Bio-diversity

Government policy on tourism development in Trinidad and Tobago is primarily focussed on nature-based tourism or ecotourism. A spin-off of tourism development has been the involvement of community members and CBOs in the delivery of their own tour programmes. However, while the community-based tour guides have had formal training in the knowledge-based aspects of their programme, which complimented their local knowledge and expertise, no facility was readily available to the guides to help them in the area of inter-personal and communication skills. The project addresses the strengthening of the inter-personal and communication skills of community-based tour guides from four CBO`s in north-eastern and eastern Trinidad, namely, the Grande Riviere Environmental Awareness Trust (GREAT), Nature Seekers Incorporated (NSI), Fishing Pond Environment and Community Group (FPECG), and South East EcoTours Ltd. (SEET). The programme was delivered by a tour operator/instructor engaged by the GEF Small Grants Programme at the request of each of the CBO`s. Each group took part in a 3-day programme in the course of which the guides participated in classroom and field sessions on the following subjects: Who is a Tour Guide ; Introduction to Professional Guiding; Commentary; Questions; and Guiding. A total of 78 community members practicing or interested in ecotour guiding participated in the programme. The programme concluded with a session at a centralised venue with all the participants to facilitate a discussion of their experiences and benefits of the programme and at which they were each presented with a certificate of participation. The programme was supported by the state-owned Tourism and Industrial Development Company (TIDCO) who were interested in the impact of such interventions at the community level on the promotion of the national tourism industry.

Trinidad and tobago