Where to start?

Hi Pat

I think this is the essential question and the whole supply chain has to be addressed and involved. This can annd WILL only happen if and when tourists themselves are more aware of issues in their own environment - and start caring about it. Loking at the world as a whole EVERY place is potentially a rtourist destination - unless we show respect for our own surroundings how can we expect to show and practice it in the places we visit?

In "western" perception Responsible tourism is associated with "exotic" places, possibly we see it as "unspoiled" in comparison to the concrete jungles we ourselves live in (btw - I have given up the concrete for the real jungle - or what's left of it - and are living now in The Gambia, West Africa) - so the "we" is used rather losely. But we still expect the same facilities as we enjoy at home. Yes, there is a growing number of people coming here who want to see "the bush" but when they come back to their hotel after 3 nights in a roundhouse with a local community the first thing they will do is turn on the AC.
Travel companies have slowly realised that responsible tourism is a great marketing argument - everybody has now a good looking corporate "responsible tourism" or "environmental" policy. It's a horrible thing to realise that the recent awareness building about the mess we have got our whole planet in with regards to GHG's may well be the catalyst to drive personal and social responsibility home where it belongs - to the grass roots. Not only here but everywhere. We usually see that we still address issues from the viewpoint of "us and the environment". Until we realise that we all ARE PART of the environment and behave as such it will be losing battle.

I am not a defeatist and we try to do here what we can on the ground with our community as a focal point. Our association ASSET www.asset-gambia.com is making impact on a local level and we have established excellent links with mainly European organisations. We try to develop local initiatives with our members, build awareness and teach local responsible behaviour involving as many local stakeholders as possible. We develop new tourism products - tours, camps, experiances. We bring them to the ground handlers who for years are shouting that our visitors only have a limited number of "attractions" - we are a small country and it's true if you are of the sightseeing mentality. By the time a excursion product we developed with a member for US$ 2 ends up in their itinerary it has grown to US$ 25 to 30 making it unsalable - so they say.

I am sure you know that I could go on forever - you are at the sharp end yourself. We are trapped in that catch 22 situation that as long as the buck rules and we see each other as consumers and not as fellow human beings we can keep up dialogue but we have to start where it hits and sticks - with the young ones, "here" and "there" - and hope that they grow up in time to be more responsible then the majority of our generation and the ones before us.

We all say we love our kids and are building a future for them - from where I am looking we will deny them a happy and fulfilled life because we think we are the masters of thsi world - not the caretakers for the ones we claim to love.

So....
Where to start?
Use the pester power of kids to do some GOOD - not just to have to fork out for a new pair of trainers or the latest game.

Cheers
George

• Inicie sesión o regístrese para enviar comentarios