Week 8 - Uyen Ngo

Ecotourism is defined as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people" by the non-profit International Ecotourism Society (TIES). This struck out to me as I had never heard of Ecotourism before as tourism was taught as a negative thing to me, especially in my previous ASA courses. Tourism was painted as something that was used to make a profit will pushing natives out of their land, as in the case with Hawaii. Costa Rica shows that there could be a positive side to that

Previously in this course we talked a lot about a country using its resources to increase its economy and brand itself. However, for Costa Rica, this was not necessarily a viable option. It's biodiversity is extraordinary but biodiversity is not necessarily natural resources. Once again the government part caught my eye as it is mentioned that "the growth of all varieties of tourism was, however, promoted by a level of political stability which set the country apart from its neighbors" (Jones&Spadafora, 7). The article talks that besides from a revolution involving the "father of modern Costa Rica", Costa Rica's government has been alternating peacefully and investing their energy into promoting policies that would benefit the country. On top of that, as a science major myself, I found it to be touching that scientists ended up playing a huge role in Costa Rica's economic growth and ecotourism. Usually, the focus is on entrepreneurs or politicians but Costa Rica uses their fully science industry's potential as "scientists not only catalogued Costa Rica's biodiversity, promoted conservation, and protected and operated important private reserves" (Jones&Spadafora, 11). It reminds me that when it comes to our project, I cannot only focus on the business group in my country, but rather think outside the box and figure a way in which I can maximize talent from other industries or fields such as arts and humanities or the science field or engineering field, especially when it comes to something as complex as exhaust filters. 

Works Cited

Jones, Geoffrey Gareth and Spadafora, Andrew, Entrepreneurs and the Co-Creation of Ecotourism in Costa Rica (June 14, 2016). Harvard Business School General Management Unit Working Paper No. 16-136. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2796024 or 

http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2796024