The Rise Of Community Tourism And How To Travel With More Purpose

Tourism is a USD$8 trillion global industry, yet many communities and businesses do not benefit from it. Community tourism aims to actively change this. By building infrastructure and practices that support and uplift local communities, economic opportunities are created, places and traditions are preserved, and cultures celebrated through travel. Instead of simply building infrastructure then leaving, travel companies fund and help to build projects, and then create ways for tourists to experience them.  

Community tourism helps to turn passive travellers into active change-makers. Non-profit organisation Planeterra has been doing this work for 20 years. In Peru alone, they have created multiple projects that have given people the option to stay in their community over moving to a larger city for work. A few examples include: 

Ccaccaccollo is a small indigenous community in the Sacred Valley, where most of the 140 Quechuan-speaking families work in agriculture. Despite being situated between Cusco and Machu Picchu, two of Peru’s most popular tourist destinations, many of the communities in this area did not benefit from tourism. In 2005, Planeterra partnered with the community to establish the women’s weaving cooperative designed to create economic opportunities for the women and preserve their traditional weaving techniques with llama and alpaca wool. Through the income they generate many of the families have been able to send their children to university, as well as build better infrastructure in the community.  

Peru has no less than 3000 unique varieties of potatoes!  

There are many ways for community tourism to support indigenous communities in sustaining their traditional way of life. Agro-tourism, which creates a destination for tourists based around the traditional agricultural practices of the community is one. Parque de la Papa is a collective of five indigenous communities in a single valley, focused on preserving more than 1,300 varieties of native potatoes. Cultivating and managing the agricultural landscape is ingrained in their way of life, and each community is responsible for cultivating specific species of potatoes.  

Travellers who visit the park are given insight into the traditional planting and harvesting techniques, which have been preserved for generations. Funds that go into the community help to sustain the traditional way of life, provide improved infrastructure and give investment into social projects and training on potato conservation. This has so far allowed the community to send more than 750 potato seeds to the world seed bank in Norway.  

In much of the Sacred Valley, men have traditionally worked in labor, while women have maintained domestic duties and farming. The community longed for more opportunities to share their culture outside of handicrafts and homestays for which opportunities had increased, but yielded little results.  

Planeterra and G Adventures, along with funding partners established this community restaurant, not just financing the construction and equipment, but providing crucial technical guidance and training to foster business development, training programs and ultimately make the restaurant a success.  

The restaurant is owned by community-based enterprise, the Huchuy Qosqo Association, and all ingredients used in the restaurant are sourced from local farmers, supporting a thriving local marketplace. Today the restaurant channels 100% of its profits into social and community development projects, while employees receive monthly salaries, health insurance and pension funds.

Do your research and choose experiences that have an impact. If companies give back to the communities they’re in, they will explain not just that they do, but how. There are marginalised communities everywhere we can support without exploitation. Community tourism gives ownership to people who have not been a part of the travel story in the past.  

It’s not just communities travel can have a positive impact on. There are also experiences you can choose that have a positive impact on the environment, such as science-based projects in Antarctica, coral planting in the tropics, and tree planting initiatives in places from Morocco to Canada to Peru.  

This goes for community, climate and nature. Give more than you take. Travel is a gift, and access into people’s communities is a gift. We should treat it as such. Similarly, we’re more alike than we are different. We shouldn’t judge people by the government of the country they are from. 

Think about how you’re engaging with and experiencing a place. Just because everyone you know is going there doesn’t necessarily mean you should. There could be an alternative better suited to what you want to do. 

The actions we do today will echo in the lives of those who come after us. It can be difficult to understand and empathise with situations happening when we’ve never met the people they’re happening to. That’s why it’s important to continue to travel and connect with other people and cultures and share those stories. Storytelling is powerful, and as travellers we’re all storytellers. ‘How was your trip?’ starts a story when you get home, use it as best you can.  

Progress is better than perfect.