Featured Project Connecting Local Artisans to the Tourism Economy Dominican Republic
Originally viewed as a way to lift people out of poverty, tourism in the Dominican Republic with its all-inclusive model has excluded Dominican entrepreneurs, leaving little benefits for local people. EplerWood International developed the Puerto Plata Heritage & Arts Development Project working in partnership with the Vermont Institute on the Caribbean to form a community not-for-profit enterprise to generate jobs and income based on local culture, establish linkages with the all-inclusive hotels, and help to build Puerto Plata's identity as a sustainable tourism destination.After one year, the Artesanos y Artisas Unidos de Puerto Plata (AAUPP) is celebrating its successes and learning from its challenges... Read More
About EplerWood International EplerWood International was launched in January 2003, by Megan Epler Wood, founder and past president of The International Ecotourism Society, to advise private business, government, international development projects, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions on the development of sustainable tourism and ecotourism. Learn more
Megan Epler Wood is celebrating the 20th anniversary of The International Ecotourism Society, the organization she founded in 1990. She is initiating a new short course, Global Sustainable Ecotourism Development, at the University of Vermont, July 12-16, 2010, in her home town, Burlington Vermont. Read more
Epler Wood has also launched a column, Ecotourism Then & Now, an 8 part chronicle on the evolution of the first organization in the world fully dedicated to tourism as a sustainable development tool. Read the column on the TIES or EWI site.
In The News
EWI Partners with Institute at the Golden Gate Megan Epler Wood has been named as a Senior Fellow at the Institute at Golden Gate. To kick off her work at the Institute she spoke on November 3 as part of the series, Conversations with Eco-Innovators. Watch the video below or on vimeo.
Listen here to QuestPoint N the Mix where Megan discusses her Nov 3 speech at the Institute at the Golden Gate on ecotourism and economic development and the role of the next generation of ecotourism professionals.
