GTZ Integration to develop niche market

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

ALTERNATIVE TOURISM: The Core Group of Alternative Tourism at Value Chain Promotion Component (VCPC) of GTZ-INTEGRATION has come out with three documents to develop the niche market of "Alternative Tourism" Sri Lanka following the one day workshop on sustainable, responsible tourism conducted by Dick Sisman and Associates Ltd UK in September last year.

The three documents represent a "System Evaluation Procedure, A Certification Process Marking System, and A Responsible Tourism (RT) Manager's Starter Guide.

One of the topics that the Core Group decided to be of a major importance to the whole industry was the development of a sustainable, responsible, "green" certification process for Sri Lanka which would help to attract more responsible tourists and tour operators in the future.

The target group includes not mass tourism but individual tourism, especially eco, community based tourism, wellness tourism and sport and adventure tourism and they would meet on a regular basis, discuss topics of joint interest, and be proactive in improving certain conditions for the development of the industry.

Together with the Sri Lanka Tourist Board, the Core Group selected Dick Sisman well recognised authority for responsible tourism worldwide for assistance since he had developed the standards for the "Green Global Certification Process" in the mid 1990s Witcombe said.

At his workshop last year he presented different ways, ideas and approaches of how certification standards could be developed.

The system evaluation procedure is a generic "Blue Print" or methodology of a potential certification process for Sri Lanka and Certification Process Marking System for Sri Lanka based on the Blue Print.

This initiative was taken in cooperation with the VCPC of the Capacity Building for Competitiveness and Qualified Employment Programme" (CBCQE) The Core Group of Alternative Tourism was established in 2003 as one of the foci of the CBCQE programme and consists of a group of stakeholders of the local tourism industry as well as public institutions.