A busy week in Monteverde. Martha Honey, journalist, author and Executive Director of the Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development (CREST) came here to talk on Sustainable Tourism as part of a broader panel discussion. Martha is generally recognised through her book 'Ecotourism and Sustainable Development; Who Owns Paradise?' which I understand is now core syllabus reading for many ecotourism degrees.

Martha has been a hugely influential figure in the evolution of eco and sustainable tourism and I would recommend anyone to access the Center's website (above). In fact their recent study on the impacts of tourism related development on Costa Rica's pacific coast is, I hear, crucial reading even if it makes uncomfortable reading for Costa Rican government policymakers.

From Martha Honey to el Instituto de Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) the Government's Tourism Ministry, who came here Thursday to talk about the Government's new national and international marketing and PR strategy.

Nothing new here although it was interesting to see the work of McCann Erikson in much of the new marketing ideas. I even hear the I.C.T has put their European PR account out to tender and my old company - Weber Shandwick - is in the running. Good luck to them.

We also secured a further meeting with Ruth Alfaro, Head of I.C.T's Tourism Development, to discuss Government contribution to the sustainability project we want to run here in Monteverde. Good for Monteverde if we can secure some solid commitments (which I hear isn't easy!).

Anyway, more on that project in later blogs.

It's 3-3 in the England-v-Scotland game; my country needs me...