Roseau Dominica, June 4, 2010……Representatives of several key public and private sector entities will this Friday, June 4th undertake a major familiarization tour of five of the community tourism projects funded under the various tourism development programmes being implemented by The Ministry of Tourism and Legal Affairs since 2004.
The familiarization tour which is part of efforts aimed at raising the profile and helping to strengthen the emerging community tourism sub-sector in Dominica, is also geared at building public awareness of the scope and importance of the sector in the drive to build a more sustainable tourism industry in Dominica.
The tour and site visits will showcase five of the projects which have been supported by the European Union financing instruments, namely, the Eco-Tourism Development Programme (ETDP) funded under the 8th EDF and the current SFA 2006 Tourism Sector Development Programme.
Each project will highlight its tourism product offerings, and explore opportunities for developing new partnership arrangements with other key tourism sector partners especially ground tour handlers and operators.
The familiarization trip will begin at the village of Bellevue Chopin where farmers from the Bellevue Chopin Organic Farmers Movement will conduct a tour of their farms. The tour will then move on to the Wotten Waven area with a stop at the newly built, European Union -funded Tourism Reception facility and then, there will be a sulphur river tour led by tours guides of the Wotten Waven Development Committee. This hike takes visitors to River Blanc where they can see a number of fumaroles and hot springs.
Mero will be the next stop where the Mero Enhancement Committee will host the touring party for lunch and conduct a tour of their facility.The Layou Improvement Committee will conduct a rowing tour from the Layou River Mouth to the Rodney’s Rock where the tour will end with refreshments and entertainment.
It is hoped that this one- day tour will highlight the importance of Community Tourism in the overall development of Tourism in Dominica and will assist stakeholders with ways for enhancing and expanding their tourism product offerings to visitors to their communities.
This activity is being funded under the European Union and Government of Dominica funded SFA 2006 Tourism Sector Development Programme.
The SFA 2006 Tourism Sector Development Programme is a two year programme aimed at improving the competitiveness of the Tourism Sector in Dominica through capacity building, marketing and rural tourism development.
