Ecolodge pioneer holds lecture
MANILA, Philippines - Planning and designing ecolodges that accommodate ecotourists, bring benefits to the community, respect the culture and harmonize with the environment, use local environment-friendly construction materials, and reward their owners will be tackled at a workshop to be conducted from August 5 to 9 by the pioneering and world-renowned landscape architect Hitesh Mehta.
The workshop will be conducted at the International School of Sustainable Tourism at Subic Freeport Zone. Mehta will employ case studies, lectures, audio-visuals, roundtable discussions, business models, field explorations, and presentations by participants in his workshops.
ISST president, former Tourism Secretary Mina T. Gabor, says the workshop is fit for architects, engineers, academics, hotel and restaurant players, entrepreneurs, tour operators.
Interested parties may call Mary Ann Maramara at the ISST at 832-0996/834-2994 or e-mail info@isstphilippines.edu.ph.
Ecolodges often have between five and 75 rooms. Their target market segments are ecotourists or travellers who travel to natural areas that conserve the environment and improve the well-being of local people. After their choice of destinations, their next choice is their accommodations or ecolodges. These may even be without TV, air-conditioning or Wi-Fi access.
The ecotourism market is projected by experts to grow by about 10 per cent a year, particularly given that the main segment the baby boomers is enjoying longevity, increasing their leisure and travel time, increasing their financial resources, and availing themselves of quality information through media.
Mehta, a landscape architect with the Southern Florida planning and landscape architecture firm EDSA, is now the longest-serving member of the International Ecotourism Society and considered the world’s foremost expert in ecotourism.
He is the primary editor of International Ecolodge Guidelines and the author of chapters on site planning and architectural design.
