Week 8 - Linda Nguyen

Linda Nguyen

ASA 189F - National Aesthetics

Professor Valverde 

2/25/17

     Costa Rica remade itself through the role of the state, particularly on the creation of the national park system (Jones and Spadafora 4). The growth of the ecotourism industry is seen as a co-creation (of the public, private, and tertiary sectors) that involved small entrepreneurial start-up operating private reserves, tours, accommodations, environmental and scientific NGOs. Furthermore, Costa Rica’s natural endowment (which is the emergence of an ecotourism industry such as Costa Rica contains 4-5% of the world’s biodiversity) institutional foundations for tourism; the role of scientists, NGOs, and the national parks; the role of entrepreneurs and firms in the creation of industry; and the overall impact of ecotourism on the country. Without the help of the scientists’ and conservationists’ work, Costa Rica’s rainforests and national parks would not have been created. Expatriate American brought ecological ideas—whether of academic biology or environmentalist conviction—and together with Costa Rican biologists and environmentalists help spread these words widely (Jones and Spadafora 40-41). Moreover, Costa Rica’s stability and openness to foreigners allowed entrepreneurs and Costa Rican nationals to start the businesses that created the industry.

Costa Rica could do more of protecting their ecosystem from accessing and prevent pesticides and fish kills in the Sixaola watershed, in Costa Roca (Polidoro and Morra, 2016). In order for Costa Rica to achieve maximum “national aesthetics,” Costa Rica did an impressive job in rebranded itself as a natural paradise in which is enable many businesses who were not environmental conscientious or environmentally sustainable. Costa Rica could do more of addressing and resolving the greenwashing, which is a serious threat to principled ecotourism business, as well we preserving their own forest and wildlife, maintaining a high level of sustainability in their own operation, and spreading awareness and their messages to tourists (Jones and Spadafora 41)

     The most valuable product of the land and people in my research would be respect for the environment and culture of Bhutan. The Bhutanese are committed to protecting their environment as well as helping one another (in good deeds) according to the Bhutan’s constitution. The slogan my group and I thought that would best brand this product would be “Spiritual in Bhutan” like “Made in American,” for example.  

    

     In relation to this week’s reading and theme of the week on “Costa Rica and Green Tourism,” Bhutan is a great example. While Bhutan does not have diplomatic relations with the United States and many of the tourism entrepreneurs are not expatriate American, Bhutan tries its best to preserve and maintain its environment by having tourism strict to prevent environmental devastation. I think that by adopting Costa Rica’s stability and openness to foreigners will allow both entrepreneurs as well as Bhutanese nationals to start a business that creates the industry, and bringing in more jobs for the Bhutanese locals, thus decreasing the rates of poverty of the Bhutanese people. At the same time, I also think adopting Costa Rica's example of stability is problematic because the Bhutan country and the Bhutanese people and Bhutanese government do not want entrepreneurs that are expatriate American to work for Bhutan. Moreover, I also think that maintaining a high level of sustainability and education to tourists will mass tourism in Bhutan will continue to grow. I think the creation of the national image of education of the Bhutan country would enable many businesses to have a growing demand for environmentally sustainable tourism.  

"Wangchuck Centennial National Park (WCP), located in the northern 

regions of beautiful Bhutan, is the country's largest conservation area."

Question: Can the creation of a national image of a natural paradise in Costa Rica be applicable in other countries? If so, what are the pro and con? Explain.

The tiny village of Nangsiphel in Bumthang, northern Bhutan, has been the first village to try out WWF's new ecotourism project.

"Wangchuck Centennial National Park (WCP) in northern Bhutan is the country’s largest conservation area and a huge draw for tourists, yet many of the region’s residents struggle to make a living. Under a new livelihood development programme, WWF and the Royal Government of Bhutan have developed an ecotourism project – ‘the homestay programme’ – designed to stem the region’s rural-urban migration, and distribute tourist-related funds amongst the rural population."

Image Citation: http://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/img/2011_11_bhutan06_416848.jpg

Question: Can the creation of a national image of a natural paradise in Costa Rica be applicable in other countries? If so, what are the pro and con? Explain.

Bibliography

Beth A. Polidoro and Matthew J. Morra. “An ecological risk assessment of pesticides and fish kills in the Sixaola watershed, Costa Rica.”

Geoffrey Gareth Jones and Andrew Spadafora. “Entrepreneurs and the Co-Creation of Ecotourism in Costa Rica.”

Week 8- Patricia De Perio

Overall, our tourism app is a way to help promote  the Philippines through ecotourism where community participation, protection of natural resources, cultural/indigenous knowledges, and environmental education and economic benefits are fostered  for the enrichment of the host country as well as satisfaction for the visitors. It's a “win/win” situation where we are able to help protect areas that are sensitive to human impacts. Costa Rica is the world's leading ecotourism destination where small entrepreneurs played a critical role in the new industry of the green image. A huge concern for companies and industries that are jumping onto the ecotourism market is that most of them are not environmentally sustainable.

Week 8 - Brett Monji

One country that was able to rebrand itself is Germany.  Ever since World War II, Germany has faced opposition in the worldwide socio-economic battlefield.  They had lost two World Wars and were viewed as one of the great terrors and instigators of the war.  However, slowly Germany was able to use the same strengths that made them strong in war to rebrand their country.  They used their engineering prowess and high attention to detail in their industries to deliver the world products that were high in quality and lasted a long time such as the Mercedes-Benz.  Even recently, they used the 2006 World Cup to help reimagine their country.  Using the soccer game, they were able to project themselves as a loving country, full of respect for their neighbors and thus sweeping aside the past notions of them being a cold country.

The most important service in my research is understanding the cultural wishes of the elderly Japanese Americans.  They are people who value harmony and avoid conflict, so they may not inform their caregivers of what they truly wish.  A slogan that I would use is, “a true nikkei experience” to inform the clients that it is centered around their needs.  Costa Rica’s ecological tourism is also centered around the country’s needs.  It has a minimal impact on the environment while also displaying some of Costa Rica’s best assets.  My question would be how can Costa Rica maintain its natural beauty while also creating more infrastructure for tourism?

Week 8 - Angela Oh

The tourism industry of Costa Rica is the nation's most lucrative economic sector and has successfully branded Costa Rica as one of the top ecotourist destinations in the world. Although the country is lucky with a beautiful environment and biodiversity, the success of the tourism industry can also be attributed to the work of many tour companies, entrepreneurs, and the government. 

Our project is a health and well-being application. We seek to improve the awareness of individuals' of their own well-being and enhance their control over their own happiness. The most valuable component in our research is creating a thorough list of options that are available to individuals in our society. We need to make sure that we include a comprehensive compilation that advertises a variety of potential avenues in order to promote the diversity and inclusion of all practices and thereby, people.

In addition, this mobile application needs to be extremely user-friendly and intuitive in order to gain popularity. There are a few existing websites that have a similar purpose as us, such as websites that list local therapists and counselors. However, our application differs in that it is a mobile application that caters a more diverse list of options. Mobile applications need to be convenient so that users will consistently use them and spread the word, and Costa Rica has shown to understand the importance of convenience. For example, while the beach tourism market started to grow between 1950 and 1980, it began to improve its transportation infrastructure. Without these improvements, tourists would have had to cope with substandard transportation options and feel less inclined to return to Costa Rica and/or motivate their friends to do the same. Similarly, we need to research and ensure user convenience. This would entail working with our application developers, as well as conducting surveys on our user interface, to design our application in the best way possible. In addition, the application will also allow users to save the organizations they are interested in visiting and compile them into a personalized list that they can access or modify at any time. This is another aspect of our application that caters to the convenience of our users and will promote the usefulness and popularity of our product. 

Question: The government has assisted Costa Rica's tourism industry succeed in several ways. What are some ways that the government can help your product/service succeed?

Costa Rica highways under construction (road improvements = tourist convenience!)

Photo Source

Connie Tsai: Week 8

Costa Rica has been established as a site of ecotourism, using its image as a country with vast natural wonders to draw tourists. However, though Costa Rica's tourism sector has grown due
to its ability to market itself as an ecologically attractive destination, this has become a double-edged sword. While its natural resources have been protected and maintained in order to continue to present an image of ecological beauty, those same resources have been exploited to draw more tourists to the country.

Would Costa Rica's ecotourism sector remain the same if it was not largely established by Western expatriates? Why or why not?

The most valuable group in our research has been the college-aged student who is willing to take on the responsibility of shaping their own life. More specifically, the group that would most likely use our app and take advantage of its possibilities are those who are already interested in non-medical ways to help their physical and emotional health; it is possible that they have already joined a separate group, such as a yoga class. The reason why we want to target this group is due to user retention: we want to be able to keep a core audience, which allows us to shape our advertising campaigns. Once this core audience has been established, we can then expand outside of that group, thus allowing us to draw in more clients who lie farther from this ideal. By doing so, we can rely on a specific set of data, established and more-or-less certain to remain unchanging, which allows us the room to do this expansion.

A good slogan would draw upon established statements of positive action, such as "carpe diem." We want our app to present the image of a simple way to take responsibility and control.

• http://www.nathab.com/uploaded-files/carousels/TRIPS/Costa-Rica-Jewels/Central-America-Costa-Rica-Jewels-5-jungle.jpg

Week 8 - Angela Nguyen

In “Costa Rica and the Creation of Eco-Tourism,” it is interesting to note that there were many benefits delivered to Costa Rica. While Costa Rica built its reputation from promoting tourism, specifically ecotourism was heavily focused on, which helped the country to bring in most of its revenue and number of tourists that were coming into the country. Ecotourism heavily focused on tourism that was directed toward exotic, often threatened natural environments which was a great way to promote and protect its natural resources. Essentially, Costa Rica established the world’s leading ecotourism destination overtime and has benefited greatly from its unique biodiversity and pleasant climate. This helped to allow the country to build a national image of a natural paradise and has also created a need for educational purposes about the country as well. In the article provided by Polidoro and Morra, it was mentioned by the two that Costa Rica suffered from a variety of pesticides that had harmful effects to certain resources in the country. This raised the concern for a need to observe these prevalent issues closely due to its effects on many different things including ecotourism. There has been strong governmental intervention in Costa Rica to help the country grow which was necessary for the build up of its national aesthetics. Similar to countries like Botswana for instance, government plays a major part in helping the country to navigate its direction of growth. While countries like Costa Rica and Botswana build their national image on the idea of tourism, for our group’s project, the most valuable component for our country is the high interest in international education amongst the student population in China. With the existing large population pertaining to this country, we believe that we have a targeted audience that would buy into our company’s product. To better brand ourselves, perhaps pushing for an idea of a unique educational experience offered exclusively through our company would be effective. 

Question: Without governmental support and actions, would Costa Rica been able to deliver similar outcomes as seen currently with its tourism industry?

Work Cited:

Jones, Geoffrey, and Andrew Spadafora. "Entrepreneurs and the Co-Creation of Ecotourism in Costa Rica." (n.d.): n. pag. Web. Accessed 23 Feb 2017.

Polidoro, Beth A. Matthew J. Morra. “An Ecological Risk Assessment of Pesticides and Fish Kills in Sixaola Watershed, Costa Rica.” CrossMark: 1-9. Web. Accessed 24 Feb 2017.

Picture: https://www.google.com/search?q=costa+rica&espv=2&biw=1413&bih=648&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxwIPXsavSAhUD1WMKHQl6CawQ_AUICCgD#tbm=isch&q=tourism+in+costa+rica+&*&imgrc=OlUWyxq3WOpvwM:

Week 8 - Maegan Enverga

http://www2.itravel2000.com/cms/itravel2000/pgimages/headers/header740-CostaRicaVacations.jpg

Similar to the case of Costa Rica between the 1970's and 2000's in that the country is known for its "natural paradise," as suggested by "Entrepreneurs and the Co-Creation of Ecotouism in Costa Rica" by Geoffrey Jones and Andrew Spadafora, the Philippines has many islands with beautiful locations. The locations, however, are not well known; thus, the most valuable component of in our research about our app for the Philippines is the natural beauty and adventures the country can offer to tourists. Through our app, locals can also share their hospitality to tourists by becoming tour guides and showing them around the Philippines. Our product would best be branded with the slogan that the Philippines is already trying to promote, "It's more fun in the Philippines!" The Philippines offers many activities that immerse people in the natural landscapes such as the beaches, rainforests, and waterfalls. Allowing tourists to connect with tour guides who can confirm that "It's more fun in the Philippines" through the adventures the guides can take visitors on. Our app for the Philippines also addresses the issue that Jones and Spadafora noted in their article about small businesses making an impact on the ecotourism in Costa Rica. The app will include advertisements from small local businesses in the Philippines that will show their importance on ecotourism. To achieve maximum "national aesthetics" status, Costa Rica can incorporate an app or business that will show how small businesses help the natural beauty and ecotourism.

 

Question: What led to Costa Rica's decline in national aesthetics as an ecotourist destination?

Week 8 - Katrina Shi

8. What is the most valuable component/product of the land/people/group in your research? What slogan would best brand this idea/concept/product?

In the readings, we see that Costa Rica’s ecotourism industry’s success is due to a combined effort of its government and the growth of the industry as private and public sectors collaborated and worked together to establish the country as an ecofriendly nation. However, the flourish of the industry is not without its setbacks. While Costa Rica strives to establish its image as green, environmental nation, the lack of a clear definition of what “ecotourism” is ended up tainting the nation’s image with that of hypocrisy, as the businesses involved with the industry lacked a genuine interest in preserving biodiversity or habitat.

With our startup in Bhutan, it is important for us to keep in mind the interests of the Bhutanese people rather than exploiting them for our own profit. Cultural tourism often can degrade a foreign culture into stereotypes and expectations of the tourists, and in order to truly help the Bhutanese we must ensure that we represent the people’s interests above everything else. The most valuable component of our product is Bhutan’s culture, which is highly unique and heavily focused on environmentalism as well as spirituality; when we develop plans and strategies for our startup, we need to keep in mind the stark differences between Western culture and Bhutanese culture and try to do things more from their perspective instead of simply doing what we think might work. In order to emphasis the spirituality central to Bhutanese culture, our slogan would be Spirited in Bhutan, as a word play on both "Spirited Away" and "Made in the USA."

Question: Is there a way for Costa Rica to maintain its image of ecofriendliness without compromising the environment while maintaining its current success in ecotourism? 

Week 8 - Regina Kwon

The most valuable component of my product has a lot to do with who will use the product. I feel like whoever decides to use this certain app will have a positive experience, as they’d be able to put energy into the usefulness of the application. These people are special, unique, and evidently have some desire for personal growth and change, because they take interest in our product. These people are important since they’re an imagined community representing our app, being productive and getting better, both collectively and individually. Through using this particular app, they will hopefully evolve, discover much more about themselves, become stronger every day, realize their intellect and sanity, and remain healthy. Therefore, to me, the slogan that can best brand and represent the idea of my/our product is “I (verb)”; the meaning behind this has to do with simple subject-verb phrases of sympathizing with oneself and deeply understanding the phrases (such as the following statements) to be true, even in moments of question: “I learn (more everyday). “I do (enough). I am (sensible and intuitive). I make (people feel good). I say (good things). etc.” 

Costa Rica symbolizes a natural paradise with environmentally friendly people. With expanding growth in ecotourism, Costa Rica’s goal to preserve and protect wildlife and forests reflects well on its national image. Thus, Costa Rica remade itself by promoting biodiversity, conservation, small business, and environmentalism. In fact, I was offered a low-cost study abroad trip to Costa Rica with my Spanish high school class. It was an amazing opportunity to learn about nature in natural settings. I remember the flyer was very inviting and expressed a one-of-a-kind experience for anyone. My classmates and Spanish teacher, who went to Costa Rica, fortunately came back with vivid stories and memories to share. They took photos with the most colorful and brightest birds, the greenest trees, and liveliest waters. Such patterns of national aesthetics seem to correspond to Jones’ article. I’m not surprised, as Costa Rica truly appears focused on sustainability and sharing a fresh idea of Costa Rican history alongside atmospheric/active learning. The less charming side of Costa Rica is featured in Polidoro’s article. The use of pesticides not only increased but also negatively impacted “human and environmental health.” Those who work around the pesticides and rely on the rivers, species, and plants for food and capital nearby have fatal disadvantages. Fish can carry toxic chemicals, harming those who consume them. However, being mindful and responsive to practices in aquaculture can greatly save the tropical ecosystems from increased pesticide solubility. 

Question: How do these two articles compare and contrast with each other in regards to entrepreneurship and environmental law?

Sources: Jones, Geoffrey. Andrew Spadafora. “Entrepreneurs and the Co-Creation of Ecotourism in Costa Rica.” Harvard Business School: 1-56. 2016.

Polidoro, Beth A. Matthew J. Morra. “An Ecological Risk Assessment of Pesticides and Fish Kills in Sixaola Watershed, Costa Rica.” CrossMark: 1-9. 2 February 2016.

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Week 8 - Ia Lo

Costa Rica’s government played a significant role in setting the pitch for the country. Between 1950’s to 1980’s, mass deforestation led to an almost naked country. To deal with the economy and the environmental issues, the government proposed plans to establish tourism and restore and preserve the country’s natural environment. The government allowed local businesses, private and public agencies create jobs in and around the eco-tourism industry. In 1990, deforestation was down to 25% and the government has projected a $1 billion income in 1986-1988. The green rhetoric became the talk of the country where Costa Ricans took this opportunity to create businesses in the industry without full knowledge or genuine interest in sustainability. This is one of the setbacks for the country which it taints the image of Costa Rica as eco-friendly to hypocrisy. Tourist agencies “were the major actors” of the country’s image. The tourists who visited Costa Rica are more genuine in the values of environmental sustainability than the Costa Rican tourist industry. There is the overproduction and manipulation of green despite the rise in the country’s economy and the realistic environmental results from preservation. 

          A valuable component that my group has is that we targeted a good audience that would not compensate Bhutan’s value. One of Bhutan’s main concern about tourism is the dynamic changes visitors can impact Bhutan. These changes are potentially threatening to environment and culture. As seen with tourism in Botswana and Costa Rica where there are issues of local and international business competition and hypocrisy. It is not to say Bhutanese do not want to change, but because they are proud people of Bhutan who instilled in values of happiness, peace, balance in all aspects-government, environment, art, religion. Their eco-tourism will work because Bhutanese genuinely have values in environmental preservation. Cultural tourism will work because they deeply value Bhutanese heritage. The goals of the government and people are virtually aligned and provide transparency to the people. With our target group, spiritual seekers, they are able to understand the spiritual atmosphere in Bhutan and travels to Bhutan for the right reason for Bhutan. A slogan that I propose for the project is Spirited in Bhutan modeling after Made in U.S.A. The slogan invokes our goal in which visitors will able find spiritual serendipity within themselves.

Besides environmental preservation and eco-tourism, what areas in which the government could address?

https://www.google.com/search?q=Bhutan&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjRhJmarqjSAhUQ6GMKHUdwB1oQ_AUICSgC&biw=1366&bih=638#tbm=isch&q=Costa+Rica+green+tourism&imgrc=7bKjFDyLiaz6gM:

Michelle Wang-Week 8

Jones and Spadafora discuss that ecotourism emerged in Costa Rica in the 1970s and thrived because of the government, public and private sectors, and growing industries (3). Costa Rica achieved national aesthetics because there is a connection between government and industries. Jones and Spadafora also emphasized that Costa Rica’s ecotourism focused on protecting biodiversity, preserving environmentalism, natural resources, and community development jobs (3). This created a growing economy with more jobs. Costa Rica’s ecotourism responds to its problems and challenge.  Polidoro and Morra state that Costa Rica was known for its pesticide contamination and environmental contaminants (2). In response to its challenge, Costa Rica focused on bringing ecotourism industries and focusing on educating others about the environment.  I believe Costa Rica was successful in its ecotourism and branding. US entrepreneurs entered Costa Rica and Latin America. This strengthens international cooperation and promoted Costa Rica to the international market. Costa Rica focused on its problem and its innovations serve the people with preserving environmentalism and more jobs.           

However, Costa Rica should continue to advertise itself to the international market and focus more on cultural tourism. Some tourists may not be interested in ecotourism and ecotourism only interests a group of tourists.  EcoDestinations Kenya also discusses that ecotourism is preserved in Kenya with educating others about environmentalism and protecting its national preserves (1). 

The most valuable component of our research is that Bhutan’s aesthetics through culture, preserving the environment, spirituality, and rich history. With Costa Rica’s ecotourism, my group hopes to continue to find ways to market Bhutan and make it more well known. We strive to make our product beneficial for the Bhutanese and spiritual tourists. I believe that social entrepreneurs can be an asset to our company and through collaboration, we can ensure that our product is reputable. The brand will encourage others to learn more about happiness and explore a friendly and spiritual environment.  Our slogan will be Journey To Beautiful Bhutan and the brand will provide viewers an opportunity to explore and experience a peaceful and relaxing environment.

Question: What are other potential startups that Costa Rica should consider?

Image Citation: Kakamega Forest National Reserve-Kenya. 2015. N.p.

Works Cited:

"EcoDestinations-Kenya ." (n.d.): n. pag. The International Ecotourism Society , 2016. Web. 22 Feb. 2017. <http://www.ecotourism.org/kenya>.

Jones, Geoffrey, and Andrew Spadafora. "Entrepreneurs and the Co-Creation of Ecotourism in Costa Rica." (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 2016. <https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/72045/files/folder/Readings/Week8?preview=852457>.

Polidoro Beth, and Matthew Morra "An ecological risk assessment of pesticides and fish kills in the Sixaola watershed, Costa Rica ." (n.d.): 1-9. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelbe, 2 Feb. 2016. Web. 23 Feb. 2017. <https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/72045/files/folder/Readings/Week8?preview=852458>.

Week 8 - Shannon Trinh

Costa Rica’s success as an international ecotourism destination is owed to the teamwork and collaboration with local entrepreneurs: “These entrepreneurs, many of them expatriate Americans, helped ensure that formally protected areas remained sustainable parks and reserves, by providing revenues, education in conservation to tourists, and community development and jobs” (1). There were a couple of entrepreneurial contributions that stood out to me for Costa Rica. First, it was their dedication towards education and research of biodiversity. Costa Rica’s selfless priority in preserving its resources ultimately attracted institutions from all of the world to work with them: “Biologists from Costa Rica and the United States soon established a series of other institutions that would educate a new generation of conservationists, and protect forests and wildlife in more than name only” (8). From this, I learned that you cannot have a strong start-up or business without the preservation of value and good will. Another thing that stood out was the local tours that were given to newcomers: “Several tour operators and private reserve proprietors with strong environmental principles and international connections led the way in creating the commercial market, joined by a wave of other companies after 1985” (14). I also thought that the environmentally conscious and internationally backgrounds of these individuals boost Costa Rica’s branding, showcasing their people/visitors as compassionate, down to earth, and well-rounded.

 Costa Rica is primarily known for their famous tourist locations/wildlife, and now for the great amount of support and resources offered by entrepreneurs and the people. Equivalent to a start-up, success does not only come from the product itself, but also comes from the team players that have a diversity of talents and resources to offer to the product. A main component of our research of individuals in the Silicon Valley is their reluctance to take control over their own holistic health and their lack of awareness of the resources around them. Stressed and overwhelmed, these people often view self-care as a burden, waste of time, and as the last thing on their list of priorities. Just like Costa Rica, we hope to provide a huge plethora of viable and fun options that make our product so unique and wonderful for our users, and we hope that ultimately, something will peak their interests and benefit their personal growth. Ideally, each local business and entrepreneurship on our app will be valued and contribute to our company to the best of their ability. Thus, I am thinking about branding the application as motivation to seize opportunities around us and to increase autonomy by taking full control of our own health and lifestyles. The brand will also encourage others to be on a constant look out for resources that are offered right in front of them. It will convey a message of hopefulness, empowerment, and willingness to try new things, as great opportunities can easily pass you by.

Question: What are some of Costa Rica's challenges with entrepreneurship?  

Works Cited:

Geoffrey Gareth Jones and Andres Spadafora. "Entrepreneurs and the Co-Creation of Ecotourism in Costa Rica."