ETHICAL TRAVELLER:I ONCE HAD an editor who told me that I shouldn't write about people in travel. "Holidaymakers only want to know about the place, not the people. They're irrelevant to travel articles," he told me.
But writing about beaches and budget airlines is not really my bag, as regular readers will know by now. People who create incredible places to stay or things to do, and also care deeply for their local environment, community and climate change, sell a holiday to me just as much as any piece of beach lit. And 2009 was definitely a year about people in tourism.
Those who have been surviving the recession without compromising their principles of responsible tourism merit huge recognition in my book. Some even dared to set up businesses last year, such as Tripbod (tripbod.com), which puts travellers in touch with local guides before they travel. For a small fee you get e-mail contact with local guides who give you all the inside, finger-on-the-pulse information on the place you plan to visit. Tripbod works with an ethical ethos, and sources “bods” who think the same way as it does – and top bods they are, too.
One organisation that nearly lost its battle for survival in 2009 was Tourism Concern (tourismconcern.org.uk), a charity that has been fighting for human rights in tourism for 20 years. It made an international appeal for rescue funding, and has managed to see its way into 2010: the appeal will continue.
Taking on tourism multinationals over employment conditions and governments over indigenous land-ownership issues, as well as demanding equal access to basic resources such as water – so often usurped for tourism purposes – Tourism Concern has an invaluable role in protecting people affected by tourism. Thanks to all of you who donated after I wrote about this, last October.
Many thanks also for all the lovely feedback last year, such as from the two women who travelled to Africa with People and Places (travel-peopleand places.co.uk), which was named best volunteering organisation at the 2009 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards. These readers had great experiences and felt as if they had made positive contributions to the communities they visited.
People and Places won the award because it not only offers a sustainable, transparent approach to volunteering holidays but also campaigns for an end to the many cases of bad practice in the sector, such as lack of consultancy with local communities, no police checks and the abandonment of volunteers in situ. Very importantly, it also confronts the problem of where volunteers’ money ends up.
People and Places gets what “voluntourism” is about, and, if you are thinking of giving time and money to people who need it, they are the ones to call.
But my People of 2009 award goes to the Kieffer family in France. They run Itinerance, a walking-holiday company in the Mercantour region. They sent us off to the Lower Alps last year: we walked from gite to gite, with a donkey to carry our bags. They bring hundreds of visitors to their spot in the Alps every year, teaching children about the joys of nature, bringing money to many rural villages,
sharing their love of slow travel and slow food, and running one of the most exemplary ethical tourism businesses I have come across (itinerance.net).
So bah, humbug to that editor: he was wrong. It’s people like this who are creating an ethical tourism industry and ensuring that travel is still one of the most exhilarating, eye-opening ways to spend our precious time.
ethicaltraveller.net, twitter.com/catherinemack