Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
should be led by the national government with national and not just regional,
interests in mind. National institutions such as the Galápagos National Park
Service (GNPS) should be better integrated with the National Reserve System
and resource-sharing and exchange of expertise should be promoted.
(b) Improve information management systems to ensure rapid availability of tech-
nical information for decision-makers.
A Drastic Change in Tourism Policy
The first tourism policy in the Galápagos was designed in the mid 1960s, before the
GNPS was created by biologists and experts in tourism marketing. The objective of
the initial plan was to encourage a rapid turnover of tourist visits. In order to mini-
mize the associated ecological impact, tourists were to stay on board cruise ships
while they were in the Galápagos, with short stays and landings only in visitor sites
of the National Park.
This model did indeed increase the number of tourists visiting Galápagos, but
revenues were concentrated in few hands. Social discontent developed within the resi-
dent population, which was largely excluded from revenues generated by cruise-ship
tourism, and residents pressured authorities to develop more land-based tourism that
would provide economic benefits to the locals. Between 1974 (the date of the first
Galápagos National Park Management Plan) and 1988, the GNPS unsuccessfully
tried to limit tourism with quotas. Since the early 1990s, there has been no official
restriction on the number of tourists, which quadrupled in the following years.
As a result, the archipelago has been rapidly opened to the outside world, in the
form of ever-larger flows of tourists, migrants, foodstuffs, building materials, fuel,
cars, and introduced species. This opening entails a “continentalization” of the
Galápagos Islands, with the everyday lifestyles and landscapes ever-more similar to
those of mainland Ecuador (Grenier
2007
). At the same time, ecosystems are being
substantially modified by invasive species and human activities such as agriculture
(Watson et al.
2009
). It is of paramount importance to slow the growth whilst
sustaining human livelihoods. Despite high prices - the average cost of a US
package deal to the Galápagos Islands was already close to US$3,000 in 2001 (Kerr
2005
) - the stream of tourist visitations has never let up. A third airport has now
been opened and cruise ships started arriving in 2007.
Recommendation
(a) Decrease the number of tourists that visit the islands each year, but encourage
those who do to stay for longer periods of time (Grenier
2002
). Short stays
mean more tourists, higher consumption and limited contact with the environ-
ment or the local population. A shift to fewer tourists and longer stays could be
implemented through a simple market mechanism: 'the less you stay, the more
Search WWH ::
Custom Search