The Caribbean Media Exchange held in Puerto Rico last weekend was a stage for promoting the importance of new tourism paradigms. In her participation in the event, Puerto Rico’s tourism director Terestella Gonzalez stressed the need for changing people’s mindsets when it comes to tourism development. The Puerto Rico Tourism Company was a key sponsor of the event. Gonzalez announced that Puerto Rico is pushing ahead new legislation to promote sustainable tourism, “even if this may be at the expense of development decisions”. She called the legislation on land use to be the great legacy of the governor.
“It is the quality of the experience: we need to diversify our product,” she explained. “Puerto Rico is not getting any bigger,” she said. “We need to think responsibly about how we are going to build more hotels and houses. If you don’t have a plan for the use of land and leave it to the developers, you throw away the island.”
“We want the people to know that the tourism industry is a way of enhancing our people’s quality of life.” She highlighted that they want to attract the geo-savvy tourist who wants to integrate with the culture of the Puerto Rican people.
Puerto Rico’s focus on inland natural reserves comes at a time when the Dominican Republic’s government is announcing that National Park beach lands in Pedernales and La Altagracia provinces are slated for development of resort properties, despite local groups emphasizing that this is in violation of Environment Law 64-00. Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico, authorities at the Yunque National Reserve announced they are gradually increasing the park’s size by incorporating lands under private administration into the conservation effort.
The Caribbean Media Exchange is organized by Counterpart International.
See http://www.mediaexchange.info/