Indigenous people can be a part of the tourism chain too!

By: Staff Writer

October 3, 2023

The Organisation of American States is empowering indigenous communities to become tourism entrepreneurs and giving them the information to stay sustainable.

Richard Campbell, chief in the Office of Tourism (OT) at the OAS, said on the Caribbean World Tourism Day virtual forum that the “main aim” in the OT at the OAS is to, “provide indigenous communities, tourism entrepreneurs, destination and community organizations with the sort of information that they may need to develop and manage tourism businesses in a sustainable manner.”

This approach was born from the 23^rd Inter American meeting of ministers of tourism of the OAS held in Lima, Peru in 2015. “That meeting was held under the theme, community based rural tourism and it underscored a reality that in in many of the OAS countries, indigenous tourism was often rural, and often community based and in that context, it also highlighted that while we were beginning to address some of the issues central to indigenous tourism, such as the preservation of culture and lifestyles and community empowerment, and cultural sustainability…”

Incorporating indigenous people into the economic framework has always been a challenge because of the informality of their state of affairs in the various OAS countries. What it showed is that much more discussion and indeed, much more action was needed to support indigenous tourism amongst our membership.

Mr Campbell also said: “We all know, for example, that tourism generates employment opportunities and what I want to say here is that it generates these opportunities for many workers who may be otherwise outside of the former labour market.

“Tourism also provides opportunities for small and medium sized entrepreneurs, and suppliers of services linked to the sector.”

It is within these contexts in particular, where the collaborative indigenous communities in the in the quest to develop opportunities in the sector, which allow them to develop their own destiny and chart their own course for a brighter future.