Planning for the Rapid Development of Community Based Ecotourism Using Action Research: A Project Implemented in Rio Negro, Comayagua, Honduras

Prepared by:
David Kestenbaum,
Associates for Community Based Tourism Development

In January of 2001 Partners of the Americas (POA) was invited to Honduras to assist a small coffee farming community located in the buffer zone of Montana de Comayagua Nation Park in developing a community based ecotourism program. Due to the unique nature of this project, a planning framework, which combined elements of traditional market oriented business planning with the methodolgies of Action Research and Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), was created and implemented. The following document contains a history of this project, a description of this planning model, and an ecotourism development strategy for the community of Rio Negro. The document is broken into eight chapters, which contain an introduction and overview; a review of the methodology detailed profiles and analyses of the community, the National Park, and the tourism market-place; a series of ten implementation tutorials for the community; recommendations for future work; and a number of appendices.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
References and Appendices

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Comments to: crs@uvm.edu
Reviewed on 08/17/02