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Saturday, December 12, 2009
Major changes To Galapagos Boat Itineraries Next Year
Final details are pending, but the Galapagos National Park Service will roll out new (and much needed) regulations that will impact boat itineraries, visitor experience, and the length of tours that can be sold.
Essentially, each boat will operate on a 15-day itinerary that does not visit any site more than once. Boats will be able to sell 7-day or 5-day (the minimum) itineraries. As the 7-day itineraries will be different, a two-week itinerary is also possible.
The Park intends to roll this out next year, although we don't have information on precisely when or how. The new model was presented and discussed Wednesday, December 9 at a meeting between boat operators and the Galapagos National Park. According to the Park, this will cut visitation at 15 heavily used sites, give equal access to all boats at sites, increase the use of underused sites, enhance the visitor experience, reduce accidents, and reduce the total number of visitors by cutting out shorter itineraries.
We'll keep you informed as this develops.
[The following was released by the Galapagos Conservancy]
Galapagos National Park, Tour Operators, and Naturalist Guides Revise Cruise Itineraries
09 December 2009
To analyze alternatives, the Galapagos National Park Service has sponsored meetings and workshops involving different tourism actors in the Province.
The Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS) is committed to maintaining the quality of visitor sites in terms of infrastructure, flow of visitors, and the quality of interpretation, and to ensuring that tourism activities in the archipelago adhere to the principles of ecotourism, as established in the Parks Management Plan.
The results of the Parks annual monitoring activities, together with reports presented by naturalist guides, and information shared by tourists, has revealed that the high demand at some sites is reducing the quality of the visitor experience. To address this problem, the GNPS recently held a workshop in which tourism operators, naturalist guides, and Park personnel worked to organize new itineraries for the 70 boats operating multi-day tours in the Galapagos Marine Reserve.
During the workshop, participants analyzed and discussed different alternatives, and agreed to implement 15 day itineraries which will not visit any site more than once within a 15-day period. This arrangement would allow passengers to participate in cruises lasting five, seven or 15 days.
In 2010, the GNPS will begin the process of rolling out the new itineraries. The goal is for all tour ships operating in Galapagos to adhere to the 15 day itineraries in 2011. These 15 day itineraries can be broken down into 7-day and 5-day segments but no less.
The implementation of this measure will reduce visits to the most critical visitor sites, such as Bartolome and Espanola by 50%.
Other complementary measures to optimize the management of the tourist experience include: visits to the towns, improved distribution of flights among Galapagos airports, zoning of ancillary tourism activities, and mechanisms for providing access to sites under special circumstances.
For more information visit www.galapagospark.org
