By Damaris Hernández Marí/ CIMAC researcher and collaborator of Radio Cadena Agramonte.
In recent years, the concept of blue tourism has gained popularity as a viable alternative to environmental problems that impact marine-coastal ecosystems.
Understood as the approach that allows promoting an economy based on intelligence, sustainability and integration, Blue Tourism depends on all activities related to the sea that seek to satisfy the demands of tourists, based on the rational and sustainable use of resources. ecosystems and their natural resources.
How to articulate this approach with tourist activity in the territory? That is one of the challenges of the team working on the Resilient Blue Tourism project in the context of climate change. Santa Lucía beach destination, enrolled in the Territorial Program of Science, Technology and Innovation Sustainable development of tourism in the province of Camagüey.
With the aim of diversifying in a new way the marketing of the province's flagship tourist hub, researchers, specialists and professors from various disciplines are working on the design of new tourist products from the beginning of the sustainable use of this coastal marine ecosystem.
How much progress has been made in this regard? Why is it important to think about Saint Lucia through the prism of Blue Tourism? About this and other questions we spoke with the Doctor in Economic Sciences Geiser Perera Téllez, coordinator of this result and research professor at the Center for Multidisciplinary Tourism Studies (CEMTUR) of the University of Camagüey Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz.
— Why do you think that the destination Saint Lucia needed a project with the scope of Blue Tourism?
—Santa Lucía has always been the main tourist center of the territory; However, a few years ago its life cycle entered a process of decline that continues and affects its marketing, and therefore its sun and beach tourism model.
The above has been due to many factors, but without a doubt among those that stand out the most, and that support the justification for the new proposal of the Blue Tourism project, are the aging of the non-hotel products and offers in the destination, the accumulation of Thalassia on the beach strip with its improper cleaning and the deterioration of the image of the destination.
That is why transforming this tourism model is seen as a necessity by the actors and specialists involved in the tourism management of the Camagüey destination. The new proposal seeks to ensure that clients can enjoy the potential that the destination has related to the use of its natural resources, ecosystem and infrastructure, managed on the basis of sustainable and environmentally friendly activities, which would contribute to transforming, Furthermore, the image of this significant tourist space.
Saint Lucia has great potential to develop blue tourism, based on the existence of coral reefs, where diving and snorkeling can be developed, as well as different attractions that include the beach, specialized restaurants, hotel facilities, seagrasses, among others. others, which substantially differentiate and single out this destination compared to other sun and beach destinations.
— One of the attractions proposed by the project is the conception of a tourist product related to medicinal muds. What phase is your design in? What benefits and impacts will it have?
—We are at a crucial moment in its design: its conception is already ready, but it is necessary to carry out an analysis of the demand for its commercialization, an aspect that is currently being worked on. On the other hand, every possible effort is made to evaluate, certify and approve the use of medicinal mud for tourism purposes.
The proposal linked to medicinal sludge is feasible and relevant, since it will enable the generation of economic, social and environmental benefits. The exploitation of medicinal sludge deposits, their obtaining, subsequent health evaluation and final certification will allow their commercialization for tourist purposes, generating income from sales.
Likewise, social benefits will be obtained, due to the existing demand to treat health with the use of this sludge, and to the awareness of clients regarding the protection and adequate management of a resource of unquestionable value.
Both the direct actors in the destination, the resident population and clients would be impacted by a tourism product that can transform the image of the place and will allow them to raise awareness about the sustainable use of their local resources.
It is valid to explain that the specialists are working in stages, so as not to take risks or make mistakes. The design of a product is a complex process in which many variables, objective and subjective, intervene; Therefore, we must go step by step, following the methodological parameters established for these purposes. However, I must highlight that if this year we work as we have planned and the environmental conditions are with us, it is very likely that we will present it at the Tourism Fair next 2025, and with this its commercialization would take off.
— What have been the challenges and learnings during this process of designing tourism products linked to the sustainable use of coastal marine ecosystems?
—Since I joined CEMTUR I began to face challenges in the research and academic field, taking into account that tourism is not considered a science and that, furthermore, it is a complex phenomenon, which totally differs from what many researchers and national institutions and international organizations pose by seeing it as a simple and ordinary activity. I have spent 17 years at the Center, and the study, research and academic exchange have enabled me to achieve the necessary learning about the conception and development of tourism products.
In this case I have always specialized in heritage cities and although the methodologies and procedures for the design of tourism products are similar in their conception, the fact of coordinating a result associated with the conception of tourism products based on the sustainable use of ecosystems coastal marine was already a challenge.
However, through the exchange, the appropriation of knowledge and experiences with researchers from the Camagüey Environmental Research Center (CIMAC), in addition to my determination and will, I have been able to face this challenge that today is already a reality and has endowed with certain expertise in this area. (Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee)
