We are often told that traditional tourism contributes to economic development. We, at Carleva Bay and Crossing Cultures, disagree. Within our philosophy of edutourism we maintain that contributing to sustainable economic and community development requires a major shift in perspective. Our mission is to empower and educate. The Carleva Center seeks to share the beautiful energy and people of St. Thomas, Jamaica with the rest of the world.

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WHAT IS EDUTOURISM?

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Edutourism Goes Beyond

Edutourism is an alternative tourism that incorporates and goes beyond aspects of heritage tourism, eco-tourism, and community tourism. It is a hybrid that considers the visitor’s need for enjoyment in a stress-free environment, and is grounded in the local people’s deep cultural roots, social and economic needs, and active participation. Edutourism creates reciprocal partnerships, through which all parties learn and contribute their respective resources, expertise, and skills. It involves host communities in a dynamic and self-defined forms of economic and community development. The result is something that makes the whole experience qualitatively different from traditional leisure tourism.

Beyond heritage tourism

It promotes native culture not only as cultural festivals, but as new and empowering historical learning. It reverses the trend that sanitizes and commodifies native culture for foreign consumption. In so doing it creates new arenas for learning that are driven by local indigenous problem-solving. For example, plantation great houses and cultural artifacts can play a crucial role by serving an educational function and promoting local economic empowerment and new engines of growth.

Beyond ecological tourism

Edutourism promotes the maintenance and preservation of a pristine environment. It believes in using the gifts of the environment toward social and economic development. For example, it identifies ecologically sound ways to transform environmental waste into usable resources for economic purposes and educates local communities in the process (social, technological, etc.) to make it sustainable.

Beyond community tourism

Edutourism promotes community-based activities in the context of larger agendas of community development and education. It resurrects knowledge and skill-bases that are disappearing, and combines them with new technologies to create micro-industries, cooperatives, and economic activities. These resources become potential tourist attractions to which both local people and visitors can contribute. For example, jerk cuisine, a throwback to slave practices of St. Thomas and neighboring Portland, is now a delicacy in many metropolitan cities outside of Jamaica.

Beyond trickle-down development

It promotes self-reliance through effective partnership arrangements and community-based education. We take seriously the saying, don’t give the hungry person a fish, teach them how to fish! And we also know that people have the ability to define their needs but require resources to realize their dreams. For us, self-reliance demands the people’s active collaboration in planning and project completion. For example, the information superhighway (AKA the Internet!), through computer technology, should link local needs with international resources.