Mission
Mission: Accelerate the adoption of geotourism (destination stewardship) by; connecting, facilitating, and promoting geotourism models throughout the Tahoe Truckee Watershed.
Geographic Region Served: South Lake to Pyramid Lake (the entire Tahoe/Truckee Watershed).
Back Story: May 2007, Jacquie Chandler attended a Tourism Conference in South Lake Tahoe. Jonathan Tourtellot, the Executive Director for National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations (NGCSD) gave a presentation on Geotourism, and afterwards asked Jacquie if she would take the role of Tahoe’s Geotourism Liaison. This then brought together a confluence of volunteers: ferry designers, historians, sustainability experts, educators and more, to help the region emerge a 21st Century Geotourism Visitor Menu of adventures that would ensure visitors sustain or enhance the destination.
Geographic Region Served: South Lake to Pyramid Lake (the entire Tahoe/Truckee Watershed).
Back Story: May 2007, Jacquie Chandler attended a Tourism Conference in South Lake Tahoe. Jonathan Tourtellot, the Executive Director for National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations (NGCSD) gave a presentation on Geotourism, and afterwards asked Jacquie if she would take the role of Tahoe’s Geotourism Liaison. This then brought together a confluence of volunteers: ferry designers, historians, sustainability experts, educators and more, to help the region emerge a 21st Century Geotourism Visitor Menu of adventures that would ensure visitors sustain or enhance the destination.
Tahoe’s top 3 Challenges
- 1960’s 2-season (auto-centric) Visitor Menu requiring $$Billions in ongoing restoration and mitigation.
- $$Billions in mitigation lack full public participation, i.e; Tahoe’s sensitive watershed cannot afford visitors who do not become educated stewards at some level.
- Regional Disconnect: Two states, six counties, numerous city and governmental agencies, NGO’s and businesses often work at odds with one another, vs. compete as a region.
60 years of research by UC Davis started by Dr Goldman’s reveal that our recreation, transportation and construction patterns are the key contributors to the degradation of the water quality. Reference: 2010 State of the Lake Report www.TERC.UCdavis.edu/stateof the lake/index.html
According to 2010 TRPA Environmental Improvement Program…It cost $1.4Billion to mitigate the public's footprint.
It will cost $2.45B for the next ten years. www.conservationclearly.org
Proposed Solution
- Create a 21st Century (transit-centric) Visitor Menu with 4-seasons of Geotourism Activities that DO NO HARM
TAHOE GEOTOURISM EXPO: An Exposition of Stewardship designed around the 12 geotourism principles as specified by National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations (NGCSD). The two-day demonstration allowed locals and visitors to ‘test-drive’ this 21st Century (transit-centric) Geotourism Menu of activities that increase visitor satisfaction, inspire longer stays and stories that increase demand. Increasing ‘Visitor Satisfaction’ via sustainable tourism models (geotourism) is in the “high priority action” section of the Lake Tahoe Basin Prosperity Plan (LTBPP) Final Report (pg. 57-79). - Invite Visitors to become stewards with Fun, Meaningful (educational), and Low Carbon guided adventures.
People CARE about things they feel CONNECTED to and SHARE at that level of CARING. Passion and love are contagious. Imagine taking a kayak tour through a marshland with a local biologist who can interpret the Eco-system as you paddle through it, enjoying marsh mint while quietly watching wildlife. Or helping to plant Sugarpine seedlings and then sharing the result 20 years later with your child on a return trip. Immersive adventures hosted with love inspire stewardship and this is how we Sustain Tahoe! The $$Billions of funding saved with public participation can be rerouted to support Solar Ferries, transit and pedestrian trails. - Work as ONE WATERSHED
Geotourism Implementation Framework (GIF) for key stakeholders on how to implement and deploy Geotourism. using our geotourism curriculum http://www.slideshare.net/jacquiechandler/geotourism-cirriculum
TriNomics ™ provides a collaborative guide for building GeoTracks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ua1rRc5gHw
Geotourism is an international strategy endorsed by five departments of the US Department of the Interior: http://www.slideshare.net/jacquiechandler/2008-mou
Our Role
Sustainable Tahoe’s role is to inspire enable, showcase the emergence of geotourism throughout the watershed. We facilitate alliances and collaboration models that create geotourism. Using our Tahoe Expo as a learn-by-doing model, we enrolled Agencies, Business and NGO’s to host a 4-season community venue.
The Prosperity Plan. http://www.slideshare.net/jacquiechandler/lake-tahoe-prosperity-plan-36661230 identifies Geotourism in the ‘Visitor Satisfaction’ cluster to address visitor needs that also serve the environment and economy.
Our geotourism expertise is from producing four 150-mile geotourism exposition of stewardship which requires the annual collaboration of 55 to 85 NGO’s, Agencies and Business. Unlike traditional fairs, festivals, Tahoe Expo demonstrates how to create and host a community owned tourism menu. Sustainable Tahoe operates as a clearing house for recasting the regions assets into Geotourism attractions.
Our strongest asset is our relationship building with the community including the Washo and Paiute tribes. Their 10,000 years of stewardship is essential to geotourism becoming a reality at the lake. Members of the Washo tribe have participated in every public event Sustainable Tahoe has sponsored. They are natural advocates for destination stewardship as it is core to their culture. Thier presence is central to the recovery of Lake Tahoe.
The Prosperity Plan. http://www.slideshare.net/jacquiechandler/lake-tahoe-prosperity-plan-36661230 identifies Geotourism in the ‘Visitor Satisfaction’ cluster to address visitor needs that also serve the environment and economy.
Our geotourism expertise is from producing four 150-mile geotourism exposition of stewardship which requires the annual collaboration of 55 to 85 NGO’s, Agencies and Business. Unlike traditional fairs, festivals, Tahoe Expo demonstrates how to create and host a community owned tourism menu. Sustainable Tahoe operates as a clearing house for recasting the regions assets into Geotourism attractions.
Our strongest asset is our relationship building with the community including the Washo and Paiute tribes. Their 10,000 years of stewardship is essential to geotourism becoming a reality at the lake. Members of the Washo tribe have participated in every public event Sustainable Tahoe has sponsored. They are natural advocates for destination stewardship as it is core to their culture. Thier presence is central to the recovery of Lake Tahoe.
Collaboration
- Learn from others. Gloria Bruce from the Northeast Kingdom was one of the first destinations to adopt geotourism. The Northeast Kingdom shares similar assets and challenges, as they have high end resorts and rural farming. They saw the key question to ask themselves was “what do you love and not want to lose and what is one thing you are willing to do?”. This helped them shift from competing to collaborating around highlighting unique assets that attracted visitors to stay longer, explore more, return sooner and share new exciting stories.
- Work with sustainability experts. David Hansen, (a Sustainable Tahoe founder), helped Embassy Suites save $400K a year implementing energy monitoring, composting and other measures in sustainability. David shared this turn-around model at our 2010 Stewardship Congress to raise awareness and motivate others to lead-by-example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s88FsFkdU8
- Learn-by-doing education. We created an accredited collaboration between with a resort and a college, when SNC students designed a pilot program of geotourism adventures a South Tahoe resort could develop to increase shoulder season revenue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl_J9YOFKag.We guided 50 San Jose State University students in how to create geotourism adventures they would like to experience. Here is an example: http://www.slideshare.net/jacquiechandler/geotrack-wild-mustangs-native-culture
- Non-Profit / .Org: Local experts guide Geotours to enrich understanding
- Agencies/ .Gov: provide grants & access to sensitive and remote areas
- Business/.Com: sponsor + ‘eat, sleep, shop’, gear & transit (reduced VMT’s )
Geotourism was further confirmed and endorsed by Al Gore at the 2013 Tahoe Executive Summit when he said, “the future will look at this Lake and either ask, ”Why didn’t you do something?….or “How did you do this?” And if we succeed in protecting Lake Tahoe our answer will be because we found a way to make political collaboration a renewable resource”
