25th June 2020

I held a 30minute interview with Christie Carter via Whatsapp.This engagement was important for me as it gave me the chance to talk personally with a stake holder in the tourism industry of Indonesia.

Christie Carter, is the founder of Wave Park resort in the Mentawai islands. He specializes in Surf Tourism and his resort has a focus on sustainability as it utilizes the local community and has a large focus on the protection and maintenance of the environment in which it is located. The interview provided a secondary source for me to look into, that being STOKECertification, a company that Christie works with that analysis and certifies resorts based on different criteria of sustainability. Christie sent me the link and contact to do further research on Wave Park’s sustainability certification.

Continually an interesting point that came up in the interview was referencing the government’s role in the development of the Mentawai islands. Christie spoke about how the government was negligent towards development due to the underfunding, lack of resources, and underlying corruption of Mentawai leadership. This meant that without outside investment or foreign help the development of the tourism industry was unlikely to come from the Mentawai government themselves. This speaks to the power of globalisation on local development.

My thinking around suitable tourism changed in the sense that previously I thought of economic development and social and environmental development to be at conflict with each other. That you cannot have one without hindering the other, however in the case of Wave Park Christie believes that by monitoring closely the how and why, all three of the pillars can be developed. They are interconnected, social developed comes as opportunities are created for the local communities to create an income. This Opportunites often arises when demand for smaller businesses appear to support the larger resorts. Christie mentioned gas delivery meThis engagement has allowed for me to talk personally with a stake holder in the tourism industry of Indonesia.n, local tour guides and surf instructors as a few small sectors that have been developed to support the larger resort. However this questions the idea of dependency, as is increasingly evident in the current world, the local communities have become severely dependant on the tourism industry and a constant flow of demand and tourists. Without that flow, they lack and income.

 

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