CHILDRENS WELFARE FOUNDATION SUSTAINABLE CHILD AND YOUTH TOURISM YOUTH TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE AND NATURE TOURISM

Transcription

1 CHILDRENS WELFARE FOUNDATION SUSTAINABLE CHILD AND YOUTH TOURISM YOUTH TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE AND NATURE TOURISM Paper presented by Cleto Chibale, Director, Inc To : The 3 rd IIPT, Conference in Lusaka,Zambia 6 th 11 th February Childrens Centre PO Box FW 224, Lusaka. cwffoundation@yahoo.co.uk - - Cell: th February 2005 Inc, Lusaka, Zambia. 2/2/

2 CHILDRENS WELFARE FOUNDATION SUSTAINABLE CHILD AND YOUTH TOURISM YOUTH TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE AND NATURE TOURISM Introduction Africa is filled with vast natural and cultural potential all of which need to be enjoyed and exploited by its citizens this is particularly important for its children and youth. These children and youth live and are leading their existence in the very places that the people from afar come to enjoy, but they themselves have never experienced fully. Think of it an African child or youth coming to learn of the african elephant from a book from New York or Brussels or from a country that has no elephants at all!!! If I may ask how many of the youth gathered here have ever seen or been with in 50 meters of an elephant or lion?? Or even duiker?. On the other hand an african child or youth deep in the villages of Africa does not have any problem with the effects of nature nor the lack of it, but what is a problem is the inability to benefit significantly from the same nature which we call in Zambia the real Africa that poses a problem. This needs to be dealt with strictly if as we propose we wish to make tourism a major economic growth sector in our country and in Africa generally and this must reflect in the Vision of a 21st centaury Tourism for Africa. Rural tourism must be seen to benefit the rural peoples and the local communities. This will result in reversing the rural urban drift. Back Ground and Context Tourism is slowly becoming a high growth industry in many countries of Africa, including Zambia where some of the most attractive landscapes and wildlife of the world are located. These natural features, along with the cultural diversity of Zambia, are key elements for the tourism trade in the country. Therefore, sustainable development of tourism as an industry should give priority to the protection of the natural and cultural features or resources on which it depends, while at the same time providing opportunities for future generations to benefit from them as we do today. These future generations are the children and youth of today. These children and youth need to grow up in a world that supports and sustains their aspirations and is able to help them attain their highest potentials. This is a sustainable world. For us to have a peaceful and sustainable world, a world where all are adequately fed, clothed, housed and have the opportunity for a respectable means to sustain their livelihood, the livelihood of their families and the local communities in which they live, we need to take certain actions to ensure this. This is a world where all children and 2

3 youth are protected, nurtured and educated, and can look forward to growing into adulthood in a caring, local and global community. This should be a global village that respects the integrity of our environment, ecosystems and cultural diversity that includes the land, air and water and all that sustains life. A world that is sustainable for the benefit of current and future generations. African children and youth usually are not included in domestic tourism either as participants in the industry on the recreation side nor as entrepreneurs. This is from a long legacy of exclusion, after all in most countries locals and in particular children and youth were not seen as being needed in the industry for any thing except cheap labor in the case of the youth. Typically, tourism projects stimulate the creation of employment and contribute to local economies. They also involve the creation of access roads, the construction of buildings and of recreational infrastructure, as well as the expansion of essential services such as water & sewerage, water distribution and waste disposal. In turn, the arrival or expansion of tourism in an area may raise a number of questions with regard to the environment. Questions relating for example to site capacity, access and transportation, local economy, water quality and supply, as well as protection of land based and aquatic habitats; and more importantly the utilization of human and cultural resources takes on an added importance. Problems being addressed a) Children and Youth disconnected from nature and their environment. b) Children and Youth not knowing their own country and continent. c) Children and Youth not connected to their own culture and heritage and past. d) Lack of child and Youth involvement in tourism. e) Lack of child and Youth participation in tourism. f) Lack of child and Youth participation in tourism enterprises for dealing with issues of wealth creation. g) Lack of child and Youth knowledge and use of tourism skills (crafts & Arts) for income generation and thus wealth creation. The Programme The Sustainable Child and Youth Tourism Development Programme is a new programme of the Inc started in 2002 that aims to promote Young (i.e. Children and Youth), nature appreciation, environmental education, child & youth adventure activities, eco-tourism, domestic tourism and international child and youth tourism exchanges between countries. The programme focuses at the young in Zambia and Africa generally. The programme is in the process of developing youth camps and hostels, Child Tourism Clubs, Pupil Tourism Clubs, Student Tourism Clubs, and Youth Tourism Clubs in learning institutions of the Country and elsewhere. The Programme is also promoting Environmental Education & Training. Networking and linkages 3

4 development with a focus on Children and Youth fora is a special area of activity. Thus Eco Tourism Promotion and development will form an integral part of the programme. Bush Survival Skills Training, promoting child and youth domestic tourism, ethics, values and principles of nature conservation are expected to provide a key aspect of the training that the programme will provide. Child friendly tourism is especially key as children form the major basis of development in any culture. Thus issues of child labour, youth tourism entrepreneurship and others such as crafts and arts development and the fight against child sex tourism take on an added importance and need to be actively dealt with. This is important in order to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDs, and thus further complicating the fight against Aids and poverty. We have already seen the rise in sex workers in Livingstone, where a number of them are young girls. Spirituality forms a basic and important aspect of our growth and development as a person. Hence the importance of " spirit, soul and body " in our tourism development and in individual programmes or projects and initiatives needs to be amplified and further explored. In the programme certain old mission stations and religious sites are targeted to be researched and developed so as to promote further domestic as well as foreign tourism. The programme is also exploring the development of the concept of Spirituality of tourism as a an aspect of tourism especially the thought of travel and tourism to places and sites of religious significance in terms of pilgrimage and a return to old religious sites. Such as Chikuni in Southern Province for Catholics. Religious tourism so to speak Youth adventure -involving activities such as canoeing, trails, animal trails, walks, mountaineering, climbing, rock excavation, swimming and biking, camping and backpacking etc will be encouraged for activity for children and youth. The crafts and arts aspect is especially important as this can make incomes, foreign exchange generation and employment opportunities become more wide spread and in this way create livelihood strategies for youth and children through tourism. The international dimension of the programme will promote international travel opportunities, both as a way of child and youth exchanges among the young as well as a way for the developed country youth to contribute to the lively hoods and incomes of their counterparts in the developing countries, this is through their stays in youth camps and Youth hostels and in other cases in their homes as traveller guests, this will promote peace and understanding among nations and peoples of the world. The Programme has been started in Kafue and is expected to spring to Livingstone and Lusaka and the Kafue National Park area soon. Aspects of the Programme The main aspects of the programme include: - Child & Youth knowing their Own Country. Nature Appreciation. Environmental education, sensitization and awareness. 4

5 Ethics, Principles and Values. (WTO Global Code of Ethics, Agenda 21, Quebec Declaration on Eco-tourism etc). Youth Hostels development. (Zambia Youth Hostels Association in the process (advanced) of formation /registration. Youth Camps and Picnic Sites development. Youth Tourism Enterprise Development. Child & Youth Tourism Clubs and societies Morals, Spirituality & Peace. Young (child &Youth) health (including HIV/AIDS) Youth Tourism Skills Development (through linkages with TACNET) Youth tourism financing (via Child Savings Clubs & Youth thrift, Savings and Credit Clubs /Societies and Natscul their mother body). Young Adventure Development. (Recreational /leisure) Linkages and networking in and among the children and youth in tourism (Youth and Tourism (Y.A.T. Network) Lessons Learnt There have been many lessons learnt as the programme has been unfolding. It has been very difficult to implement the programme due to so many beaurocratic hindrances. All that is needed for a child and /or youth tourism initiative is approval in principle of the initiative depending on the programme /project concept as presented by the initiators /founders. In more detail the following have been learnt: - - Most frame works for tourism in Zambia do not encompass the aspect of child and youth tourism. If and where it did, these were not coherent and assumed that all was commercial and thus money spinning. The exception is the Tourism Policy, which however most people seem not to know even in government although approved some time ago. - Lack of co-ordination and linkages between the child and youth sectors and the tourism sector means that the promotion and development of child and youth tourism was not acknowledged and planned for. The field was not included among the activities that children and youth could participate and be involved in. - That political is there from the political leadership. - Beaurocratic tendencies exist thereby stifling child and youth tourism initiatives. - There is availability of land. - Non-profit youth activities are not fitting in (current) Tourism Act. - Youth tourism development initiatives are basically not for profit. - Government beaurocracy hindering progress and development (e.g. requirement / need by some possible financers for government approval before support, but this does not come or is grossly delayed). - Licensing of young tourism initiatives must allow for exemption. 5

6 - Difficult to get financing for child and youth tourism initiatives. - Difficult to get organisations (e.g. NHCC and ZAWA and Councils etc) to assist and accept the child and youth initiatives they desire and put emphasis on money spinning activities or enterprises. No room for child and youth initiatives, which do not provide money or make profits. This is especially important where it comes to getting land and other assets from these institutions many of them being public institutions. - Donors / Development partners should not put much emphasis on their support being contingent upon the approvals from or recommendations from the Government beaurocrats as this can cripple the initiatives. - It takes a long time to get government approvals and land. Challenges for the future - Financing child and youth tourism initiatives. - Overcoming civil service inertia in child and youth tourism development initiatives. - Mobilizing children and youth in tourism development. - Little /no research into children and youth tourism activities and actions lack of funds etc. - Exempting child and youth tourism development initiatives from all forms of taxation, to enable start up and growth. - Facilitating and encouraging infrastructure development in child and youth tourism development initiatives. It is usually too much for youth and children to finance infrastructure especially tourism infrastructure. - Acquiring and maintaining affordable, reliable and sustainable transportation. - Making it easy to cross borders for children and youth (visa s etc). Insight a) All children s and /or youth tourism initiatives should be given approval in principle for the initiatives depending on the programme /project concept as presented by the initiators /founders. (It should not take government years to decide and what is decided should be based mainly on the policy for youth or children and/ or tourism and not personalization). b) Tourism Policy awareness and sensitization, needs to be promoted. c) Efforts should be made to promote tourism financing for child and youth tourism initiatives through Child Savings Clubs & Youth thrift, Savings and Credit Clubs /Societies and Natscul their mother body, which will soon be an affiliate of the World Council of Credit Unions a UN body now under the United Nations Development Programme - UNDP). d) Research into children and youth tourism activities and actions should be identified, undertaken vigorously and well funded. 6

7 e) Child and youth tourism development initiatives should be exempted from all forms of taxation, to encourage, facilitate and promote start up and growth. f) Affordable, reliable and sustainable transportation should be acquired and maintained. NGO s, CBO s and other co-operating partners should be encouraged to assist in this respect. (eg Transport Aid- Japan ). g) Government and Donor partners should facilitate and encourage infrastructure development and superstructure development in child and youth tourism development initiatives. h) Land should be given speedily and without many hindrances for child and youth tourism development initiatives by Central government, local government and chiefs. i) Tourism should be included in the school and institutions of higher learning curriculum probably in geography or economics and related subjects. Where to next Promotion of Child and Youth Tourism Clubs (including in schools and institutions of higher learning) from 1 st March Launch on Youth day. Acquisition of Plots/ land in Provinces /Districts. Resource mobilisation for the programme approach donors and development Co-operation partners. Sustainable Child and Youth Tourism Conference - August Taxation exemption for child and youth tourism initiatives. Exemption from licensing for child and youth tourism initiatives. Key words: Youth Tourism, Rural Tourism, Youth Adventure, tourism ethics, and sustainable tourism development, Youth Camps, Youth Hostels and tourism. was registered in the year 2002, as a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) i.e. as a company limited by guarantee. It was registered to promote the social, economic welfare, wellbeing and development of children and youth. 7

8 Paper presented by Cleto Chibale, Director, Inc to the 3 rd IIPT, Conference in Lusaka,Zambia 6 th 11 th February Childrens Centre PO Box FW 224, Lusaka. cwffoundation@yahoo.co.uk Cell: