What am I looking at?

In ecotourism, customer satisfaction often depends on the quality of interpretive guides

By Roger Hamilton

The most vivid memories ecotourists take from the Amazon are often not the birds they see, or the animals, or even the forest itself. What they remember best is their guide.

The rainforest is not like the African savanna, where the creatures are big and obvious. In the Amazon, the drama of life is played out so subtly that first-time visitors often must be told what they are seeing. Interpretation is the key to appreciation.

“Our success largely depends on the caliber and expertise of our guides,” says Craig Sholley, director of conservation and education of International Expeditions, Inc., a U.S. nature tour company. “Our tours don’t have to revolve around seeing lions and tigers and giant pandas. People who are passionate about wildlife don’t just want to see the big animals, but the little ones as well.”

The guide’s job is customer satisfaction. An ecotourist pays a great deal of money and endures often grueling travel to stand on that forest trail, binoculars in hand. Can the guide deliver?

But before a tourist even meets a guide, a broad pyramid of infrastructure and preparation must be in place. Ecolodges must be financed and built, marketing systems must get the word to tourists, and transportation networks must be assembled. Governments must exercise their regulatory powers to preserve the ecosytems that are the objects of a tourist’s visit. Local people must be trained, and local service industries must be financed.

These are all objectives of a new long-term program run by the government of Brazil and the nine Amazonian states, with IDB financing (see other articles in this series). The Proecotur project is working to build the foundation for a sustainable ecotourism industry that will turn profits and create jobs.

As ecotourism grows, the demand for guides and other service providers will grow with it. So too will people’s appreciation for environmental conservation when they see that knowledge of nature—and ability to interpret it—can earn a good living (meet guides Francisco Carvalho Souza and Braulio Carlos).

“The guide becomes a high-standing, influential member of the community,” says International Expediditions’ Sholley, “and his passions spread to the rest of the community.”

Date posted: February 2002