INCAE Promotes Tourism Training Plan in Guanacaste
(C.A. News) — With the goal of helping Guanacaste’s communities benefit more and more directly from the province’s tourist and economic development, the Central American Business Administration Institute (INCAE) kicked off this month the Positioning and Sustainability of Guanacaste’s Tourism Cluster program.
The program seeks to generate a communication channel between the community and private businesses so they mutually benefit.
Cluster in this case refers to a group of businesses located in the same geographical area or conducting similar economic activities.
The initiative involves the creation of a training program, delivered by INCAE professors and alumni, to help Guanacastecans learn skills relevant to the local companies’ workforce requirements — all with the goal of helping them take advantage of the employment opportunities generated by the region’s booming commercial development.
The programs to be offered will provide the option of obtaining an associate’s degree for those in middle management and other levels at local tourism-related businesses, in businesses such as hotels, restaurants, rent-a-cars, crafts and trade.
The intermediate-level programs will be designed by INCAE Business School professors in cooperation with province leaders and will be complemented by other learning activities.
The objective is to create a Development Center that will combine the characteristics of a think-tank and of an applied research center, in topics such as improvement of competitiveness, with high-level training and an agenda for public and private sectors. This Center would also promote the implementation of social and environmental responsibility programs, explained INCAE rector Roberto Artavia.
“We want to develop and maintain a process by which industry leaders get together and analyze in a systematic way the growth and competitive development limitations of their industry,” Artavia said.
According to a survey conducted by INCAE among business people of the region, some of the things that affect Guanacaste’s sustainable development are poor infrastructure, water resources, lack of safety, cost and supply of energy, availability and management of natural resources, as well as the lack of controls by different public institutions.
In a press release, INCAE Business School added that “in Guanacaste, we have a serious problem with regards to trained personnel in middle management. Hotels keep trying to ‘steal’ the scarce human resource available in middle management.”
To confront these issues, the tourism cluster seeks to develop applied research initiatives in the local tourist sector that will serve as tools for public and private leaders to make decisions.
Moreover, the cluster — by setting up an agenda — wishes to pool together efforts by the local private and public sectors, as well as independent and government leaders.
This agenda would lead to determining strategies and concrete actions to be taken to deal with the industry’s limitations to competitive and sustainable development. It would also promote development programs in terms of social and environmental responsibility.
Even though none of the training initiatives have yet started, Rene Castro, coordinator of the cluster, said the group is already working on the schedule and topics of the classes. In a few weeks the location of the trainings will be decided and those interested will be contacted, Castro added.
Already scheduled is a two-day workshop with 30 local industry leaders, which will deal with the process of developing sustainable clusters. Also planned is a four-day seminar titled, “Strengthening local leadership in the process of developing Guanacaste’s tourism cluster,” which will include topics related to competitiveness, sustainability, political analysis, leadership, negotiation and key items for defining an agenda for regional development of the tourism cluster.
In the short term, the project will not have a building of its own, but the talks will be held in a hotel or hall of the area that will be served.
“The initiative targets from people with very low levels of technical knowledge to those in high management jobs,” Castro indicated. “What we are trying to do is help the municipalities and other Guanacaste organizations to get up on the tourism wagon, immerse themselves in the flow of investments and jobs. To do that, they have to get training, in languages, for example.”
More than 10 business, including Punta Islita and Conchal hotels, are taking part in this initiative, in addition to the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism.
“INCAE is giving the first push, but we hope new initiatives will be born later to help develop this program, such as INA (the National Learning Institute) offering training for technicians and the universities covering other topics,” Castro pointed out.
The cluster will be financed through donations, and publicity for the trainings will be done by e-mail and through visits to universities and businesses in coordination with the province’s mayors.
Tourism is currently one of the most prosperous economic activities in Costa Rica. The industry, which attracts 1.6 million tourists every year, is the main source of foreign revenue for the country. A 2006 study by the Costa Rican Association of Tourism Professionals indicates that tourism generates $1.5 billion and directly employs 120,000 people in areas such as hotels, restaurants and transportation.