Travel in the Age of Internet
by Ron Mader (ron@txinfinet.com)
April 1996
- Remarks prepared for the Second Annual Conference on Ecotourism and
Conservation, La Ceiba, Honduras, April 20, 1996
La Ceiba, Honduras - The Internet has been compared to a highway - usually a
wordplay on the high-tech, high-speed German infobahn, instead of a over-
utilized and under-funded Latin American caretera. This global network
utilizes computers and phone lines to send and receive digitized
information. Using the Internet can be relatively inexpensive - compared to
faxes or phone calls.
One of the most popular uses of the Internet is that of orienting travelers,
who are already "surfing the net." Last year Brad Martin and Michael
Swiggart co-created "rec.travel.latin-america", a usenet discussion group
that provides a forum for questions and answers. "Virtual tours" are
available, as are metro maps, airplane bookings and satellite weather
photos.
The importance of the Internet lies not in its providing information, but in
connection people who have a common interest. Internet connects people to
people as much as it connects people to information. The Net has been best
described as the first functioning anarchy.
There is no chance, however, that we will arrive at the point when
everything is so well documented via cyberspace that there is no need to
make the journey ourselves. Internet does, however, radically change the
reasons why we travel - instead of deceiving ourselves with a colonial
mentality that we are indeed discovers (look at the people who try to
photograph Mayan ruins when all the other discoverers are out of the picture
frame) we seek to uncover information that is tactile, that is emotional,
that brings us into the community of both people and places.
Travel information on the Internet will benefit areas that have
traditionally not received mainstream coverage. Travel providers and travel
destinations in Latin America are either creating their own pages on the
World Wide Web or contracting other businesses to do that for them.
Internet represents a radical paradigm shift in communications. I don't use
this term lightly. Internet represents a way to connect people with people -
not people to information. It can be and should be a lively forum for an
interchange of ideas among humans - with all of our merits and faults.
Unlike typical broadcast media which communicate from a one-to-many system,
Internet provides a many to many system of communications.
Internet is the Radio of the 1910s and 1920s - but much more sophisticated
and financially well-grounded. When radio was first invented, it was used by
ham operators, department stores, governments, and community groups. In the
United States, the cacophony of competing radio signals led to the creation
of the FCC under the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson. This led to the severe
restriction of radio waves and created what would become very powerful
networks - NBC, CBS and later ABC. Flash forward 70 years and we have FOX
and CNN and Rupert Murdoch and that silly WB network, but again, this
represents communications from one source to a mostly passive audience. One
to many. Now we have the opportunity for greater interaction - if that's
what we want.
Central America
Central America formally comprises five nations - Honduras, Guatemala, El
Salvador, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Informally, add Belize and Panama.
Culturally, add southern Mexico and part of Colombia. The area of the
primary seven countries is just a little more than half a million square
kilometers, less than the size of Texas - my former home state. In 1993 the
total population was 31 million and increasing by 2.7 percent each year.
Tourism is increasing. According to U.S. Department of Commerce figures,
278,000 tourists visited Nicaragua last year, up 17 percent from 1994.
Nicaragua's Tourism Ministry projects that tourist arrivals will continue to
rise by 15 percent a year through the end of the decade. Response from the
Nicaraguan government - the budget of this agency was cut by 30 percent.
Successful planning and implementation of long-term tourism strategies
requires some visionary actions. The Central American governments signed the
Alliance for Sustainable Development signed in Managua on October 12, 1994.
Sustainable tourism - including ecotourism - can be utilized as a long- term
strategy. But we need to be honest, and we need to demand inclusivity and
transparency both within government and non-governmental circles. We need to
find information on project financing. And we need to push for regionalized
efforts.
Latin America and the Internet
Latin America stands to gain the most from information on the Internet, and
I'll explain why.
Tourism Industry Intelligence reports that 20 percent of the tourism income
in developing countries comes from ecotourism. The World Wildlife Fund
reported that earnings from ecotourism are 10 times greater than from
agriculture. I think the time is long past to prove the worth of ecotourism
- do we really need another study? - But now it's time to begin the work on
the details. Travelers need information on destinations and tours;
destination owners and tour operators need information on how to make their
operations more environment friendly.
A quick scan of both travel coverage as well as headline news shows that
Latin America is poorly represented in the international media. In the
United States, I attribute this fact to cultural and political bias. We are
a nation of mostly European and Asian immigrants, and we pay attention to
these regions. As the demographics change, so will the focal point of our
attention. Additionally, with NAFTA and regional free trade agreements, we
are finally paying due to Latin America as full partners as well as
neighbors.
Travel information on the Internet - for example, Costa Rica's Rara Avis
ecolodge, provides information for net-savvy travelers who are not content
to be laptop potatoes, but want an educational experience that carries them
further into the heart of the Americas. Fortunately, expansion is carrying
forward in Honduras. Honduras This Week and El Tiempo are now available
on-line. After you return from this conference, you can check the current
news from Honduras, whether you're in Tegucigalpa, Miami or Berlin.
Some of the best Internet web sites already hail from Latin America. The
newspapers have usually been ahead of the curve - from Mexico's El Norte to
Chile's Estrategia. We must realize that regardless of our nationality, we
all live in both the First and Third Worlds. The social question becomes -
what are we going to do about this?
Internet allows - and I would say demands - the communications among
individuals. There is email and listservers and home pages on the World Wide
Web, but this is a reflection of the technology as well as a deeper need.
This networks is set up so that if you wanted to send an electronic letter -
generated on your computer and sent through the phone lines via a modem -
you can this very inexpensively and very, very quickly. There are snags -
much too many to fully criticize here - and they are best described in the
book with the halcyon title - Silicon Snakeoil. Internet is not the panacea,
but it will make a lasting impact on 1) citizen or public participation, 2)
accountability and transparency of institutions - whether they are
government agencies, non governmental organizations or travel agents or
manufacturers.
Who uses Internet? Who should use Internet? The number is growing daily, and
while I'm suspicious of the marketing claims of 30-40 million users, I do
not question the growth rate - marketed at 10-20 percent each month.
Internet is not a fad, and it will grow and radically change every four
months.
Back to Ecotourism:
When I did a survey of environmental solutions in Costa Rica in 1989,
ecotourism was the big buzzword - along with "sustainable development."
these words are still content poor descriptions of ideas most of us would
agree to like... if we knew what they meant. Ecotourism is a lot like
etiquette. We argue about the salutations, the way to address a letter, the
fork goes on which side of the plate? - instead, we should be addressing
what we actually are doing. What is the carrying capacity? Is there enough
sewage treatment? Is there sewage treatment? Are species fleeing the
tourists? Is the local community an active participant in the project?
And we need to ask - what can we be doing to provide an upward harmonization
of environmental standards? Part of the problem lies in regulation and
enforcement. A greater part stems from lack of information. Internet can be
utilized as part of the solution.
Allow me to conclude with three suggestions:
1. Stick to your principals
- Don't compromise
2. Do one thing well
- Don't try to do all things; work with other people
3. Dialogue with people you disagree with
- This is the most important point. Too often ecotourism gurus try to
convert each other. We do not have a model of ecotourism or sustainable
development that has withstood the test of time. No one has all the
answers. But if we put blinders on and insist our perspective is the
only way to view this evolving topic, we risk losing input from sources
we don't agree with 100 percent.
Thanks for this opportunity to present the Internet and the ways it can be
wisely used in ecotourism promotion.
Contact the author via email at ron@txinfinet.com.
1996 Copyright Ron Mader
--Ron E. Mader, Publisher El Planeta Platica: Eco Travels in Latin America WWW http://www.planeta.com Ron@txinfinet.com ------------------------------------------------------------ InfiNet - an online community for progressive information BBS 512.462.0633 Telnet: shakti.txinfinet.com 3000 WWW http://www.greenbuilder.com