Visiting Dean of the University of Central Florida hospitality school, Dr. Abraham Pizam, speaking at the Fundacion Global, urged Dominicans to act now to find a balance between economic interests and the sustainable environment and cultural and community interests. He referred Dominicans to the guidelines for sustainable tourism development as presented in Agenda 21 for the Travel & Tourism Industry. The Agenda 21 highlights that it is in the best interest of governments and the private tourism industry to protect the natural and cultural resources of each country?s surroundings as the core of their tourism business and key to long-term future development. ?The cost of inaction will damage the tourism industry and result in regulatory or economic penalties in the future,? said Dr. Pizam. He highlighted that since the DR is on an island, it is more susceptible to negative environmental and socio-cultural impacts than large land masses. He said that the present model of attracting high numbers composed of low-spending tourists has a weighty impact on the country. He said it is obvious that the DR tourism industry grew at a rate that accelerated so rapidly, the authorities did not have time to appropriately plan and properly control development. He encouraged local industry to go after what he called the well-to-do European and North American market sectors that are willing to pay premiums for first-class eco-tourism vacations, for which the country has so much potential. He discouraged the simple offer of sun, sand and surf vacations, believing that too many destinations exist that can compete on price.
Pizam said from his visit he perceived the DR?s tourism industry as lacking cohesion and a unified voice ? potential reasons for the sector?s inability to convince the government of its importance to the population in general.
When asked to comment on the importance of advertising, he said there was no other such industry where yield on money appropriately invested produced so much. He cited the case of Orlando, where the results have been US$4 yield to every US$1 invested, and he does not see why this should be any different in the DR. He said the industry must educate the population and the government on the importance of tourism and remind that it is in everyone?s best interest to preserve natural and cultural heritage.
Pizam said that with proper planning the tourism industry could decide on who their guests are by directing marketing and products to those targeted groups.
http://www.wttc.org/promote/agenda21.htm