Good afternoon people...
After much thought and contemplation, I finally have a
clear idea of how the Social Tourism segment of the
Conference on Honduras 2005 will work.
First of all, the segment will take place on Saturday,
October 22.
The introduction to the segment will take place from
8:00 am to 9:35 am. I will be the opening speaker. I
will give a summary of our vision for the Social
Tourism Program and summary of the social tourism
agenda for the day.
I will be followed by Vicente Murphy. Vicente will
talk about the Honduran Institute of Tourism's SAVE
program. SAVE stands for Scientific, Academic,
Volunteer, and Educational. It is a strategy designed
to promote geotourism to Honduras.
SAVE fits nicely with our Social Tourism Program
because social tourism falls under the "Volunteer"
part of it.
Vicente will be followed by Luis Cruz of Maya Temple
Tours. Luis will be subbing for Dennis Flores, who is
the head of Maya Temple. I am relying on Maya Temple
to help us spread the word about the Social Tourism
Program to the tourism industry in Honduras and assist
in creating an uncomplicated, user-friendly system for
the program.
I am hoping Mario Gutierrez of Honduras This Week will
agree to speak after Luis. Honduras This Week is
Honduras' only English-language newspaper, and I think
we have only begun to use the publication to its full
potential in terms of making it a link between social
tourists working in Honduras, as well as a link
between the tourism industry and social tourists.
If you'll look at
http://www.projecthonduras.com/conference/conference2005/socialtourismbriefings2005.htm
you'll see that I've divided the Tourism Industry
Briefings into four parts: Briefings by Lodging
Providers, Briefing by Service Providers, Briefings by
Food & Dining Providers, and Briefings by Site Seeing
Providers. The names of the segments may be revised
slightly between now and conference time, but you get
the idea.
I will give representatives of various tourism
industry businesses five minutes each to talk about
their business and what they are doing (or willing to
do) to provide incentives for social tourists to keep
returning to Honduras and to spread the word about the
country, its needs, and its beauty.
After each part, there will be about 15 minutes of
open forum so that people in the audience can ask
questions or make suggestions. What I want to do is
establish an ongoing dialogue between social tourists
and the tourism industry in Honduras. I want to
create an alliance so that everybody benefits. The
tourism industry would benefit by attracting more
social tourists. The Honduran people would benefit by
a growing flow of humanitarians/volunteers. Social
tourists would benefit from low prices.
The idea is simple. Most of my ideas are simple. The
answers to most of the world's problems are simple.
It's the implementation that is tough, and that is
precisely why I wish to use to the conference for
people to brainstorm how to implement this idea.
Lastly, please e-mail, snail mail, or call anyone you
know within the airline industry and locate some
useful contacts who could assist us in developing a
close relationship with representatives of American
Airlines, Continental Airlines, Aero Honduras
Airlines, and other airlines that go to Honduras.
One of the biggest impediments to increasing the
number of social tourists to Honduras is the high cost
of airline tickets to Honduras. The prices are
excessively high. I tried to purchase my ticket a few
weeks ago and I couldn't find anything for under $700.
Ultimately, I bought a ticket via Guatemala City for
less than $400. I will be taking a bus into Honduras
for something like $30-40.
I would like to have representatives of the airline
industry be at the Conference on Honduras to answer
questions regarding high prices. I would also like to
hear what they would be willing to do to reduce prices
for social tourists.
I would also like to have representatives of
InterAirports at the conference. InterAirports is the
company that operates the four airports in Honduras
(Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba, and Roatan).
I would like to see what they can do to reduce the
exit fees for social tourists.
In short, I think that individuals who are donating
their time, energy, financial resources, and talents
to help the people of Honduras should receive a
concrete acknowledgment of their contribution. That
is largely what the Social Tourism Program is all
about.
Again, though, the basis of the program is that this
"acknowledgment" is good for business.
Thanks,
Marco
>>
"The call to be of service to one another, the intuition that prompts
us to use our power to help others, is wired into our physical and
spiritual nature."
--Caroline Myss
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