In the past few years, the Western Samoa Visitor's Bureau has taken the time to invest in the needs of the natural environment. In order to achieve and maintain a sustainable environment, the Visitor's Bureau created the National Ecotourism Programme; its purpose being to utilize anthropological and environmental expertise in order to provide a product that ideally suits nature travelers.
The Programme commits itself to sustainable tourism. Other than over use precious coastal and forest resources, Samoans would like to sustainably market them to tourists, using revenue generated from tours for conservation of the environment. The Visitor's Bureau believes in tourism for the future, a concept that implies the maximization of the positive socio-economic impact and the promotion of sustainable tourism.
The National Ecotourism Programme promotes a variety of sustainable tourism to the traveler. Such activities include eco-tours, eco-lodges, conservation programs, and village stays. These tours will directly benefit the rural villagers, for a proportion of you r tour fees will go directly to the villagers in order to maintain the village stays and preserve their rainforests.
Behind the National Ecotourism Programme, is the Samoan Ecotourism Network or SEN. SEN is a group of Pacific Islanders recently formed in order to voice their opinions and take action in the efforts of conservation and development. SEN acts as an inbound tour operator, actively promoting Western Samoa as an ecotourism destination.
SEN has committed itself to acting as the environmental body involved in promoting sustainable tourism and assisting conservation efforts. The members of SEN strive to aid small tourism businesses in their quest to declare conservation areas.
The Network also believes that revenues from tourism operations should be reinvested for rural villages, and actively work for this cause. They plan to share their environmental knowledge with villagers as well as travelers, in hopes to make others aware of the situation, commit to conservation efforts, and join SEN's quest.
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