Tourism speakers: ‘Think local’

FREEPORT – Regardless of the distances small-business customers may travel, it is important that such businesses support their local economies as much as possible.

This theme of supporting local, small-scale economies resonated strongly Thursday at a sustainable-business conference at the Harraseeket Inn, even though the two main speakers at the conference view the global economy from different perspectives.

Costas Christ, executive director of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce and an internationally recognized expert on ecotourism, spoke first at the conference. The event, an annual forum sponsored by Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility, or MEBSR, was attended by roughly 100 people.

Christ said that nearly $10 billion was spent in Maine last year on tourism-related goods and services. He emphasized, however, that Maine needs to take a proactive approach to shaping how tourism grows or else risk what has happened elsewhere in the world. Unless the tourism industry actively protects local environments and cultures, tourism – both nature-oriented and otherwise – can threaten and “spoil” host communities, he said.

Cancun, Mexico, was a quiet fishing town with a few small inns when, in the 1970s, it was converted into a formulaic tourist juggernaut as jungle forests were clear-cut and lagoons filled in, according to Christ. As a result, the local environment has been desecrated by shantytowns that have since sprung up and the former way of life for local residents no longer exists. Well-heeled tourists who once went to Cancun now go elsewhere and hotels have had to slash their rates to fill their beds, he said.

At some other built-up tourist destinations, he said, developers have realized they made a similar mistake.

“In France, they are ripping down structures and trying to re-create what they had 50 years ago,” Christ said.

Ecotourism, a concept born in the late 1980s and early ’90s, seeks to avoid this kind of economic backlash by offering tourists “authentic” experiences in which they interact with and support the natural environments and cultures of their destinations, according to Christ.

Agritourism, in which tourists visit and sometimes even stay at mostly wineries and organic farms, is part of this trend, he said. Other beneficiaries of ecotourism are local restaurants, local fishermen, local craftspeople, and local guides who work in traditional methods and make indigenous products.

Maine, where cruise ship visits to Bar Harbor have increased from 37 in 1999 to 87 last year, is “at a critical crossroads” in the developing ecotourism industry, he said. The state and local communities should be actively cultivating ecotourism in the same manner that the industry is being developed in Alaska, Vermont and West Virginia, and in foreign locales such as Australia, Italy and Newfoundland.

“When it comes to a sense of place, Maine has it,” he said. “Maine should not only be on that list, we should be leading it.”

Though some business owners may have an altruistic purpose in supporting ecotourism, the most convincing argument for it is an economic one, according to Christ. Studies in East Africa, for example, have demonstrated that one live elephant annually can generate $40,000 toward the local economy and that the equivalent figure for a lion is $60,000.

Not only small businesses but large corporations now are clueing in to the growing trend and importance of eco-friendly practices, Christ said. Companies like British Airways, American Express, Toyota and – most recently and publicly – General Electric are manufacturing environmentally friendly products or announcing eco-friendly initiatives, he said.

“It begins with educating [business owners and executives] about what they’re investing in,” Christ said. “No one wants to invest in a losing business model.”

The other keynote speaker, restaurant owner Tod Murphy of Barre, Vt., was more skeptical of big business motives and took a more populist stance on supporting local economies. He suggested many professional economists serve the interests of big businesses and that state and federal governments tend to be the “hand servants” of corporations.

Murphy’s restaurant, The Farmer’s Diner, has received international recognition for its goals of buying food as locally as possible and selling it at everyday, affordable prices. All of the food at the 60-seat Barre restaurant is produced within 70 miles of where it is served.

“At the Farmer’s Diner, we have a saying: ‘Think locally and act neighborly,'” Murphy said. “Every single one of our suppliers can afford to eat in our restaurant on a regular basis.”

Murphy, a sheep farmer whose prior work experience includes executive positions with The Coffee Station and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, said that modern American society is “disconnected from the natural order of things” and said he would embrace all the implications of oil selling for $100 a barrel, or about double the current price.

Despite his anti-corporate stance, Murphy acknowledged that not all the food he serves is organic. He even offers Pepsi to his customers, he said.

“I don’t want to sell local food to everyone who already believes in it. That’s not the way to effect change,” he said. “[The diner] is a rural redevelopment project masquerading as a restaurant.”

Murphy said he has plans to open a second, larger restaurant operating on the same principles in the Burlington, Vt., area and may even open more in other parts of New England, including Boston.