Chapter 2: - Center for Responsible Travel

however, of most significance has been the lack of a community-level mechanism to redirect theeconomic resources generated through contributions from tourism businesses and travelers intocommunity-led social, economic, and environmental development initiatives. The destinationlevelTravelers‘ Philanthropy Initiative seeks to bridge this gap by putting in place a communitymechanism to channel contributions from tourism into community development.An opportunity for corporate communityinvestment and collaboration. Monteverdehas 133 registered businesses, the vastmajority tourism related. Despite the size andinfluence of the sector, however, corporatecommunity investment is underdeveloped. Veryfew tourism enterprises actively solicitphilanthropic donations from tourists in aconcerted and organized manner. For thosethat do, there is little transparency about theend-projects into which these donations will beinvested, or indeed, how they fit into the largereconomic development of the community. Thedestination-level Travelers‘ PhilanthropyInitiative seeks to provide incentives forTravelers‘ Philanthropy Short Course, Monteverde.Credit: CRESTbusinesses to undertake community investment programs and help to manage theseinvestments more effectively through a Travelers‘ Philanthropy program.A need for private sector financial resources to assist democratically prioritized publicneeds. As with most other tourism destinations in developing countries, Monteverde‘s publicinstitutions lack the economic resources to fulfil community development needs. Centralgovernment funding, channelled through the local municipality, is inadequate to meet all ofMonteverde‘s basic infrastructure and service requirements. A successful destination-levelTravelers‘ Philanthropy Initiative would help to put in place a long-term mechanism to generateprivate sector contributions to support projects designated by the community as priorities forsustainable development.Implementation of the Monteverde Travelers’ Philanthropy InitiativeStep 1. Community ConsultationThe Monteverde Travelers‘ Philanthropy Initiative began in August 2010 when the MonteverdeInstitute, in partnership with CREST, held a community consultation in the form of a Travelers‘Philanthropy Short Course. This was a half-day workshop designed to provide an overview ofthe Travelers‘ Philanthropy concept and to gauge community interest in establishing adestination-level programme in Monteverde.The Short Course was attended by over thirty members of the community representing 10 localNGOs and 11 tourism businesses. Feedback from the session was overwhelmingly positive,with all participants expressing a desire to move ahead with the development of a destinationlevelTravelers‘ Philanthropy program for Monteverde. The Monteverde Institute agreed to bethe local institution overseeing the initiative, with international expertise provided by CREST. Acore development team was formed and is led by a day-to-day coordinator.Step 2. An Advisory Committee72