Voluntourism, a developmental project where tourists take part in charity work, is taking a new shape in Dominica. This was made known to stakeholders by Collin Piper, the director of tourism and CEO for Discover Dominica Authority (DDA). Piper at a media meeting presented the strategic development plan for voluntourism prepared by Acorn Tourism Consulting Limited, a UK-based firm.
The tourism sector in Dominica decided to revamp the industry with new initiatives aimed at encouraging participatory interaction in the sector. Following consultations with relevant authorities on how to forge ahead in the sector, voluntourism was born. This was mooted and pursued vigorously since Hurricane Maria occurred two years ago.
To better explore the potentials and broaden the reach of voluntourism, Acorn Tourism Consulting was contracted to help. The agency was saddled with the responsibility of developing a strategic plan for the exploitation and implementation of voluntourism in Dominica. The consulting firm was tasked to carry out a three-month study of the niche market and come up with workable plans that would revitalize and make the tourism industry more participatory and economically gainful.
At the end of their findings, Acorn’s lead consultant, Kevin Millington, submitted a comprehensive strategic development plan for voluntourism in the country to DDA; and this Piper presented to stakeholders at the press conference. In describing the modalities for the research, Piper said several tourism niches which “could stand up to Mother Nature” were examined for the project.
We looked at areas such as cultural and creative tourism. We also looked at the impact and effects that the diaspora travel, visiting friends would have on the tourism industry. And we also looked at the area of volunteerism.
Collin Piper: Director of Tourism and CEO for Discover Dominica Authority (DDA)
Piper said the DDA is particular about making the world to understand that Dominica may have been hit by hurricanes David and Maria among others in the recent past, the island country continues to rebuild with a view to making the nation an international tourism centre. He said several consultations were held across board with relevant agencies to structure how voluntourism activities would run.
“We held trainings which were conducted by Caribbean Tourism Organization on looking at packaging for volunteerism activities,” he said.
Piper together with Millington believes that with proper structuring, voluntourism holds a lot of economic potentials for communities and property owners to become service providers. Other stakeholders at the conference agreed that tourism service providers would play a big part in the future voluntourism in the country.
This article is copyright © 2019 DOM767
