The Community Tourism Guide: Exciting Holidays for Responsible Travellers - Hardcover

Mann, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1138164801 ISBN 13: 9781138164802

Publisher: Routledge, 2017

Synopsis

The "Community Tourism Guide" will lead you to a new type of holiday. Tribal people and rural villagers in Africa, Asia, Australia, North and South America and the Pacific islands are setting up their own tours: tours from which they, and not the international hotel chains, derive some income. For the traveller, they offer uniquely exciting opportunities, far from the usual tourist ghettos, and they are based on fair trade, benefiting local communities and giving them hope of a better future. Written by Mark Mann for Tourism Concern, Europe's leading ethical tourism organization, the Guide brings together the pick of these holidays. It describes hundreds of different holidays in many of the most beautiful places around the world, with full contact details and a range of further useful information. Chosen by Tourism Concern, and not available through conventional travel agents, they promise uniquely rewarding experiences to the adventurous and those concerned about the impacts of their visits.

About this title

Review:

We learn how the Siecoya use the forest...They can stitch wounds with a particular type of ant. Holding it so that it pinches the wound shut, they break off the body, leaving the head and pinchers fixed in place...

Mark Manning, a founder of Tourism Concern, is learning about the Ecuadorian rainforest from a Siecoya Indian on a jungle walk organised by his tribe themselves. "The overall feel is different", he writes. "The feeling of being not in a wilderness, but guest in someone's home, with children and pets running around your feet, women cooking, neighbours visiting..."

Beyond the "bland facade" of mainstream tourism is a growing movement of eco/community travel. Since the slave trade, Westerners have imposed themselves on the world: taking the profits, giving little back. Tourism is no exception. The World Bank estimates that 55 pence of every £1 spent in a developing country returns to the West. Tourism also forcibly displaces local people, corrupts traditional cultures/morals, destroys natural habitat and so on--trekkers dump rubbish at Everest Base Camp while a golf course can use as much water as 60,000 villagers.

Many people believe that "staying away won't stop anyone else from going so you might as well go any way". The Community Tourism Guide claims otherwise, providing a diverse global directory of tours/projects/agents who benefit local communities and don't degrade the environment. They are small organisations, many run by indigenous people themselves. You could ride horses in Mongolia, bird-watch in Namibia, camp with Bedouins, learn a language or volunteer. Instead of fake, out-of-context "cultural shows" or 20-minute coach stops to buy tribal handicrafts, you get to experience "living" culture. The benefit to the traveller is not only a guilt-free conscience, but a richer experience. --Sarah Champion

Review:

Many people believe that "staying away won't stop anyone else from going so you might as well go any way." The Community Tourism Guide claims otherwise, providing a diverse global directory of tours/projects/agents who benefit local communities and don't degrade the environment. They are small organisations, many run by indigenous people themselves. You could ride horses in Mongolia, bird-watch in Namibia, camp with Bedouins, learn a language or volunteer. Instead of fake, out-of-context "cultural shows" or 20-minute coach stops to buy tribal handicrafts, you get to experience "living" culture. The benefit to the traveller is not only a guilt-free conscience, but a richer experience.  Sarah Champion

Recommended reading in The Traveller. Independent Newspaper, 7th April 2001

Full of contact details and useful information. Methodist Recorder (circ 2:23, 785)

This book was very easy to read and has got me thinking seriously about the impact I have when on holiday. Going Green, No. 38

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1138164801
• ISBN 13: 9781138164802
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224