The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating effect on tourism and the communities that develop their economic activities on this sector. However, in a post-pandemic context, regenerative tourism constitutes a great opportunity, given that it can boost the enjoyment of outdoor activities while promoting the conservation of natural resources and the improvement of the lives of local residents.
In this context, GlobalCAD, in consortium with Ideas for Change, the Yetapá Foundation and the Starlight Foundation, has presented a regenerative tourism project in the Iberá National Park (Argentina), responding to the call for Development Cooperation Grants in the field of Innovation 2020, launched by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).
The Starlight Iberá project, which was accepted by AECID to receive a grant, is a partnership to catalyse local economic development in the Iberá National Park, in north-western Argentina, through the creation of an innovative regenerative tourism offer with local communities as the protagonists.
Based on the successful experience of the Canary Islands Starlight Foundation, which certifies and promotes astro-tourism destinations at the international level, the project seeks to train and accompany the most vulnerable communities of Iberá, through online and offline resources, so that they rediscover their natural resources to co-create a unique offer of ecotourism products and services.
GlobalCAD, which will act as the coordinating entity, will contribute to the creation and calculation of indicators to measure the project’s impact and baseline, to the training of guides and entrepreneurs in the region on SDGs, and to the design of a local governance system for the evaluation and monitoring of future projects.
The project started in February 2021 and is expected to be completed by mid-2022.
