Countrystyle Community Tourism Information

Introduction - Projects for Community tourism - Social Responsibility - Marketing of Countrystyle Community Tourism - Conclusion

INTRODUCTION
The Economic Benefits of Community Tourism

Tourism is a growth industry, offering communities of all shapes and sizes a unique development opportunity. Tourism is widely recognized for creating and sustaining jobs, and bringing new money to an area. Visitor spending supports local business, speciality shops, restaurants and recreational facilities which might otherwise not survive. Tourism can also lead to the regeneration of redundant buildings, help with local conservation and environmental improvement, and be the key source of civic pride. Although tourism is undoubtedly important at a national level, particularly in terms of foreign exchange and international trade, what it means for individual communities can be and often is quite different.

Tourism planning must be built on a comprehensive understanding of its potential, to help maximize the industry’s contribution to the well-being of the community and where possible eliminate the negative. Most places develop tourism because of its economic potential: it creates jobs, is relatively clean and has minimal start-up costs. It also conserves national heritage, protects the environment and contributes to an improvement in the quality of life and well-being of local communities.

Community Tourism was created and developed to assist communities in realizing the direct benefits of tourism in their own environment. It is an integrated approach which embraces all aspects of a community and should not be seen as an alternative type of tourism as it also works closely with the traditional resort products.

Therefore, Community Tourism can lead the way for the future development of any country ensuring that communities are educated in all aspects of managing the business of tourism to ensure complete visitor satisfaction. Community tourism is not a simple product or single business, but has aspects including transport, accommodation, catering, attractions, information and hospitality.

To be successful, destination communities needs to establish leadership and co-ordination of all those active and interested in tourism. The Sustainable Communities Foundation (SCF) was formed specifically to assist communities to be geared to take charge of their future through education and training in entrepreneurial skills, etiquette, being a good ambassador for their community and country and knowledge of how to manage their business.

The Jamaica Community Tourism Project which was proposed and designed by the Sustainable Communities Foundation (SCF) in association with the Countrystyle Community Tourism Consultants and co-ordinated by the St Elizabeth Homecoming Foundation (SEHF) has established a partnership approach to the development of Community Tourism in Jamaica. The main partners included:
The University of the West Indies (UWI), The Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association (JHTA), HEART/NTA (the National Training Agency of Jamaica), Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) and more recently the Social Development Commission (SDC). The Countrystyle Community Tourism Network acted as Consultants and Trainers within this Project.
The Jamaica Community Tourism Project ‘s definition of Community Tourism is:

Community Tourism 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.

The Countrystyle Community Tourism Network supports this definition.

Countrystyle Community Tourism –Improving the Quality of Life

Countrystyle Community Tourism embraces all the special interest types of tourism:

• Cultural Tourism
• Heritage Tourism
• Eco-Tourism
• Educational Tourism
• Recreational Tourism
• Spiritual Tourism
• Christian Tourism
• Adventure Tourism
• Health Tourism
• Agro Tourism

Therefore, Countrystyle Community Tourism should be seen as the way forward for national development to encourage communities to participate and support this vital tourism industry. Visitors are interested in having a “community experience” and being educated on the way of life. However, it is imperative that communities understand the importance of preparing their communities to welcome visitors – the main areas should be :
• clean community – environmentally friendly - understanding that their home is not just where they live
• safe community - taking care of visitors – no harassment, drug pushing, crime etc.
• good hospitality – understanding that hospitality is everybody’s business and not just where the visitor stays

Our Vision

The nature and scope of our enterprise is based on a vision; The Vision of Countrystyle International is focused on building network capacity; in order to facilitate sustainable community development. Building a network of partners to give the needed support to local communities within Jamaica and the Caribbean; representing and partnering is the focus of developing and marketing the Communities of the Caribbean as a destination within a destination. Then these communities can establish an individual identity within the international marketplace, not only in terms of the tourism marketplace, but also in other desired industries and economic activities. This through the efficient and effective execution of roles and services of Countrystyle’s partners, departments and companies; to effectively represent the Communities of the Jamaica and the Caribbean in a diversity of ways—‘Building Communities’ for Communities.

This scope and vision is executed through our three dimensional service portfolio of:

- The Countrystyle Institute For Sustainable Tourism- (Training)
- Countrystyle Consultants & Partners (Countrystyle Consultancy Services)
- Countrystyle Community Tours (Marketing and packaging of the communities)

Our policies of social responsibility make up the fundamental frame of who we are. Social Responsibility is not an after thought; it is our essential nature of existence as an organization. Basically our company’s mission and social responsibility policy are one of the same; which can be seen in our vision, outlined in point 1. We believe that all development should be sustainable in nature; especially as it relates to environmental sustainability. Any of our product offerings (especially in our community tours) should be environmentally sustainable, beneficial to the people who provide experiences to our clients.

No development should exploit or significantly deteriorate the natural potential of the resources in an area, which also includes the cultural and heritage resources. As these resources are needed for future generations; therefore resource protection and enhancement are key.

Because ‘social responsibility’ is the very essence of ‘Community Tourism’; all our activities in developing and practicing Community Tourism are in effect execution of social responsibility; especially our dedication to training; through our Institute. However to be very specific; through our link to the community tourism NGO ‘The Sustainable Communities Foundation,’ we seek to build and centralize financial resources for community development, assisting individuals and collective groups to access low cost and grant funding. We are also heavily involved with many other NGOs and Community Based Organizations, assisting them with their objectives; through volunteer consultancy.

Projects for Community Tourism >>>