Tourism that saves the planet

José Koechlin has dedicated the last 40 years of his life to the conservation of the fauna and flora of Peru, through a business model in which the income for research is derived from tourism.

by: Vanesa Restrepo B.

To think that while walking through the jungle or releasing adrenaline in a canopy you are helping to conserve the Amazon basin is not a dream, but the life project that the Peruvian José Koechlin chose in the 70's, when he was still working in the film industry.

That dream has materialized in a hotel chain, Inkaterra, which employs about 500 people, most of them from the areas in which they operate (Macchu Pichu, the Amazon and Cusco); in addition to an NGO that works with the same name and that since 2001 is responsible for managing resources and leading research projects that seek the identification and conservation of Peru's own ecosystems.

A dream come true
When he was at La Inmaculada school, guided by Jesuit monks, Koechlin began to travel the country in the midst of the most precarious situations. "They took us to the provinces and there were no accommodation or electricity facilities there," he recalls, while evoking the first years of his life spent in Lima, the city where he was born on Wednesday, December 5, 1945.

Although he chose to study business administration, the first steps in José's professional life were taken in Madre de Dios, an Amazonian department that impacted him by having 84,000 square meters and less than 8,000 inhabitants, in addition to a biodiversity that overflowed the limits of the imagination of a city dweller like him. Between 1970 and 1973 he went into the jungle to participate in the filming of the films "Aguirre, the wrath of God" and "Fitzcarraldo", by the German producer Werner Herzog, and later give shape to the dream of his childhood: to have his own company.

Thus, in 1973, and taking advantage of the fact that the area had little infrastructure available to meet the demand that entailed being the second most important tourist destination in Peru, Inkaterra was born. This is how José recalls: "We began to receive passengers in April of '75, with the same human group that had participated in the films. We immediately began to make an inventory of biodiversity and the University of California, Berkeley, gave us the assurance that the area deserved to be studied."

Well-defined products
The income generated by the tourist activity was reinvested in species identification activities, which in turn allowed the creation of new programs focused on ecotourism activity such as bird watching, canopy, butterfly farms, etc.

These activities are linked to the offer of the hotels, which are built according to the characteristics of the area in which they operate. "We work on an authentic concept from the architectural point of view, materials and decoration. We try to have elements that are simple but well done, with the resources of the area and involving local staff, "he explains while detailing that they have, for example, more than 100 species of orchids and other flowers preserved in solid acrylic as part of the decoration of the properties.

With these elements, plus an appropriation of the philosophy of "doing things right" and the adoption of conservation, no longer as an innovative practice but as part of the company's philosophy, it is very likely that the dream of having sustainable tourism will soon be possible.

We need to grow
The arrival of foreign visitors to Peru is still low, says José Koechlin, supported by the seven years of consecutive presidency of the Hotel Society of Peru, an entity founded with the aim of uniting hotel chains to influence more effectively in the creation of appropriate legislation for the improvement of the tourist and hospitality offer in the country.

"Few people come to Peru, just as few go to Ecuador, Chile or Colombia. We have the potential to have more American visitors, which is our natural market; but for this to be possible it is necessary to create a product according to demand, and to create that product it is necessary to generate awareness among the authorities and the population about the importance of tourism as a source of income".

However, Koechlin recognizes that the country is in a unique transformation process that is allowing the development of a domestic market with spending capacity, something that has never happened before.

To that is added the recognition of the local gastronomy as one of the best in the world, the enormous biodiversity of the country (it has 28 of the 32 climates and 84 of the 104 ecological floors), the living culture, and the architectural and cultural relics such as Macchu Pichu that this year celebrates the centenary of its discovery.

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Preserve to survive
The research activities led by José Koechlin have yielded satisfactory results. One of the main ones was to become the first private company to obtain funding from the United Nations Environment Fund, an agency that until then had only delivered money directly to Governments.

The Macchu Pichu area also benefited from the reforestation of a native forest in an area that was being exploited for agricultural purposes. "This allowed more than 300 species of native birds to return," Koechlin confirmed.

Additionally, he led a study with private researchers from the United States and Peru on amphibians and reptiles, which resulted in a 440-page book published by Cornell University whose covers specify that this is "the baseline on which subsequent studies conducted in the Amazon basin should be compared."

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Family business
José Koechlin's day almost always begins in Lima at 6:00 a.m. with an exercise routine in the gym, after which he takes care of the associations to which he belongs and among which are the Committee to Support the Ecological and Tourism Police, the board of trustees of the Natural History Museum and the direction of research work in the NGO Inkaterra.

With his family he remains connected because, in addition, his three children are part of Inkaterra. Elisa, who lives in Europe, is in charge of marketing work in the old continent, while Sandra is in charge of the services area in Peru. Ignacio, meanwhile, owns a small hotel chain that supports his father's.

Denise, José's wife, also plays a leading role in the family business: she is in charge of the architectural, landscape and interior decoration design of all the hotels, while the nine grandchildren they already have are dedicated to the studio.

In his talk with HOTEL MANAGEMENT, José Koechlin said that in five years he hopes to continue his work of conservation and research of flora and fauna in the Andes and the Peruvian jungle; as well as in the project to reactivate Merlin fishing in Cabo Blanco, north of the country.

When asked about retirement, he acknowledged, amid laughter, that he hopes to always be active, and in a play on words he explained that "activity is health, illusion. If there is no illusion there are no prospects and the perspectives are based on solving problems. The man who has no problems decays, so we must make positive problems, those that create illusions."