Sustainable tourism true meaning of sustainability: involving locals
Channel: Juan Carlos Rodarte
Date: 2019-05-10

"Planning for the sustainability for the next 3,000 years, that’s the challenge we have for those who are dedicated to tourism, but how to start." - Nancy Tare

There are different macro factors that we must take into account when thinking about opening a site for tourism: the speed with which technology advances, the environment and its conservation, and the globalization that reaches us and makes us homogeneous in many ways. The latter, globalization is really important and a tricky one because if there’s nothing that makes us different, we can not preserve the cultural or natural identity of a place, and everything ends up being the same.

We came up with this reflection while we were walking through Butrint with Nancy Tare, Regional Director for Albania of the Western Balkans Geotourism Network "Tourists start a journey because they want to know how life is in another place", she affirms to the camera. So to be able to think about the sustainability of a place you must first have "something" unique to preserve. If what we see in every destination is gray color, what is the point in looking for some contrast?

That's why Nancy says the most important thing for the creation of a sustainable tourism management plan relies in the local people. "They are the only ones who can give sustainability its true meaning, they are only ones that can preserve what is theirs", Nancy tells us as we end the tour around the complex.

"So simple is that you can see ruins in this place, but a local, a local must see its history, feel proud of it and want to preserve it forever", Nancy's words echo and return us to Nivicë where their locals are people who love their land and feel proud of their landscapes, goats, gastronomy, culture, traditions, home, the raki they produce, and their morning coffee.

This is Nancy's reflection. The sustainability of the Balkans will depend to a large extent on the strength with which the locals see in their cultural traditions and natural blessing the true ancestral value that they represent so as not to change it for a souvenir made in China for the cost of a Euro.