Guy Toye, Dean Close School, reports on Spring Conference ‘Eco- and community-based tourism’

Two lectures were presented at the Bristol GA ‘Spring Conference’ that provided useful facts with sources related to tourism to use as our case studies in our summer AS exams. Dr. Jenny Hill from the University of West of England (UWE) was first; she gave us a great insight into the work she has been involved with in a remote settlement in the Peruvian Amazon.

It is incredible to think that the native Peruvians could not comprehend how remarkable and amazing their surrounding environment was; they used to kill to local wildlife, such as pumas and scarlet macaws, but with the outside help from Rainforest Expeditions they have learned that this is not economically and environmentally sustainable and so have turned to eco-tourism, which uses the wildlife as their main source of tourism income.

This case study will prove valuable in our AS examinations. Jenny Hill’s satisfaction from seeing the settlement flourish was clearly expressed in her enthusiastic and engaging presentation.

Dr. Stroma Cole (UWE) then proceeded to engage us for the second lecture, this was a tough job because we had already been sitting there for a good 50 minutes without a break. She gave an eye-opening talk on the darker side of eco/sustainable tourism, but finished off on a more positive note and regaled us with tales of her own exploits in Flores, Indonesia. Dr. Cole gave us a deep insight into the roles of the village members and what they prioritised. For example, it was extraordinary to see that men would rather have electricity and a TV connection for the weekly football match than have items that most would agree to be more essential life commodities, such as clean water piping and healthcare. She showed a useful Venn diagram relating to eco-tourism and sustainable tourism, which enlightened us further on the subject.

Dr. Cole’s talk was extremely relevant to society today and I would like to know more. Unfortunately, it isn’t part of our AS specification, but I will certainly be inclined to read more on the subject thanks to the passion and knowledge on the that was evident throughout her presentation.

by Guy Toye
Dean Close School, Cheltenham