Efrén Prado
Julio Carrera
Luis Enrique Lopez
IESDE School of Management
Gabriela Sánchez Bazán
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The business promotes a positive ecotourism experience. Specifically, it fosters the interaction of people with the natural elements found in Orizaba. promotes respect and love for the environment, with activities such as: forest walks, mountain biking, climbing to the top of the volcano, reforestation activities, among others, at the same time, generates decent jobs for people from the surrounding communities, avoiding mass migration to urban areas and in most cases, to the USA.
Villas Pico de Orizaba provides tourists with a way to contribute to the sustainable economic growth of Orizaba while enjoying the natural beauty of the region appropriately. Guests are offered the ability to plant trees to help mitigate the effects of deforestation in the area (SDG 13). Local staff gets paid a fair wage (SDG 10). The hotel offers guests hiking experiences that minimize the impact on the surrounding nature (SDG 12).
Creator, and Director, Martín Moreno, founded the business 23 years ago to meet the needs of hikers who would camp and spend the night in the mountains. From a young age, Martín was attracted to the idea of creating a unique space to house tourists and visitors to the Pico de Orizaba. Martin frequently visited the mountain and it was contemplating its magnificence that led him to create "Ecotourism Cabins" Citlaltepetl (Mount of the Star), which was the first name given to a small camp located at 3400 meters above sea level; on the slopes of the Pico de Orizaba Volcano. What began as a dream, in 1995, only became a reality with an project that took advantage of human resources in the region to provide decent jobs and generate appropriate spaces for tourism. The first two cabins called "Villas Pico de Orizaba" integrated two fundamental aspects of sustainability. They support the conservation of the mountain, the species that live in it and the communities that depend on it. The experience offered by walking through the area also allows interaction with natural elements and promotes concern for the environment in tourists visiting the region.
The "Villas Pico de Orizaba" initiative contributed to different aspects of relevance in the region. One of these was the felling of trees. Cultivation for many years has been a source of income in the area, however, when the harvest did not pay off, villagers resorted to cut down trees affecting the forest and all the species that inhabit it. The implementation of the project printed a seal of conservation, unique in people, which has created awareness and in the same way, has found an alternative source of income to the crops, avoiding (almost eradicating) the felling of Pines and trees of the mountain.
Other important aspects are:
- The use of recycled materials for their construction (waste materials of industrial packaging).
- The staff that works in the company (cooks, maids, tourist guides, among others) are residents of the surrounding communities, people of limited resources who benefit by obtaining an additional income to their crops, allowing them to stay there without having to emigrate to the city or another Country.
- The use of own resources, for example; The walks in the mountain are carried out on horseback allowing the inhabitants to re-assign their agricultural work animals in alternate activities. These walks are always coordinated by the company.
- The reforestation is another aspect to highlight, this includes the participation of tourists, through a specialized program, trees are provided to visitors and they are granted a certificate with GPS coordinates. The tree is named after the family that planted it so that five years later they can visit it and feel more connected to nature.
Villas Pico de Orizaba, is a company that has been characterized by its persistence over the years. In the beginning, it was very complicated to sustain this new idea of implementing good things, however, as time goes by, the perseverance of its founder and current CEO, has been critical to its development. Three years ago, Villas Pico, began to turn a profit, leaving the red numbers in the past and reaching appreciable stability and a future filled with promises of growth. The idea of Martin is not to make this in a lucrative park, however, but rather to consolidate the Villas Pico as a self-sustaining company, that contributes to nature, that generates enough profit for its operation and development. This business model will undoubtedly benefit mountaineers like Martin and the tourists that visit the mountain.
The creation of special programs for the reforestation "Adopt a Pine" has increased the number of tourists seeking to contribute to this cause; the planting and monitoring of pine trees in the mountains has been a success, increasing the chances of survival of the trees and pines that are planted, creating awareness of the importance of trees in the world and generating a close bond between families and nature. In the same way, it collaborates with the association EFPO (Environmental Fund Pico de Orizaba, Conservation Project and Sustainable Development) who have the project to repopulate the white-tailed deer on the Mountain Pico de Orizaba National Park, this species is extinct in the region and must be repopulated with animals raised in captivity. Finally, the economic development of the region provided by the hotel stands out, increasing the possibilities of decent work for the people.
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Villas Pico de Orizaba is an eco-tourism hotel located in Veracruz, Mexico. The hotel pays fair wages and focuses on local environmental sustainability with tree planting, hiking, and other activities.
