Chapter 2: - Center for Responsible Travel

of business and visitor support and the success of the various mechanisms used. Based on thisevaluation, the Monteverde Institute and the Advisory Committee will produce a long-termstrategic plan detailing a road-map for creating the destination level Monteverde Travelers‘Philanthropy program that can, over a 5-year period, become self-funding. The strategic planwill include an assessment into the feasibility of establishing an independent, not-for-profit,democratically elected entity that would manage the Monteverde Travelers‘ Philanthropy Fundin the long-term.Challenges of a Destination-level InitiativeDeveloping a Travelers‘ Philanthropy program at thedestination-level raises a series of challenges that aregenerally not encountered by an individual tourismbusiness that builds its own program. These challengesinclude:ooooHow to motivate and unite a number of disparatetourism enterprises in pursuit of identified goalsand objectives;How to select fund collection mechanisms that canwork across a number of different businesses withvarying business and accounting models (e.g.hotels versus tour operators);How to practically identify community developmentprojects that should benefit from tourismdonations, given the number of actors andinstitutions involved in a destination-level initiative.How to build an effective campaign to educatevisitors about community needs and generatecontributions to assist designated local projects.Expected OutcomesQuetzal in Monteverde cloud forest,Costa Rica.Credit: Justin WelshGiven the complex challenges involved in the development of Monteverde Travelers‘Philanthropy Initiative, the program organizers are both realistic and cautious about what can beachieved in the 18 months designated for its development and launch. In the long-termhowever, the initiative seeks to affect a number of structural issues. Proposed outcomes are asfollows:ooThe immediate outcome anticipated from our project is a politically and technicallyviable Travelers‘ Philanthropy Initiative for Monteverde, based on active stakeholderparticipation and community consultations.The long-term anticipated outcome is a well-functioning, transparent, and widelysupported mechanism to equitably channel contributions from tourism businesses andvisitors into democratically selected community development projects. It is expected thatthis initiative will encourage tourism enterprises to think more strategically about theirown social responsibilities and will generate a steady stream of resources forcommunity-identified development needs.74