Our Role in Panama
Our past project focused on “fostering the enabling environment necessary to
increase rural competitiveness while redressing widespread income inequality”.
We did this by developing agritourism on a farm in Panama (see Project Details),
with a long term vision to create a sustainable business model that can be
implemented in other farms throughout the region.
Agritourism is a style of vacation that takes place on a farm and encourages
tourists to participate and learn about farm activities.
This form of tourism creates a supplemental source of income for farmers and
leads to development of the surrounding community – both directly and
indirectly. This includes employment opportunities, better infrastructure and
cultural links to visitors of the country. In addition, agritourism engages
visitors and the community in environmental conservation and awareness.
During our 2010 Spring Break trip to Panama, a diverse and
multidisciplinary team of 12 students and one advisor visited and furthered the
first steps to creating an agritourism cooperative implemented during our 2009
Spring Break trip to the region. We brought the entire community together and
ran workshops on hospitality and English to help get them in the mindset of
accommodating and being able to handle tourists. We began the implementation of
a business plan as well as a marketing plan, based on what activities and
accommodations their respective locations each had to offer. Most importantly,
we developed a great relationship and equipped the community with the proper
knowledge and business tools to benefit from the influx of tourists.
Now, we are ready to take on a different project…
Realizing how much we were able to achieve in our past project, we are excited
to return to Panama during our spring break in 2011. One of our main roles this
time will be to develop key infrastructure elements on the farm. Our first
priority will be to assess the situation once we are Further
teaching the community what we have learned and reinforcing these principles is
also essential.
We believe agritourism is an ideal way to encourage rural competitiveness and
wealth creation while allowing farmers to continue their way of life. With our
multi – disciplinary team and access to a variety of faculty advisors, we are
confident of being able to develop a business model for the region within the
next 1 – 2 years, and ensure the implementation of our recommendations through
frequent trips to the region.
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