representatives from selected community tourism projects throughout the Caribbean.  Some will be invited, to present case studies and serve on panels for the conference to share their experiences. Selected community representatives will be identified for participation in the training courses to be offered after the conference. These individuals will become the trained trainers within the communities.

The international product standards, market perspective and financing approaches will be developed and provided through the case studies in addition to selected representation from international travel trade and related organizations.  Conference management will be undertaken by SCF which represents the Caribbean chapter of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) with support from other agencies and organizations.  SCF will also organize conference sponsorships and market and advertise the conference.