From Agriculture to Ecotourism: Socio-Economic Change, Community Development and Environmental Sustainability in a Costa Rican Village

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

From Agriculture to Ecotourism: Socio-Economic Change, Community Development and Environmental Sustainability in a Costa Rican Village From Agriculture to Ecotourism: Socio-Economic Change, Community Development and Environmental Sustainability in a Costa Rican Village By Josephine Howitt Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Master of Arts in Globalization and International Development School of International Development and Global Studies Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ottawa © Josephine Howitt, Ottawa, Canada, 2012 Abstract: This research is an ethnographic case study of the emerging ecotourism economies in the agricultural village of San Gerardo de Rivas, Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica. Due to the village’s location as the main entry point to climb the country’s tallest mountain within Chirripó National Park, the majority of households in San Gerardo now derive some income from tourism. I conducted twenty household surveys, followed by twenty-one semi-structured interviews with male and female heads of households and representatives of local organizations and tourism businesses. Drawing on local perspectives, I found that ecotourism was a complementary income source to agriculture and that men and women were engaging differently in ecotourism employment. Local organizations were involved in the participatory management of ecotourism activities within Chirripó National Park. Ecotourism has affected environmental practices and local people are strategically negotiating the direction of tourism development, including through using environmental discourses, to optimize the benefits to their community. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank the individuals from San Gerardo de Rivas who participated in my research and shared their time and experiences with me. I am so grateful to the community members who welcomed me to their village and invited me to community events, to visit their farms or to enjoy a coffee and pan casero (homemade bread) while waiting for the rain to ease. A special thank you to the Arce-Prado family for hosting me and introducing me to tico life and also to the Proyecto San Gerardo committee members for your friendship and inspirational work. My supervisor, Deborah Sick, largely facilitated this research and I thank her immensely for the opportunity to extend my academic interests and challenge my preconceptions through doing fieldwork. It was a privilege to work as a research assistant in Costa Rica, which provided much-needed practice for my own interviews and greatly increased my coffee-farming vocabulary in Spanish. Alexandra Arellano and Marie-Josée Massicotte also offered valuable critical contributions to this work - merci beaucoup. I greatly appreciate having had such in-depth feedback from all committee members. Thank you also to my friends and family both in Aotearoa/New Zealand and here in Canada for your encouragement and interest; in particular to my parents, who instilled a love of learning from a young age and to my partner Court who has shared with me the ups and downs of these past two years and provided support, humour, proof-reading and love, depending on what was needed. Lastly, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my dear grandfather who passed away while it was being written. A farmer and man of the land, he taught me to appreciate the natural world in a way that only those deeply connected to it can. It is this same passion for nature and the rural way of life that is embodied by many community members in San Gerardo, as reflected in this thesis. iii Table of Contents CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................... 1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK............................................................................................................................2 RESEARCH DESIGN & METHODOLOGY...........................................................................................................3 OUTLINE OF THESIS ....................................................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF ECOTOURISM AND DEVELOPMENT LITERATURE.............11 ECOTOURISM: GLOBAL FORMULATIONS..................................................................................................... 11 LOCAL IMPLICATIONS: CASE STUDIES OF ECOTOURISM........................................................................... 13 Ecotourism and agricultural production ................................................................................................13 Gender, socio-economic status and ecotourism employment.........................................................15 Ecotourism and environmental sustainability......................................................................................17 Negotiating the direction of tourism development.............................................................................20 CHAPTER THREE: ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN COSTA RICA.................................22 MAJOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC INDICATORS ....................................................................................................... 22 FROM COFFEE TO TOURISM: COSTA RICA’S EVOLVING RURAL ECONOMY ............................................ 24 REGIONAL CONTEXT: PÉREZ ZELEDÓN, COSTA RICA............................................................................... 30 ECOTOURISM IN SAN GERARDO DE RIVAS, PÉREZ ZELEDÓN ................................................................. 32 CHAPTER FOUR: HOUSEHOLD INCOME STRATEGIES IN SAN GERARDO DE RIVAS .......39 THE CHANGING ROLE OF AGRICULTURE...................................................................................................... 40 TOURISM EMPLOYMENT, GENDER AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS........................................................ 48 Tourism jobs by gender ...................................................................................................................................49 Perceptions of women’s work and economic decision-making......................................................54 Business ownership and social mobility...................................................................................................59 Perceptions of agricultural versus tourism work ................................................................................61 COMMUNITY BENEFITS AND INCREASING RELIANCE ON TOURISM INCOME......................................... 64 TOWARDS A DIVERSIFIED RURAL TOURISM ECONOMY?........................................................................... 66 CONCLUSION 72 CHAPTER FIVE: COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN MANAGING ECOTOURISM DEVELOPMENT.....................................................................................................................................74 IMPROVING TOURISM EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES: LOCAL AND STATE INVOLVEMENT............... 74 Vocational training ...........................................................................................................................................76 Meeting the aspirations of youth ................................................................................................................77 Expanding employment opportunities for women..............................................................................79 Promotion of attractions within the village...........................................................................................82 MANAGEMENT OF ECOTOURISM ACTIVITIES IN CHIRRIPÓ NATIONAL PARK ...................................... 83 LOCAL OPINIONS OF THE STATE’S ROLE IN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ................................................... 90 NEGOTIATING MORE FAVOURABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES ..................................... 93 CONCLUSION 97 CHAPTER SIX: ECOTOURISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY...........................99 SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL CHANGE IN SAN GERARDO ......................................................................................100 Environmental practices facilitated by ecotourism.........................................................................102 Negative environmental impacts of tourism.......................................................................................110 CONCLUSION 112 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 114 REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................... 120 ENDNOTES .......................................................................................................................................... 128 iv List of Figures and Tables Chapter One. Table 1-1. Summary of phases of data collection……………………………….…......5 Chapter Three. Figure 3-1. (photograph - San Gerardo de Rivas village site) .................................. 37 Chapter Four. Figure 4-1. (photograph - tourism business signs) ................................................... 40 Figure 4-2. (photograph - tomato production)........................................................... 44 Table 4-1. Characterization of survey sample households by landholding size, age and wage labour participation................................................................................... 49 Table 4-2. Distribution of positions by gender of members, Association of Porters, Guides and Cooks, San Gerardo de Rivas, Costa Rica.................................... 49 Figure 4-3.
Recommended publications
  • Ecotourism As a Development Strategy: Experiences from Costa Rica
    Environ Dev Sustain (2009) 11:1225–1237 DOI 10.1007/s10668-009-9214-3 Ecotourism as a development strategy: experiences from Costa Rica Jacobus Franciscus Koens • Carel Dieperink • Miriam Miranda Received: 15 August 2005 / Accepted: 3 January 2006 / Published online: 8 October 2009 Ó The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract This article reflects on the Costa Rican experiences with ecotourism by assessing the positive and negative environmental, economic and social impacts of eco- tourism development at four tourist destinations—Manuel Antonio, Monteverde, Tortuguero and ASCOMAFOR. These destinations represent different stages of tourism development. The assessment shows that the development of ecotourism has a dilemma character. Compared to alternative land-use options, ecotourism remains a promising development strategy. However, it should be embedded in a broader process of capacity building. Keywords Costa Rica Á Development strategy Á Ecotourism Á Impact assessment Á Sustainable tourism 1 Ecotourism: potentials and pitfalls Since the mid-1980s, Costa Rica has been very successful in attracting tourists. Annually, more than one million tourists visit the country, and the tourism industry has an annual turnover of over 1,200 million dollars (ICT 2002). The country has especially much to offer to nature enthusiasts. Ecotourism is the leading concept in the country’s development Readers should send their comments on this paper to [email protected] within 3 months of publication of this issue. J. F. Koens Á C. Dieperink (&) Utrecht University, Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation, Chair of Environmental Studies and Policy, P.O. Box 80115, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] J.
    [Show full text]
  • Entrepreneurs and the Co-Creation of Ecotourism in Costa Rica
    Entrepreneurs and the Co-Creation of Ecotourism in Costa Rica Geoffrey Jones Andrew Spadafora Working Paper 16-136 Entrepreneurs and the Co-Creation of Ecotourism in Costa Rica Geoffrey Jones Harvard Business School Andrew Spadafora Harvard Business School Working Paper 16-136 Copyright © 2016 by Geoffrey Jones and Andrew Spadafora Working papers are in draft form. This working paper is distributed for purposes of comment and discussion only. It may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder. Copies of working papers are available from the author. Entrepreneurs and the Co-Creation of Ecotourism in Costa Rica Geoffrey Jones and Andrew Spadafora ABSTRACT Between the 1970s and the 2000s Costa Rica became established as the world’s leading ecotourism destination. This working paper suggests that although Costa Rica benefited from biodiversity and a pleasant climate, the country’s preeminence in ecotourism requires more than a natural resource endowment explanation. The paper argues that the ecotourism industry was a co-creation of the public, private, and tertiary sectors. While the role of the government and conservation NGOs is acknowledged in the existing literature, this study draws attention to the critical role of small entrepreneurs. Making extensive use of oral history, the working paper demonstrates the role of tour companies in drawing affluent Western ecotourists to the country, and of the creators of ecolodges and other forms of accommodation in providing them with somewhere to stay. These entrepreneurs, many of them expatriate Americans, helped ensure that formally protected areas remained sustainable parks and reserves, by providing revenues, education in conservation to tourists, and community development and jobs.
    [Show full text]
  • Costa Rica: on the Beaten Path
    Chapter 5 Costa Rica: On the Beaten Path Costa Rica is ecotourism's poster child. Since the mid-1980s, this tiny Central American country has been transformed from a staging ground for the covert U.S. war against Nicaragua and a testing ground for USAID'S free-trade and privatization policies1 into a laboratory for "green" tourism. More than any other event, President Oscar Arias Sanchez's 1987 receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize propelled Costa Rica onto the world stage, secur- ing its image as a peaceful country and marking the start of the ecotourism boom. In the 1990s, Costa Rica jumped in popularity to the head of the ecotourism queue, ahead of older nature travel destinations such as the Gallipagos Islands, Kenya, and Nepal. In 1992, the U.S. Adventure Travel Society dubbed Costa Rica the "number one ecotourism destination in the world," and a survey conducted by Costa Rica's government showed that most tourists were entering Costa Rica for ecotourism-related reason^.^ Ecotourism projects run a wide gamut in Costa Rica. Whereas many developing countries have only a handful of really fine ecotourism experi- ments, Costa Rica offers a cornucopia of choices, ranging from rustic to lux- urious, from counterculture to indigenous culture, from spiritual to scien- tific, from purely Costa Rican to undeniably North American or European to eclectic, cross-cultural blends. The best of these ecolodges, totaling sev- enty-nine in 1997, are listed at the beginning of a tourism guidebook titled The New Key to Costa Ri~a.~This annual survey, begun as a pilot project in 19934 and perfected by researchers Anne Becher and Jane Segleau with the assistance of many of Costa Rica's leading ecotourism experts, was the world's first thorough, impartial assessment of nature tour destinations and ecolodges.
    [Show full text]
  • Globalization, Ecotourism, and Development in the Monte Verde Zone, Costa Rica
    University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 11-16-2004 Globalization, Ecotourism, And Development In The onM te Verde Zone, Costa Rica Edgar Allan Amador University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Amador, Edgar Allan, "Globalization, Ecotourism, And Development In The onM te Verde Zone, Costa Rica" (2004). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/940 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Globalization, Ecotourism, And Development In The Monte Verde Zone, Costa Rica by Edgar Allan Amador A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Trevor W. Purcell, Ph.D. Mark Amen, Ph.D. Kevin Yelvington, Ph.D. Date of Approval: November 16, 2004 Keywords: tourism, central america, survey, demography, anthropology © Copyright 2004 , Edgar Allan Amador Dedication This thesis is dedicated to the most important people in my life: my wife, Jennifer, my mother, Gioconda, and my brothers, J. Alejandro and Alvaro. Acknowledgements I want to thank my wife, Jennifer, for her criticism, patience, and support during the writing of this thesis. I also thank my mother for her self-sacrifice, so I could get this far.
    [Show full text]
  • Impact of Tourism Related Development on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica Summary Report
    Impact of Tourism Related Development on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica Summary Report By: Martha Honey Erick Vargas William H. Durham Center for Responsible Travel A Nonprofit Research Organization Stanford University and Washington, DC www.responsibletravel.org April 2010 1 Foreword The following Summary Report, based on two years of research and some two dozen individual studies by a team of Costa Rican and U.S. experts, offers the first multidimensional analysis of the phenomena that Costa Ricans have dubbed “residential tourism.” While this term has become popular, most Costa Ricans have had little understanding of its dimensions and implications for the country, the country’s Pacific coast, or Costa Rica’s tourism industry. The study traces the origins of this coastal transformation from the 1970s to the present, with particular focus on the real estate and construction boom and bust (caused by the global economic crisis) from 2002 through 2009. As members of the Advisory Committee that has assisted the research team, we believe that the study’s findings and recommendations can play a constructive role in helping to foment public discussion, civic engagement, and policy reforms to ensure a sustainable economy in coastal and marine tourism. Over the last decade, Costa Rica’s Pacific coast has become one of the epicenters in the Americas for rapid beach resort and vacation home development closely tied to the U.S. market. Together with cruise ship tourism, residential tourism is transforming swaths of the physical landscape and displacing or competing for resources with many fishing, farming, and ranching communities in the coastal zone.
    [Show full text]
  • The Case of Ecotourism in Costa Rica
    IMPACTS ON DEVELOPING COUNTRIES OF CHANGING PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION PATTERNS IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF ECOTOURISM IN COSTA RICA DRAFT Prepared for: UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME in conjunction with Institute for Environmental Studies Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Prepared by: INCAE Costa Rica Project Director: Crist Inman, Ph.D. Research Team: Nathalia Mesa, Reyna Oleas, Juan Jose de los Santos 1 1. Introduction Costa Rica, a small Central American country with approximately 3.5 million people and a Gross National Product (GNP) of US$2,400 per capita in 1995 (WRI, 1996), has gone through several successful periods of resource-based exportation. In successive waves--first coffee, then beef, followed by bananas and currently tourism—each resource has seen periods of intense expansion in output. The boom in Costa Rica’s tourism market began in 1987, and by 1995 the industry was generating US $659.6 million per annum. This made tourism the top generator of foreign revenues and 7.5% of Costa Rican GDP, above the banana industry (US$ 633.2 million), coffee (US$ 417.1 million) and beef (US$ 43.6 million) (ICT, 1995). Tourism is the largest economic sector in the world, generating US$381 billion in 1995, excluding the approximately US$57 billion spent on international transport. Costa Rica has gone from accounting for 0.8% of world tourism income in 1986 to 1.9% in 1993; tourism income “per capita” is now approximately US$140 per annum, the highest in Central America. From 1969 to 1982 tourist arrivals rose at an average of 9% per year, compared with the 14% growth rate during the 1986 to 1994 period (Aylward et al.).
    [Show full text]
  • Hospitality Management and Public Relations
    HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT AND PUBLIC RELATIONS BTS MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS 1. If you are staying in a five star hotel , you are an a) Extra high budgeted tourist b) Guest of the hotel c) Middle budgeted tourist d) Guest of the company that has invited you 2. A Dharamshala is suitable for a) Those business man who can stay in graded hotels b) Low income families c) Only rich merchants d) All the above 3. What is the main feature of a time share establishment a) It is a private property b) Its rooms / resources are shared by guests / tourists according to specified time schedules. c) It is a facility of one star grade d) None of these 4. In a single bedroom , the number of glasses given to the guests is a) 1 b) 2 c) 4 d) None of these 5. Where is hotel Ashok located in New Delhi a) Jor Bagh b) Chanakya puri c) Sunder Nagar d) New Friends Colony 6. The guest enters into a large hotel from its a) Lobby b) Front Office c) Reception d) Restaurant 7. Cocktails are mixed only by expect cocktail makers or experienced bar tenders. Infact, they are proud of their skills. Why is that so ? a) Cocktails are difficult to make b) It is important to mix different liquors and fruit juices in a correct proportion , the guest should not digest on add cocktail and become sick c) They are at the forefront of the sales departments in the bar and so, they feel proud of their cocktail making skills.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cowboy Wa Y Interview: Janine Tu R N Er and Constituting America
    The Cowboy Wa y Interview: Janine Tu r n er and Constituting America FALL 2010 Fifty Miles from Home Riding the Long Circle on a Nevada Family Ranch Cowboys & Presidents: Cold War Cowboys Horseback Getaway: The Hunewill Ranch Tom Russell’s Lunch with Tom Lea The Living Words of the Constitution Part 12 Display until December 15 www.paragonfoundation.org $5.95 US The Journal of the PARAGON Foundationion,, Inc. OUR MISSION The PARAGON Foundation provides for education, research and the exchange of ideas in an effort to promote and support Constitutional principles, individual freedoms, private property rights and the continuation of rural customs and culture – all with the intent of celebrating and continuing our Founding Fathers vision for America. The PARAGON Foundation, Inc. • To Educate and Empower We invite you to join us. www.paragonfoundation.org photo by Guy de Galard Fall 2010 Volume 6 No. 3 William C. Reynolds EDITOR Nicole Krebs ASSOCIATE EDITOR marilyn Fisher SPECIAL FEATURES EDITOR Robin Ireland ART DIRECTOR linda Dufurrena FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER Darrell arnold Julie Chase Baldocchi myron Beck mark Bedor Robert Dawson Guy de Galard Jay Dusard Dan Gagliasso Heather Hafleigh adam Jahiel Thea marx B. Byron Price CONTRIBUTORS THE PARAGON FOUNDATION GB oliver EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER Don “Bebo” lee VICE PRESIDENT Jonna lou Schafer alice eppers SECRETARY TREASURER 2 Stella montoya HONORARY BOARD MEMBER Bobby Jones Daniel martinez DIRECTORS For sponsorship inquiries, contact Nicole Krebs – 575.434.8998 at the PaRaGoN Foundation, Inc. office, 1209 michigan ave., alamogordo, Nm 88310. To join or renew your membership or sponsorship, call toll free 877.847.3443.
    [Show full text]
  • BESTEN Think Tank XV: the Environment People Nexus in Sustainable Tourism: Finding the Balance
    BESTEN Think Tank XV: The Environment People Nexus in Sustainable Tourism: Finding the Balance 17-21 June 2015 Faculty of Economic & Management Sciences Division of Tourism Management University of Pretoria South Africa BEST EN Think Tank XV The Environment-People Nexus in Sustainable Tourism : Finding the Balance Proceedings Editor Rachel Hay [email protected] BEST Education Network James Cook University 1 James Cook Drive Townsville QLD 4811 These proceedings are published under a Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/) Publisher James Cook University Townsville, Australia ISBN 978-0-9942333-2-5 To cite papers from these proceedings, please use this format. Lead author surname, Initial, second and subsequent author surname, initial.,(2014)“Title of Paper”, in R. Hay (ed.) Conference Proceedings of BEST EN Think Tank XV. Townsville, Australia: James Cook University, page number(s) of contribution. ii BEST EN Think Tank XV The Environment-People Nexus in Sustainable Tourism : Finding the Balance Preface Dear Friends of BEST EN, We are pleased to present the proceedings of the BEST Education Network (BESTEN) Think Tank XV entitled The Environment People Nexus in Sustainable Tourism: Finding the Balance. The event was held in the Kruger National Park, South Africa, June17-21, 2015, in conjunction with the Faculty of Economic & Management Sciences; Division of Tourism Management; University of Pretoria, South Africa. BEST EN is an international consortium of educators committed to furthering the development and dissemination of knowledge in the field of sustainable tourism. The organization’s annual Think Tank brings together academics and industry representatives from around the world to discuss a particular theme related to sustainable tourism and push the research and education in this specific field forward.
    [Show full text]
  • Buying up Nature Economic and Social Impacts of Costa Rica's
    Buying Up Nature Economic and Social Impacts of Costa Rica’s Ecotourism Boom by Lynn R. Horton From a range of diverse political perspectives, proponents have presented ecotourism as a market-based activity that will provide income and empowerment to local commu- nities while promoting environmental conservation. The experiences of Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula, where relative isolation has limited the presence of transnational corpo- rate capital, suggest that the impacts of community-based ecotourism expansion are far from certain and are the outcomes of struggles over access to land and natural resources, economic benefits, and representations of the environment. Ecotourism, while poten- tially offering new economic opportunities to Latin America’s poor majority, may also reproduce preexisting patterns of stratification, particularly where state policies have favored larger and foreign ecotourism enterprises. Ecotourism may also engender processes of ideological resistance and reconfiguration that transform existing relation- ships of nationality, class, and gender. Keywords: Ecotourism, Environment, Sustainable development, Costa Rica, Central America In the late 1980s, the Osa Peninsula of southwestern Costa Rica was a remote, “off the beaten track” travel destination with very limited services for tourists and a way of life centered on traditional activities of agriculture, cattle ranching, and gold panning. A decade later, small planes transporting ecotourists buzzed overhead, backpackers filled dozens of new small hotels (cabinas), and local taxis and expatriate SUVs clogged the main streets of the peninsula’s new ecotourism hub, Puerto Jiménez.1 The number of annual pen- insula visitors exploded from several thousand in 1990 to over 20,000 in 2000 (Van den Hombergh, 1999).
    [Show full text]
  • Sustainable Synergies Between the Cultural and Tourism Industries: an Efficiency Evaluation Perspective
    sustainability Article Sustainable Synergies between the Cultural and Tourism Industries: An Efficiency Evaluation Perspective Zhen Su 1,2,* , Joshua R. Aaron 3, William C. McDowell 4 and Dan Dan Lu 2 1 Department of Tourism Management, Business School, Guangxi University, No.100 East Daxue Road, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China 2 Applied Economics Postdoctoral Research Station, Guangxi University, No.100 East Daxue Road, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China; [email protected] 3 Department of Management, Jones College of Business, Middle Tennessee State University, MTSU Box75, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, USA; [email protected] 4 Foster College of Business, Bradley University, 135 Westlake Hall, 1501 West Bradley Avenue, Peoria, IL 61625, USA; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 26 October 2019; Accepted: 20 November 2019; Published: 22 November 2019 Abstract: Cultural tourism has received widespread attention for its role in promoting cultural heritage and economic growth. However, there is insufficient research regarding how to verify the synergy between culture and tourism and how to ensure its sustainability in the integration of the cultural and tourism industries (CTI). This study establishes an interdisciplinary composite analytical framework from the perspective of efficiency evaluation. China, a country that has advocated the integration of CTI since 2009, is the research setting. The findings indicate that the technical efficiency of the tourism industry has increased significantly since the involvement of the cultural industry. Meanwhile, economically underdeveloped regions have opportunities to catch up with developed regions in terms of technical efficiency, and they perform better in terms of sustainable productivity growth. Importantly, U-shaped and inverted U-shaped curves were found in the coordinate systems composed of groups comprising the coupling coordination degree and the efficiency-related index, respectively.
    [Show full text]
  • Philippine Fashion Tourism? Young Filipino Creative Talents Can Make Your Fashion Fantasy Come True \
    Philippine Fashion Tourism? Young Filipino Creative Talents Can Make Your Fashion Fantasy Come True \ by Faye Colley There’s no secret about us Filipinos being naturally fashionable. In fact, in the Philippines, we dress-up for no occasion at all. You walk into any mall and you will find people from all walks of life wearing the latest trends. There’s also no secret that Filipinos are very creative. During my recent 2014 trip to the Philippines, I had the honor of meeting a few of the young talents in the Philippine fashion industry that makes me prouder to be Pinoy . We often feature places to see in the Philippines in our newsletter and website, why not people to see? Sure, we have heard of medical tourism, but why not fashion tourism? This article is a quick glimpse on Philippines’ fashion pride — some of the “ Who’s Who ” in photography, styling, make-up, clothes and shoe design. Ahleks Fusilero various covers include 2013 Miss World Megan Young, Photographer 2013 Miss Supranational Mutya Datul, 2012 Miss Uni- verse 1st runner-up Janine Tugonon, 2011 Miss Universe A UP—Diliman Fine Arts (Visual 3rd runner-up Shamcey Supsup, and 2010 Miss Universe Communication & Design) gradu- 4th runner-up Venus Raj. His work has graced publica- ate, Alexis “Ahleks” Fusilero is one tions such as FDAP (Fashion Designers Association of the of the most sought young photogra- Philippines) Magazine and Island Wedding s Magazine. phers in Manila. His pictures trans- Top celebrities he has worked with include Anne Curtis form the ordinary into extraordinary.
    [Show full text]