Morne Trois Pitons Geo-tourism Stewardship Council takes aim at tourism sector

The Morne Trois Pitons Geo-tourism Stewardship Council has officially announced plans aimed at making their contribution and presence felt in the tourism sector and in communities surrounding the Morne Trois Piton National Park.

The plans and objectives were laid out by Chairman of the Council, Atherton Martin and include a number of strategies to be implemented in collaboration with other government agencies that should immediately impact the Dominica’s tourism product.

Martin shared some of the objectives that have already been completed in the first phase of the Council’s implementation, taking into consideration the funding that was available at the time.

He said, “The things that we’ve set out to do and, I believe, have done most of so far [include]: to facilitate the formation of the Morne Trois Piton Tour Guide Association, identify training needs and training the tour guides has already been completed, conducting assessment of the community based products and services, identifying and developing packages for marketing and packages to assist all the communities surrounding the park.”

Martin wishes that this would reposition the park as a central component of Dominica’s tourism product and that Dominicans would understand the benefit in exploiting these resources, while being proper stewards of them.

“I dare say that all the communities around the park can be shoved, can be pushed, can be helped to see that stewardship doesn’t just mean giving your time, that stewardship has a return and that return is the benefit of sustainable development. We in the Geo-tourism council are pleased to accept the responsibility of making sure that this does not just remain a benign feature of extraordinary importance to the world but becomes a center-piece of Dominica’s people’s culture,” he concluded.