tory paez

Background: Isla de Chira has an interesting history with tourism. A community dedicated to fishing (95% of people are fishermen and women), the knowledge and experience related to the topic is minimal. Several Peace Corps volunteers in the past completed work with varying degrees of staying power. We identified it as a potential initiative, given our expressed interest from community members, our professional experience and the extreme need for a more diverse local economy. The government has created a mandatory "veda," when for fourth months of the year it is prohibited to fish in the Gulf of Nicoya. There are discussions to extend it to six months. To put that into perspective, the average household monthly income from fishing is about $400-$800. During the veda, fishermen and women can apply for a subsidy, but only one per household, which equals about $200 per month. Thoughtful, sustainable tourism could begin to close that gap. 

 

Prior to this session, we completed a community FODA (SWOT) analysis related to tourism. Utilizing development techniques, like appreciative inquiry, all participants had a better understanding of the current tourism landscape.

 

"Lluvia de ideas" means "brainstorming," but directly translated it means "a rain of ideas," which is amazing. I love the image of ideas falling from the sky freely, no wrong answers, no judgement. "Storming" sounds more difficult or troublesome to me. Anyways, we utilized this session to rain ideas around project work for the community specifically related to tourism. 

 

Purpose:

1. To engage community members around a common interest: tourism

2. To begin to build relationships between tourism-related business owners and organizational leaders

3. To complete a "lluvia de ideas" (brainstorming) session on potential tourism projects and initiatives

4. To identify projects that business owners and organizational leaders could tangibly and want to complete together to improve tourism

 

 

Audience: For this meeting, we gathered owners or organization leaders who are involved in tourism or could be involved in tourism based on their personal resources. This group has since evolved into the Colectivo de Turismo Isla de Chira. 

 

 

Time: 2 hours

 

 

Materials:

• Sign-In Sheet

• Whiteboard marker

• Sticky notes

• Pens

 

 

Lesson Learned:

1. Participation: Provide each participant with three to five sticky notes to encourage equal participation. But also provide more sticky notes if someone has more ideas -- don't limit the flow of potential ideas at this point. 

2. Presentation: Our business leaders and organizational leaders were proud to share their project ideas. Be sure to give each participant the floor to share!

 

 

Next Step: From this session, we are now aware of potential tourism-related  projects and opportunities. The next step is to prioritize these projects as a team.