tory paez

Background: Asociación Ecoturística La Amistad is an ecotourism organization in Isla de Chira that hosts visitors in cabins, as well as guides tours across the island. We led a session with Lilliana, President, and Dora, Vice President, to build a plan de trabajo (work plan), which will serve as a checklist to review for each customer visit, as well as a roadmap to take on future improvements.

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For this exercise, we created "time buckets​" for a visitor ideal trip: more than one month before, a month before, a week before, a day before, during the trip, and after the trip. We used these time buckets to serve as header notecards. We then had approximately fifty (50) small papers that were used to write each task or activity that they complete within each of the time periods. Throughout the afternoon, we told past stories and experiences, discussed gaps that existed today, as well as imagined their future goals for the organization.

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Purpose:

1. To create an activity-based work plan for the organization

2. To understand current state operations

3. To identify future improvement opportunities and projects 

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Audience: Two (2) adults: Lilliana, President of La Amistad, and Dora, Vice President of La Amistad

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Time: 2 hours

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Materials:

• Six (6) time category notecards

• Fifty (50) small papers

• Tape

• Pens

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Lesson Learned: Confirm each task or activity as a group. Emphasize that each paper should be a different, unique activity. To ensure buy-in and agreement, it is best if everyone discussed not only the addition, but the time bucket it should be placed in. 

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Next Step: From this exercise, we are now aware of the ideal steps La Amistad should take for each visitor trip. With this knowledge, we have identified strengths, opportunities and future projects for the organization to enhance the guest experience.