Q & A with Costas Christ, Editor at large of National Geographic Traveler

Q & A with Costas Christ
Editor at large of National Geographic Traveler

By Yndiana Montes

The tourism development model applied in the Caribbean for many years is now taking a sea change and the destinations that can understand this transformation will definitely lead the way. Those were the considerations made by Costas Christ during a keynote presentation within the framework of STC-12 in Bermuda, in which he pointed out the alternatives offered to the region by agri-tourism.

Christ is an award-winning travel writer and the editor at large of National Geographic Traveler. His column "Tales from Frontier" appears in each issue of the magazine and focuses on sustainability and tourism issues from around the world. Costas’ articles and essays have also appeared in numerous other publications, including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune and Sunday Times of London. He is also a contributing editor and Director of Sustainability for Virtuoso, and his links with Belize are so strong that he was appointed as a Global Ambassador for this country.

Agri-tourism is very important if we talk about sustainability. Once the Caribbean Islands began importing products from abroad in order to receive financial help from the International Monetary Fund, farmers found it impossible to compete with higher-tech and lower prices. Free trade had a devastating impact on island farmers, forcing many into bankruptcy and escalating unemployment on many of the Islands.  Surprisingly, this rule of devaluation of the currency and opening barriers for importing goods was abolished last week.
For me, that was a big problem to be concerned about in terms of heritage. We didn’t have enough time to talk about during my keynote today. I think agro-tourism is a significant growth sector of the tourism market under the, you know sustainable tourism is an umbrella term, and underneath there are many different things: experiential travel, agri-tourism, GO tourism, ecotourism, cultural and heritage tourism, that we talked about; many different names.

We’ll find today in the North American market, the European market the tremendous growth in food, food network, food and travel, adventures. For example, traditional travel magazines now are doing a lot more on food and agri-tourism is an important part of it.
The October issue of National Geographic’s Traveler Magazine is going to be the first issue National Geographic’s Traveler has ever done called Tastes of Travel. There’s going to be whole sections in there on agro-tourism.

So, what do I mean by this? Here, in Bermuda, what was interesting for me was, in travelling around the island the last couple of days, I saw small-scale farmers. I would’ve loved to have a tour for them to talk to me about the food they are producing on the island of Bermuda.
I think that there’s a market, a significant market. Belize is doing this already with the Cacao Festival and things like this.

There is a significant market for agri-tourism in which island could use agriculture, small farms as a way to be an attraction for tourism and continue small island cultivation as a way to be more self-reliable.

How do you see us as a region? Do you think that we have enough conscience because of this conference? This conference for me is the most important one. There are some nations with sustainability tourism offices that have been working in the subject for years; but, lately, I don’t see the same interest, for example, when they go to ITB Berlin or any other conference.
I think that, unfortunately, you still have a lot of what I would call “old thinking”. This is how we always did tourism, this is how we should do tourism: based on an old model. But that model, as I talked about today, is completely changing and those destinations that can understand this transformation and act on it, are the ones that are going to lead. It’s incredibly risky to follow the old formula of tourism that the Caribbean relied on for many years. The leaders at the government level and decision makers are going to have to understand this or they are going to lose their market share.

Are you going to be attending the Taste of the Caribbean? I think it’s in Miami in June.
I’d love to.

Mr. Saguinetti, the CEO of Caribbean Hotel Association, is here and they have this event that is going to be held in June, in Miami, and there are going to be gastronomic teams competing and it’s very nice.
I’d love to go. It sounds great. It’d be great. I’m not familiar about it and yet I’ve done some stories in Miami about food from Miami as a kind of “bringing in this mix of Latin American influences, Caribbean influences in their cuisine; but I think that Taste of the Caribbean will be great.

Have you been in Venezuela or Colombia?
I have been to Venezuela many years ago. It’s an amazing country in terms of how spectacular it is. I have not been to Colombia, but everybody’s telling me that I better go soon because people say wonderful things about Colombia.

It’s because the quality service has been improved. They really know what they are doing. We also recommend you to go.
We want to congratulate the Sustainable Tourism Conference official Gail Henry for such a great election of Mr. Christ as they Keynote Speaker of this important conference of CTO.