Communities: Destinations for Development

Diana McIntyre-Pike, Chairman/CEO,
Countrystyle International Ltd, President, International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) Caribbean chapter & Co-coordinator -International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) Community Tourism Network

Community is a word which draws on several important elements of nation building - probably the most central characteristic of the word ‘community’ is the scenario of bringing people together for a purpose. It is structuring a collective mind-set, which involves sharing and using resources in an equitable and sustainable way. Community building should involve a ‘4P formula’ of potential, passion, purpose and partnership; one P builds on the other.

Community development begins with recognition of what resources are present and how those resources can be sustainably used. Passion speaks about the creative enterprise of the human spirit and is the bridge that links potential to purpose. Passion creates a vision that builds on the potentialities of a people and/or area. At all stages individual efforts must unite and form consensus or individual efforts must be at least complimentary.

Community purpose involves the mobilization of community leadership and a division of labour to address key areas of development; a key component is full participation by all stakeholders, with intense interactivity to clarify the strategy forward towards the ‘community vision’.

The 4th P of Partnership is at the point where all linkages are formalized between public and private sector, where the community as a unit can begin to receive assistance from other communities within the nation and overseas. Prominently evident is that community means relationships, at all levels, and how these relationships are harnessed to produce results.

Community development therefore in its ideal form is people centred and driven; and involves a direct interactivity in any development process--This interactivity within our global village touches people beyond borders and tourism & hospitality is the industry which can be used to help break borders, build linkages and build COMMUNITY!

Community Tourism as a means of community development brings tourism into the context where it does not act as an exploiter of resources but as a motivation to sustain environment and cultural authenticity. Change the scope of tourism, where it no longer is characterized by a subservient host-visitor relationship, but as a tool to build cross cultural bonds, respect and understanding. A tourism which broadens hospitality into a wide vision for the nation, where we recognize that service is a constant and must be delivered to everyone at all levels. Just as how we recognize a tourist to our shore has an economic value, so must we also recognize that the man of the street has one, however we need to reach out and build each other up as Jamaicans.

Tourism clearly is a people industry and a nation’s total hospitality offering can only be sustained at a high quality if the social needs of the masses are attended to. Community Tourism has been advocated for over thirty years, through the pioneering efforts of the Countrystyle team and my family who have paved the way for others and received the support of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT), the Sustainable Communities Foundation through Tourism and Desmond Henry (former Director of Tourism).

Community Tourism by official definition in the recently concluded Jamaica Community Project involving several professionals and stakeholders is:

Both an integrated approach and collaborative tool for the socio-economic empowerment of communities through the assessment, development and marketing of natural and cultural community resources which seeks to add value to the experience of local and foreign visitors and simultaneously improve the quality of communities.

Community Tourism seeks to shift the traditional mindset of tourism into an avenue where communities across Jamaica become empowered, educated and involved in tapping into the international tourism market; opening up new niches for destination Jamaica, most notably the nature-culture-adventure traveler. It is sustainable and seeks to build on the natural and cultural ‘capital’ of a specific area.

Community Tourism is about new levels of relationship between host and visitor; it seeks to market lifestyles and people which are authentic and natural. Community Tourism brings in tourism as a community development tool; as it views the tourism product of Jamaica not only as specific ‘resort areas’ or traditional tourism establishments but the entire country.

Through community tourism marketing; schools, business places and the ‘common man’ become attractions and a part of the product. It seeks to diversify the Jamaican offering by promoting the ‘many Jamaicans and many Jamaicas - a promotion which can direct interest on Jamaica and its communities in new ways, producing opportunities for other sectors of the economy and creating new tourism partners and entrepreneurs.

Community Tourism produces vacations which are highly experiential; and the diverse experiences to be had in Jamaica apply to wide cross-section of new markets which have been un-tapped. Experiences are numerous: culinary, sports, historical, adventure, eco….etc

An example of a community tourism vacation is where in one week, a visitor can visit at least 11 communities to enjoy their lifestyle, food and projects. Countrystyle has successfully created ‘community experience’ packages (including all-inclusive) to suit personal interests and budgets.

Over the last thirty years, efforts have borne fruit, in the forms of the CPEC funded Jamaica Community Tourism Project, the relative success of Countrystyle Vacations and the recent formulation of the Unique Jamaica Tourism Cluster under the Jamaica Exporters Association (JEA), through a direct partnership with the International Institute for Peace through Tourism, it has been exported as a sustainable strategy of approaching tourism. However these efforts are basically attending to the foundation, through which more must take place.

One of the well known challenges is access to low-interest funding. Thus one of the future steps that have to be taken is the creation of a Project Development Fund which is needed to offer low interest and grant funding for community projects. Communities need a Fund where they can access moratorium periods, training and marketing support in order to realize their full potential in their own environment.

Communities are destinations for development; for within them, they hold the destiny of the country. Communities can be marketed as destinations within the ultimate destination of Jamaica. Marketing of these destinations creates an image and a brand; a brand which can be used in an export strategy.

A career in ‘Community Tourism’ is built on a ‘Community Consciousness’ highlighting the community as a destination within the domestic and international tourism marketplace. Ultimately influencing ‘people flow’ into a community and the capitalization of providing goods, services and hospitality to these people attracted to the community both local and international.

For example, the development of the Unique Village programme through Countrystyle in association with Unique Jamaica will create economic opportunities for community persons interested in investing in community tourism.

One of the successes of the CPEC funded Jamaica Community Project is the initiation by HEART/NTA of an accredited course in Community Tourism Level 1 -4 and the development of a Handbook for Community Tourism which will be printed by the University of the West Indies (UWI) as soon as funding is finalised.

Tourism involves the movement of people into the power of hospitality, which stimulates the building and maintenance of relationships across borders. In the world of Globalization; this becomes increasingly necessary for everyone. Tourism produces ‘people flow’ into an area through marketing an area as a destination; entrepreneurship takes aim at any flow of people or money into an area, providing needed services or products to take care of visitors, who are not only internationally based but also local.

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