Sustainable Tourism Good Practices Manual for Communities of Latin America

In recent years, more communities have become involved in tourism operations in Latin America. Community tourism products are unique, and communities are constantly looking for ways to improve in terms of economic, social and environmental sustainability. USAID’s Alianza para el Turismo Comunitario (implemented by Counterpart International) teamed up with SNV and the Rainforest Alliance in order to produce a series of valuable tools for the implementation of sustainable tourism good practices in communities of Latin America. The process involved bringing together the experience of the partnering organizations in specific areas: SNV in the development of business plans and processes for MSMEs, Rainforest Alliance in the implementation of sustainable tourism good practices, and Counterpart in working with community based tourism organizations.

An Evaluation and Monitoring Checklist was produced along with the Sustainable Tourism Good Practices Manual in order to help communities identify needs and track progress in implementing Good Practices.
Additionally, a series of training tools, including a Trainer of Trainers Manual, a Practical Activities Toolkit and a series of additional tools including presentations, illustrations, and ready to use formats were also produced. The tools were validated with more than 40 community tourism initiatives from Latin America, including groups from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru.

The Manual and tools were officially presented in an event held in Guatemala City on July 31^st, Guatemala’s Community Tourism Roundtable symbolically received the tools in representation of the communities of Latin America. Implementation of sustainable tourism good practices based on the new manual and tools will be carried out in several Guatemalan communities during the following months.

Download full version (PDF) of the manual in Spanish (5MB).

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