• Executive summary - key points

1. Galapagos at risk
2. Galapagos is undergoing constant change
3. Changing tourism markets
4. Changing tour operators
5. Local benefits
6. Financing in Galapagos
7. Fishing and differences among the Islands
8. New local operators in tourism
9. Impacts of tourism
10. Leadership and governance
11. Subsidies and incentives in Galapagos
12. Conclusion

• References

８．New local operators in tourism

　There is a great deal of interest among local residents in new tourism concessions, and substantial expectations that new concessions will be provided over the coming years. It is critical to consider this option in the context of sustainable development. Without available credit, training, and market analysis, local residents will be unable to take advantage of the ownership of tourism. The end result will be that new concessions will fall into the hands of either the existing tourism private sector or new investors searching to generate revenues from Galapagos. There has been substantial interest in a new model of tourism - "tourism with local participation" - but this concept has not been well developed and as described in Cordero, Gonzalez et al. (2004), it is unlikely to be successful in either increasing equity or conserving Galapagos.

　Rapidly increasing local ownership of tourism businesses is not presently realistic for two major reasons:

1. without investment backing, training and experience, a novice operator will be unable to provide the required services (comfort, security and value) to effectively compete, and
2. there are now 66 hotels and over 80 boats operating in Galapagos and some visitor sites are already considered overloaded. The existing capacity in hotels and boats still has space for expansion by increasing occupancy in the hotels and increasing the number of days working at sea in the boats. Doubling the number of owners (presently about 100) will expand the total supply without having a substantial impact on equity. Increasing the flow of tourists to Galapagos in this fashion will increase immigration, and exacerbate serious ecological, social, and cultural problems. While it is clearly impossible to create new concessions for the entire local population, there are many possible ways to more equitably distribute the benefits of tourism through innovative concession management.

　The pressures to increase local access to concessions is pushing Galapagos toward an additional burst of rapid growth that will be linked to immigration and a continued cycle of growth that will result in ecological disaster as new invasive species arrive. Additionally, as economies grow, it is usual for inequality to increase; Galapagos, with the present direction of development, is unlikely to be different.