PRACTICAS SOSTENIBLES EN EL TURISMO

EDUCACIONAL, SOCIAL Y DE PAZ

Conferencia de: Marcel Hatch

Gerente de la Agencia de Viajes Zunzún Education Services/Cuba Education Tours

Marcel Hatch: Prácticas sostenibles en el turismo Educacional, Social y de Paz

I bring greetings from the working people of British Columbia and Canada who admire so
much the achievements of the Venezuelan people in building a new society of equality,
solidarity, peace and internationalism. We share your vision for Socialism for the 21st
Century.

As a progressive member of the Canadian tourism industry I believe the new initiatives of
Venezuela for Popular Tourism and the Endogenous Development Cores of Tourism
(NUDETUR), together with other touristic programs, are tremendously exciting.

I extend my gratitude to Ministry of Tourism and VENETUR and INATUR and all other
Venezuelan organizations that have helped make this most prestigious international gathering
possible.

To be here at FITCAR among fellow professionals of the tourist industry, in the beautiful land
of Simón Bolívar, is a dream come true. This week, I am certain that together we'll all
contribute to realizing the goal of a new kind of people-to-people sustainable tourism that will
set an example for our industry and other countries struggling with this issue.

As an industry, I believe we must start supporting, defending and advocating for countries
like Venezuela that are making urgent changes for humanity and Earth. Our industry, our
children, and their world will be better as a result. This is why I completely support
Venezuela's initiative for Socialization of Tourism.

What other travel destination can compare to Venezuela? Your lush country is so rich in
natural wonders. Your spectacular environments reflect all of the climates and extremes of
our planet. Your most beautiful and kind people mirror all of the colors and cultures of our
Americas. Diversity here is celebrated in a uniquely Venezuelan fashion, free of
discrimination, and full of pride.

Venezuela is truly paradise, and promises to become a heaven on earth as a result of the
Bolivarian Revolution.

People all over the world are increasingly eager to learn more about Venezuela and visit it.
Before the Bolivarian Revolution North Americans knew little about your country. Few could
even identify its location on a map of South America. Venezuela was merely an exotic land of
Marcel Hatch: Prácticas sostenibles en el turismo Educacional, Social y de Paz
beauty queens, beaches, jungles and oil – combined with poverty and repressive
governments.

But this narrow image of Venezuela has changed dramatically in only a few short years. What
a difference a Revolution makes! Today Venezuela is known an epicenter of hope,
compassion, human innovation, popular democracy and a people with a burning desire to
usher in a new and better world. That's why billions look to Venezuela from every continent
for inspiration.

Today North Americans know much more about Venezuela because its most generous people
supply heating oil to the poorest people United States whose own government would
otherwise let them freeze to death. They know about Venezuela because its president is a
brave champion of peace and as an advocate for the South and for Latin American unity and
dignity. North Americans admire the fact that Venezuela holds open honest and democratic
elections -- something lacking in the United States. They are both envious and optimistic that
a true representative of poor and working people can be elected to the highest office in the
land. They admire the fact that when the U.S.-backed coup stole president Chavez for some
two day that the masses rallied and defeated the oligarchs and returned their president. And
they know that Venezuela together with Cuba is helping thousands of blind people to see
again through Operation Miracle.

They know that Venezuela provides unconditional humanitarian aid to its neighbors across
Latin America and beyond. They know that Venezuela has risen to a high degree of literacy,
that education is accessible to all, and that health care is free to all who need it. These are
basic human rights for which tens of millions of people in the United State can only dream.

The list of gains goes on and on, but two recent international events held in Caracas have
greatly heightened awareness about your country. They are the 16th World Youth Festival in
August 2005, and the 6th World Social Forum in January 2006. These two events welcomed
tens of thousands of international guests as friends, and returned them to their homelands as
advocates for understanding and peace with the Venezuelan people and their Bolivarian
Revolution.

They were not brained-washed by the charisma of Hugo Chavez, although he made a great
impression upon them. These new people's ambassadors were decisively influenced from
Marcel Hatch: Prácticas sostenibles en el turismo Educacional, Social y de Paz
what they experienced from the Venezuelan people directly. They saw with their own eyes
the many different social missions, organized at the grassroots levels, attempting to raise the
bottom layer of Venezuelan people from poverty and destitution to that of the highest social
and cultural standards in our Americas.

The world's eyes are now on Venezuela and its people. Our industry can no longer dismiss
"politics" and "ideology" as irrelevant. All of the sudden people everywhere are talking
favorably about Venezuela because of its politics, and as a result many millions more North
Americas know where Venezuela resides on the map of South America. And they want to
come here as a result.

It is no coincidence that foreign tourism to the United States is declining and foreign visits to
Venezuela are increasing. The International Herald Tribune reported on September 13th,
2006, that as international travel booms, the United States is losing its market share… as it
has become too much of a hassle to get into the country since September 11, 2001. Indeed,
everyone entering the U.S. is treated like a terrorist until proven otherwise. This timely article
states the U.S. has experienced a 17% decline in overseas visits while international travel has
increase by 20% in the same period.

The article cites Bush's wars as part of the problem. It says that to reverse the decline
"involves recognizing that serious damage has been done to the image of the United States,
by the Iraq war and other issues, and then working to change that."

Countries that do bad things to their people and their neighbors fail or fall behind in tourism.

In contrast, in Venezuela, since its people have taken control over their destiny beginning in
1998, your country has become a favored destination for millions wanting to learn about how
to make a better world. Travel to Venezuela will soon be a Tsunami. My organization is here
to help trigger that tidal wave!

But we must all play a part in this phenomenon. It means that we must begin to embrace
and defend progressive politics – not run from them. It means we need to defend and
promote good countries, such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba, as superb cultural, educational
and peace tourism opportunities. Combine these nation's great human characteristics

Marcel Hatch: Prácticas sostenibles en el turismo Educacional, Social y de Paz

together with respectful and sustainable ecology and adventure tourism, and we will set the
future direction for our industry.

Increasingly North Americans want experiences and memories and lasting international
friendships. And these can only come from educational and cultural tourism combined with
the natural and historical beauty of the respective country itself. And fun plays a big role.
Music, dance, sports, drama and folk activities mean everything to the foreign visitor.

I have worked with the Cubans to send North Americans to the island for educational,
solidarity and cultural tourism since 1997. The Cubans are absolutely terrific and it is no
surprise that FITCAR has honored them with the featured country status at this conference.

Cuba, like Venezuela, is a nation and a people of hope. Cuba is a land of great beauty and
with an incomparable history in shaping Our Americas. Cuba is also a country whose people
enjoy the shared benefits of its collective wealth. This makes Cuba a very interesting country
for North Americans where nearly every aspect of life is privatized for profit for a few.
Canadians and people from the United States are very optimistic, but very pragmatic. They
want and need to witness examples of how wealth can be shared.

Our tours to Cuba address this concern by providing our participants with concrete examples.
They learn directly from the Cuban people how a collective farm community is organized. Not
from lectures or manifestos, but instead by going to a farm and volunteering – working
shoulder to shoulder with Cuban youth during a harvest, and after work, relishing in a hardy
tradition dinner, and enjoying an evening of music, dance and discussion.

Here is a summary of the kinds of program we offer together with the Cubans. They do not
translate exactly to the realities of Venezuela. But I hope our example will inspire ideas for
how we can advance and support the Socialization of Tourism in our beautiful Venezuela.

We send college and university level Spanish language students to study for four weeks at
the University of Havana. They are enrolled full time during weekdays. In the evenings they
explore Cuban culture via dance, music and significant time with their Cuban peers. On the
weekends we send them on excursions to nearby provinces and cities to learn about Cuban
history, culture and architecture.

Marcel Hatch: Prácticas sostenibles en el turismo Educacional, Social y de Paz

We organize specific thematic tours for university level students and adults on subjects as far
reaching as union and labor issues, women's rights, lesbian and gay equality, Afrocuban
history and culture, organic agriculture, traditional cuisines, law and legal systems, business
and enterprise, and medicine and organic health.

We send retired educators to Cuba teach Cuban youth English on a volunteer basis. We send
baseball historians to Cuba to meet with that nations pantheon of sports heroes and meet
with baseball contemporaries for wild debates and discussions. You know what I mean by
wild debates – baseball people are fanatics. But our participants go to Cuba to learn and
enjoy, not to recruit and destroy.

We have very specific cultural programs focused on Afrocuban music, dance and religion.

We also have programs for Lesbians and Gays who go to Cuba to learn about island advances
in this arena. These are very important because as you know some ten percent of the
population is homosexual. Cuba is a leader in Latin America for freedom for this important
minority, as is Venezuela.

We send delegations of feminists to Cuba to explore ideas and build alliances in favor of
women's rights. We send delegations of labor to Havana for May Day to celebrate with Cuban
workers that most important holiday in defiance of Capital. We send delegations of nurses
and doctors to the island to interact with their Cuban counterparts, to advance their mutual
professions at the peer-to-peer level.

But most importantly we send hundreds of high school students to Cuba every year to meet
and interact with their Cuban peers. This is our most rewarding program. Why? Because
when these students return home they excel in their academic pursuits and they become
young activists in favor of Cuba and a better world.

It is from these concrete examples that my staff realizes the best and most fulfilling aspect of
our work. We win friends and defenders for Cuba. This is why we started our enterprise and
this is our inspiration to continue.

I believe that Venezuela holds equal or greater opportunities for travel agents like us to
contribute to a better world by helping North Americans come to this beautiful land, interact
Marcel Hatch: Prácticas sostenibles en el turismo Educacional, Social y de Paz
with its people, learn about the Bolivarian Revolution, and return home as its defenders and
imitators in Canada and the U.S.

My goodness! How fast we can solve the world's problems if every person we send to
Venezuela advocates for ten more to support the Bolivarian Revolution from abroad. In this
way we make friends not one-by-one, but on a geometric level. And imagine the future of
tourism when the hardworking people of the North can trade places with the hard working
people of the South from season to season, year after year.

This is the better world the Venezuelan concept of 21st Century Socialism holds for people in
every land.

Instead of cultures compressing and collapsing under neo-liberal globalization, they will
expand and become much richer, more stable and diverse via the Venezuelan model.

Since too much tourism for education, friendship and understanding is impossible, my
organization is eager to help the industry in any way possible. We are committed to the
growth of the educational and cultural travel market that the people of Venezuela propose.

In summary, this is my dream: Together our industry needs more respect. The best way we
can get it is to show the world that we do more than just push buttons, sell discount airplane
tickets and all-inclusive hotel packages.

Let take a stand in support of the Bolivarian Revolution and promote Venezuela as a first
choice educational and cultural destination. Let's make a strong statement that we, as the
tourist industry, care about countries that are doing the right thing for peace and humanity.
Let's advocate for cultural, educational and people-to-people travel for a better world. Let's
become touristic activists! Let's support the Venezuelan initiatives completely on principle!

I promise you that if we use choose this approach we'll have more customers than we ever
imagined possible and we'll elevate the image of our industry to new heights.

Viva to the Venezuelan People, Viva the Bolivarian Revolution, Viva to Our Hugo Chavez!

Marcel Hatch: Prácticas sostenibles en el turismo Educacional, Social y de Paz