samanasuenos said:
Anyway, good read. Thanks so much! Where do you find all these goodies?
-- Sam
Well, as the intro to this piece says, Jaime wrote it for UNDP's 2005 Human Development Report on the DR. Jaime is currently working with USAID, the Environment Ministry and Fundacion Global on a sustainable tourism project. He's no neophyte to this subject. I've been trying to get him to write some new stuff for the blog, but he's so busy it's hard to pin him down long enough. [But maybe if we all twist his arm hard enough! LOL] Nonetheless, I thought it might be a good opener for other pieces we have planned on tourism-related issues...
If you've been reading the blog regularly, you know that we by no means are "letting the locals off the hook" for thier part in the DR's environmental problems. But as a huge employer, foreign investment magnet and contributor to the economy, as a huge consumer of energy and water and consumer goods, a huge producer of liquid and solid wastes, and a common link to a host of other issues (such as transport, reef management, etc.), we cannot left the tourism industry off the hook either.
P.S. Judging by your last post, you seem to think that by saying tourism industry, we mean only the AIs. Not so. We mean the whole ball of wax -- tour companies, bed-and-breakfasts, dive shops, hotels big and small, resorts, golf courses, amusement and water parks, tourist transports, cruises, beachside bars, restaurants and shops, etc etc. Even those short-sighted vendors you alluded to!