To provide you with the best experience, cookies are used on this site.  Learn more

Allow cookies
Colombia tourist routes community based ecotourism

About

Summary

Since 2019 we have been working with two rural communities, both with exceptional biodiversity and which had been severely affected by the conflicts in Colombia. Together with E3 Group in Colombia and RHS Kew Gardens, we are developing tourist routes that promote forest protection and peacebuilding through community-based ecotourism.

The communities are in two of Colombia's most affected post-conflict regions. Serranía De Las Quinchas in Boyacá, deep in the Andes to the north of Bogota, is the centre of Colombia’s emerald mining and local communities had lived with decades of conflict from the ‘green wars’ and enforced coca production for the drugs barons. Up in the north, on the Venezuelan border, the villages of La Victoria and Estados Unidos in the Serranía del Perijá, were ravaged by the conflict between the FARC guerillas and the paramilitaries. In the first year of the program we also worked with an Afro-Caribbean community living in mangroves of Bocas del Atrato, in the Bay of Urabá, on the Panamanian border, who had moved there 50 years ago to escape the drug trafficking conflicts in the Darién Gap.

The local livelihoods of all these communities had become dependent on cutting down the rainforest for agriculture, logging or other unsustainable natural resource exploitation. This three year project has supported these communities to co-develop ecotourism plans, based on scientific research that identified new endemic species of plants and exceptional biodiversity. It uses community-led tourism to contribute to creating sustainable livelihoods and limiting deforestation to protect biodiversity-rich ecosystems.

Our Approach

The project has demonstrated the potential of community-based ecotourism in biodiversity hotspots as a means to reduce deforestation, avoid GHG emissions and strengthen peacebuilding. In each community the team co-developed ecotourism plans that include the latest scientific research on plant diversity and have designed marketable packages for national and international tour operators.

Acorn Tourism’s specific role was to visit the communities and assess the potential tourism offer, in order to identify which niche markets would be most interested in visiting these communities. We undertook detailed niche market analysis and produced niche market reports on Birding, Scientific, Academic, Volunteering and Education (SAVE) tourism and Community-led Nature Ecotourism. We also ran capacity building workshops with each community to develop their understanding of niche market segments and the types of visitor markets they would need to target.

In the second and third years of the project we have been building the capaicty of the communities to understand their target audiences and develop marketing skills. We have focused on the Training of Trainers from the local Peace Development Process (the PDPs) to ensure this knowledge is embedded lcoally. To build relationships with local travel agencies and hotels, we have coached the communities Tourism Committees to present their tours and host trade fam trips.  

Outcome

The niche market reports produced during the first year of the program profiled these target audiences, provided product development recommendations on how to meet their expectations and how to market to them. In addition, we also produced a guide on How to Set up and Run a Sustainable Tourism Business. This provided the communities with clear guidance about how they should develop their tourism offer to ensure it was sustainable and to show them how this could be evidenced.

This research was used for online and in-person training workshops with each of the communities. It guided the content created for the communities websites and social media channels, that have been developed to promote the tourism packages offered by each community. This knowledge and understanding of the target audiences has been the foundation of the Marketing Plans that were coproduced and delivered during the second and third years of the program. 

Over the three years of the project, the communities have developed their tours, been trained on their exceptional biodiversity and unique species, learned how to cook their indigenous plants and create exception local gastronomy. Tour guides have been trained and set up their own tour agencies and tours have been sold through their Instagram channels. 

 

 

Directions

Projects Nearby

  1. We assessed potential demand for niche activities in Aruba including Adventure, Birding,…

  2. Market research, stakeholder consultation and workshops in San Andres and Providencia…

  3. This study provided input into the Sustainable Tourism Master Plan 2023-2028 for St.…

  1. This Regional Tourism Marketing Strategy was developed to provide a detailed and…

  2. An extensive tourism statistics study for St. Vincent that included the design and…

  3. Study to determine the level of readiness to develop a first experimental TSA within the…

  4. Research, design and implementation of a tourism market research system for the nine OECS…

  5. This project was designed to assist the development of a World Bank lending operation…

  6. Influencer marketing project to help promote Guyana as an ecotourism destination to the…

  7. Acorn led an international team to create a national tourism brand for Guyana and a…

  8. Study contracted by Discover Dominica Authority to develop a sustainable voluntourism…

  9. A niche market report examining the range of activities associated with underwater…

  10. Study commissioned by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) to research and produce 20…

  11. A report on the dynamic and growing niche tourism market of gastronomy and culinary…

  12. A 12-month project that developed tourism corridors in Corozal and Toledo that engaged…

  13. Specialist niche market report covering Golf Tourism: who plays and top generating…

Previous Next

EcoTourism Routes for Forests and Peace

Client:

FCDO, BEIS UK, Ecología Economia y Ética Asesorías Colombia ,

Location:

Colombia
FCDO, BEIS UK, Ecología Economia y Ética Asesorías Colombia

This project contributes to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

  • Acorn AwardsSDG 5 - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls SDG 5 - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls 2020
  • Acorn AwardsSDG 8 - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and work SDG 8 - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and work 2020
  • Acorn AwardsSDG10 - Reduce inequality within and among countries SDG10 - Reduce inequality within and among countries 2020
  • Acorn AwardsSDG12 - Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns SDG12 - Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns 2020
  • Acorn AwardsSDG13 - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts SDG13 - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts 2020
  • Acorn AwardsSDG15 - Protect, restore, promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, halt biodiversity loss SDG15 - Protect, restore, promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, halt biodiversity loss 2020

Contact us

3 Woodland Enterprise Centre, Hastings Road,
Flimwell, East Sussex, TN5 7PR, UK

+44 (0) 1580 879970

contact@acorntourism.co.uk