News

Tourism companies are seeking advice on sustainable tourism. And consumers are becoming more and more conscious about the environmental and social impacts of their purchasing.

For this reason, IGTOA is taking part in a program to develop Sustainable Tourism Baseline Criteria, in partnership with Rainforest Alliance, and organizations like the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and the World Conservation Union (IUCNP.

During the month of January a series of consultation activities is taking place with key representatives from the private sector around the world. The main product of this effort will be baseline international criteria for sustainable tourism. This will help IGTOA members to create state of the art operations in the Galapagos Islands.

Learn more about this initiative

The travel section of the January 5th Wall Street Journal ran a well-researched and balanced article on challenges facing the Galapagos Islands.

GALAPAGOS UNDER SIEGE

“The remote islands are known for a prehistoric landscape. Why a growing flock of well-meaning ecotourists is posing a new threat.

By Stan Sesser

Most of the wild goats that ravaged this famous archipelago, denuding some islands of their vegetation, have been hunted down. The same goes for the wild pigs that ate turtle eggs and killed small animals. Now comes the biggest problem of all — people like me.

Click on the image above to see an interactive version of this map.

I’ve just spent two days here in Puerto Ayora, the largest town in the Galapagos, where new cinderblock buildings are radiating in every direction. This was followed by a five-day cruise to see the remarkable wildlife that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The new hotels in Puerto Ayora and the large cruise ships — eight of them now carry as many visitors as the 72 smaller vessels that used to represent local tourism — are signs of the times. They’re part of the spiraling growth that has tripled the number of annual visitors to 120,000 in 15 years.”

Read the full article

Thanks to a public outcry, a plan to seed the ocean with iron dust near the Galapagos Islands has been thwarted. As IGTOA reported last year, Planktos, a California-based private company, planned to dump tons of iron dust into the ocean in hopes of encouraging plankton blooms, which according to the company would then absorb carbon dioxide. Planktos would make money from the carbon offsets supposedly produced. But scientists and conservation organizations (including IGTOA) widely denounced the plan.

The Planktos’ ship, Weatherbird II, was headed for waters near Galapagos when the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society threatened to intercept and stop it. It went to Bermuda, where it also found a Sea Shepherd ship. It has since sailed on, looking for another location. The last word was that it was near the Canary Islands, but was being thwarted from entering port there.

The November 2007 issue of National Geographic Adventure magazine released results of an extensive survey of hundreds of travel companies worldwide and Wildland Adventures scored 94.3% putting us 4th overall among the “Best Outfitters On Earth!”

Kurt Kutay, Wildland Adventures’ founder, has been a steadfast supporter of IGTOA. Wildland is participating in IGTOA’s new Traveler Funding Program.

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IGTOA member, Via Natura,  announced that its boat, the M/Y Monserrat, has been certified by the Smart Voyager program. As one of Ecuador’s leading conservation organizations, Conservación y Desarrollo <http://www.ccd.org.ec>  developed the Smart Voyager sustainable tourism certification program. This program is a member of the Sustainable Tourism Certification Network of the Americas (www.certificationnetwork.org <http://www.certificationnetwork.org/>  .

The program is designed to minimize the impact of tour boats in the Galapagos through monitoring and inspection of boats, proper management and storage of maintenance facilities, creation of adequate crew quarters and amenities, training, and follow up inspections. 

Achieving certification is not easy. Boat operators that meet the program’s high standards are certified and may use the Smart Voyager® seal of approval in marketing their services. The seal gives travelers the assurance that they are supporting operators who care about the environment, wildlife conservation, and the well-being of workers and local communities. “After much dedication, resources and time, we have achieved this important award which represents our commitment to conservation and sustainable tourism”. 

Via Natura says that they and Rainforest Alliance have also established an alliance to support best management practices in Sustainable tourism since September 2007.  This makes our Company one of the few inbound Tour Operators that promote this vision in mainland Ecuador”. They also reported that they have a new sustainable travel department and our sustainable hotel property collection in Ecuador.