Tourism is about value and its impact on local communities and environment.
People to People Tourism approach is by nature educative in that it sensitizes travelers’ understanding and responsibilities to culture within the countries that they are visiting. This is being realized by giving visiting tourists a better insight of the country and its people; thereby building bridges and breaking social barriers. PPT enriching tour exposures are practically helping in promoting greater cross cultural understanding and International co-operation between peoples. Ours is a tour that respects all people –both travelers and those who provide services to them. On the same breath and in order to ease the ever-increasing congestion on Kenya’s beautiful and ecologically ...
About You
Contact Information
Title
Mr.
First name
Peter
Last name
Wahome
Your job title
Project Facilitator & CEO
Name of your organization
People to People Tourism-Kenya
Organization type
Community Based Tourism Organization
Annual budget/currency
USD $ 55,000
Mailing address
P.O Box 40952 GPO Nairobi
Telephone number
+254-722750073
Postal/Zip Code
+254-734559710
Country
Kenya
Email address
Alternative email address
Your idea
This will be the address used to plot your entry on the map.
Street Address
P.O Box 40952 00100
City
GPO
State/Province
Nairobi
Postal/Zip Code
Country
Kenya
Geotourism Challenge Addressed by Entrant
Quality of tourist experience and educational benefit to tourists .
Organization size
Small (1 to 100 employees)
Indicate sector in which you principally work
Tourism-related business
Year innovation began
2001
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Indicate sector in which you principally work
General tourism.
Name Your Project
Tourism is about value and its impact on local communities and environment.
Describe Your Idea
People to People Tourism approach is by nature educative in that it sensitizes travelers’ understanding and responsibilities to culture within the countries that they are visiting. This is being realized by giving visiting tourists a better insight of the country and its people; thereby building bridges and breaking social barriers. PPT enriching tour exposures are practically helping in promoting greater cross cultural understanding and International co-operation between peoples. Ours is a tour that respects all people –both travelers and those who provide services to them. On the same breath and in order to ease the ever-increasing congestion on Kenya’s beautiful and ecologically ...
Innovation
What is the goal of your innovation? Please describe in one sentence the kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
Promote tourism activities that economically and socially benefit local people and preserve their natural and cultural heritage inline with the concept underlying the PPT idea
Please write an overview of your project. Include how your approach supports or embodies geotourism or destination stewardship. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the map located on the competition homepage.
People to People Tourism approach is by nature educative in that it sensitizes travelers’ understanding and responsibilities to culture within the countries that they are visiting. This is being realized by giving visiting tourists a better insight of the country and its people; thereby building bridges and breaking social barriers. PPT enriching tour exposures are practically helping in promoting greater cross cultural understanding and International co-operation between peoples. Ours is a tour that respects all people –both travelers and those who provide services to them. On the same breath and in order to ease the ever-increasing congestion on Kenya’s beautiful and ecologically sensitive wildlife habitat, we endeavor to minimize our impact on the local people, environment and wildlife by keeping group sizes to a maximum of 14 people. The justification of so doing is because mass tourism has proven to do greater damage environmentally and culturally than good. PPT stewardship is anchored on the belief that we are in this earth to take care of each other and the rest of creation. This is demonstrated by our walking the talk through our activities in terms of environmental conservation, promoting love for nature and wildlife among other customized tour packages. In summary and as our brand name suggests, our concept is basically an alternative to the traditional Tourism Industry in Kenya and Africa for that matter.
Explain in detail why your approach is innovative
PPT idea is to promote high value culture based niche attractions of intrinsic value that tourists enjoy. Our objective is to spread tourism potential benefits to communities who have previously never benefited from the sector. In our view, there is changing trends in Global Tourism that shows given opportunities more tourists would go for interactive culture based products that enables them interact, learn and stay with the local communities. We hold the view that the best way to Global thinking is just to get up and go on a short-term mission project to another country. There is simply no substitute for hands on real life experience in another culture. On the same breath, images taken from our daily environment are realistically easier to understand than abstract ideas or mental tourism. Marketing of PPT brand of tourism or culture based products, entails spreading of sustainable tourism potential benefits that brings about positive development and spreads the benefits far beyond the domain of a few popular large-scale attractions such as the popular coastal beach hotels and Game reserves. In our view, there is a need of promoting and building links with locally based tourist project that have a pro-poor focus. The need of creating a stronger branding of community based tourism and marketing of the same in the international marketplace cannot therefore be overemphasized. Our type and scale of tourism is normally appropriate to the local conditions. As a policy we also pay the host group a modest contribution for any visit made that disrupt their normal day working routine. Besides that, PPT does provide facility for tourist to donate to the community projects. To that end therefore, we ensure that PPT operation do not distract or led to displacement of local people.
Impact
Describe the degree of success you have had to date. How do you measure, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the impact on sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How has it transformed or contributed to the power of place or demonstrated the sustainability of tourism? How does your approach minimize negative impacts?
Most successful businesses are those that focus their efforts on satisfying customers’ interests, needs and convenience. This call for keeping a track on feedback of what customers requires, suggests or recommends. Our being able to successfully nurture adapt an integrated and holistic approach to development has earned PPT local and international recognition, such as first prize service category of the Kenya quality award (KQA) www.keb.org and social entrepreneurship Ashoka award. PPT is ever keen to share ideas as well as borrow a leaf from other countries’ success stories and approaches in the tourism sector. As part of PPT responsible tourism activity, we do at any opportune time encourage tourism to team up with the locals in planting at least a tree or two to mark their visit to Kenya. The conservation campaign idea has become synonymous with PPT tours. Cultural songs and dances using traditional musical instrument are very much an integral part of such tree planting events and is well received by tourist and the host communities i.e. men, women, youth and children. It is a participatory concept that gives both the host and the visitors an opportunity to intermingle and sensitize each other on the need to take care of Mother Nature. Our indigenous plants and trees are commonly used due to their medicinal value. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) reports conventional medicine caters for only 30% of Kenya’s population of 33 million people. This leaves 70% to traditional providers. Understandably therefore, need for tree planting for all its benefits cannot be overemphasized.
In recognition of PPT alternative approach to tourism promotion, Africa’s leading tour Institute like Kenya Utalii College (KUC) has in the past called on PPT to share our approach and experience with their Travel and Tourism students as well as inviting PPT brain child to serve in (KUC) eternal examiner panel. In 2002, InWent- a Germany Government International Organization fully sponsored PPT brain child and one staff member to give talks on PPT approach to various forums in Germany. We do also organize home stay tour for clients from different part of the world keen in spending time with the locals.
In what ways are local residents actively involved in your work, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
Ours is not just to work with communities, but to ensure that the partnership is a long-lasting one that builds on self reliance, and makes sure that resulting benefits are equitably distributed. How? Tourists pay a modest hospitality up keep to the host family to cover home stay daily basic needs. It’s a gesture host communities embrace with enthusiasm. They also participate in ensuring customers’ safety and comfort at all time. Despite lack of experience and capacity to properly market their products, our communities are very much aware that they have unique products that tourists really enjoy. As a responsible tourism organization, our primary concern is people and environment. In that we:
• In order to guarantee the sustainable development of the tourism sector and the communities themselves, we actively involve local people in decision making and tourism development in their local area.
• We observe respect of local culture and traditions.
• In order for the dollar to trickle
How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
At PPT, we have evaluation tools to qualitatively and quantitatively capture clients’ feedback on PPT impact on issues touching on our tours. This is done at the end of every tour as a way of gauging customers’ satisfaction. We also ensure that clients are culturally prepared and fully understand the nature of experience ahead of them prior to landing in Kenya for the PPT tour. In addition that, PPT team is committed to informing and caring for tourist as well as ensuring they are given advice on how they can travel more responsibly. We also ensure that a local guide accompanies all group visits to local communities including providing customers with information and briefing on the local culture, traditions and appropriate form of dress and behavior. We are more participatory in our approach in all our activities and such we do involve the locals in delivering/developing the itinerary. Understandably therefore, PPT is committed to promoting more interactive tours with the locale. This
Describe how your work helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area's cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues.
PPT is an ingenious tour company that creatively nurtures and opens up unique and customized new tourism packages that proactively offer a wide range of enriching tours like bird viewing among others. Kenya has over 12% of all known bird species in the world. PPT is keen in promoting bird watching and related product of passion/value to lovers of nature and wildlife. Kenya is reputed as a country where “one can experience the whole world in one safari.” Unlike regular tour operators, at PPT we go an extra mile by offering our clients agro- tours and up-country tour that gives you a breath of fresh air as you get to see our country’s beauty as well as intermingle with rural dwellers such as small-scale organic farmers, tea and coffee farmers particularly those reaping dividends from fair trade premium schemes. Our other products include visits to Kenya’s historical heritage sites and museums. Other circuits are Western Kenya where tourists enjoy seeing bull or cockerel fighting in Kakamega rural villages. We also organize home stay hospitality treat for tourists interested in experiencing what it feels like to spend time or a night in an African home; be it a rural village or urban set-up. PPT is known to organize enriching wildlife safaris and holidays to our beautiful world famous coastal sandy beaches. Our PPT team will be more than happy to give you an enriching tour exposur
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
PPT is a small scale tour operator. its humble initiatives are financed from the revenue generated from PPT tours and when need dictates from its sister organization the COA As a way of minimizing impact on the local people, environment and wildlife, we keep tour groups size to a maximum of 14 people. Annual revenue generated by PPT is a modest US $ 55,000. PPT has 2 full time staff. We do also depending on the work load hire services of skilled and experienced tour drivers and guides. A UK organization that could also help others on conservation front with a grant of up to a tune of 5000 sterling pounds is www.rufford.org they did sponsor our responsible tourism environmental initiatives on a subject titled: “Taping local knowledge for the conservation of indigenous trees and plants” We are ready to share these invaluable research findings with other interested players in Eco tourism world.
Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? Is there a potential demand for your innovation?
PPT concept has attractive tourist packages with local and International appeal. But what PPT requires is to increase our brand of tourism visibility by developing products that put people and environment at its centre inline with goals and objective of promoting responsible tourism ethics. To be able to prudently put our innovative ideas and thinking into practice, we need moral and financial support. We believe every organization has potential and opportunities for improvement only if implementers eliminate weak areas and re-channel available resources prudently into more profitable and well thought out projects and programs.
What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
We have had several barriers e.g.
• We are still feeling the effect of 2007 December Kenya’s post elections skirmishes with hotels closing business and airlines cutting significant number of jobs
• The USA, UK and other European countries travel advisories. This has made tour operator to tighten their belts at the expense of the poor who depend on tourism income/industries
• Lack of strong branding of Community Based Tourism (CBT) and marketing of the same at a global scale
• PPT/COA current operation premises have little room for expansion.
• We are also not within a tourist circuit access area.
If funds allow, our long term plan and vision is to relocate to a tourist circuit area and come up with income generating projects i.e. construct a superb African Huts accommodation cottages, an organic food Eco-restaurant, a cyber café, a fair trade “one stop shop” with crafts sourced from across Africa. This will serve as a replicable model project that can catalyze the establishment of similar development outfits in Africa and beyond. One cannot de-link PPT concept and vision from sister organization www.craftofafrica.org in nurturing crafts making us a source of income, cultural heritage and tourism promotion. To proactively enhance project income sustainability, PPT and COA synergy requires our relocating to an established tourist circuit. Why? Ideas if well nurtured; can be and have been a solution to almost every human challenge. Without ideas humanity would not advance and without funding even the best innovative ideas remain just that; nothing more!!!
What is your plan to expand or further develop your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
We intend to share our thinking and approaches with the tourism world. As pointed as where, if funds allow, we plan to establish African huts design accommodation cottages, build one stop shop with craft products sourced from all over Africa; come up with organic food eco-restaurant that will promote eating of nutritious African Cultural dishes; thus enhancing conservation by utilization. The way forward is to conserve and increase awareness of country’s rich natural and cultural-heritage, production of responsible tourism information-materials and dissemination of the same to the populace.
The Story
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
I strongly believe that the purpose of every human being is to be of some use to one self and to our fellow human beings as well as to the rest of God’s creations. On that note, most of my life has been spent working together with grass-roots communities in seeking solutions to problems touching on their lives. My school of thought, vision and passion is very much guided by the ideas of self-reliance and nurturing of holistic and participatory approaches to development. This line of thinking is also well captured in my Master Degree thesis at the University of Manchester –UK the title was “Grassroots participation are non-formal education in Kenya: A strategy of self reliant” and it is more of an embodiment of the life I led this day. In short, seeing others improve so that they can be co-workers in building and sharing this world wealth is my happiness.
What is the origin of your innovation? Tell the Changemakers and media communities what prompted you to start this initiative.
When starting a new business venture, it is prudent to first find a niche market not currently serviced or ignored and focus ones’ energy there. Understandably therefore, my coming up with the concept underlying PPT idea was prompted by the fact that over the years Kenya has largely been seen as a beach tourist destination attracting low financial yields from hordes of back-peckers who visit our traditional attraction such as Game parks and coastal beaches. The truth of the matter is that tour companies in Kenya have concentrated in wildlife and beach tourism. It’s a pull factor that makes the industry players to leave out other attractions like Eco-tourism, Cultural tourism, sports, bird watching, agro-tourism, “Jua kali” informal business sector tourism etc. Majority of Kenyans eke a living from the latter two sectors. So when we talk about the genesis of PPT innovation, the story is very much linked to my wanting to make a shift from what already exists. PPT idea and long term objective is to encourage tourists to visit other destinations away from the conventional attractions. In nutshell our idea is not about disrupting Kenya’s established competitive advantage in the tourism world but to also promote Kenya as a tourist destination alongside PPT community based tourism packages.
Describe some unique tourist experiences that your approach provides. Be specific; give illustrative examples.
Building bridges and breaking social barriers is what People to People Tourism (PPT) is all about. This is well captured by the below email dated Tue, February 5th 2008 from one of the past PPT client Joan Davies joan.davies@homecall.co.uk to us telling us and I quote: “Liz and I met for the first time on the People to People Tour and we have kept up our friendship ever since………... Even though it is three and a half years since we came to Kenya, sometimes it seems like yesterday.” Apart from the above statement, PPT visits are known to benefit local people economically and socially. For instance, upon return to the UK Moyna Bridge, monyabridge@yahoo.co.uk and Ann Farnham ann.farnham@btinternet.com. Were able to make presentations in various forums/events e.g. at interdenominational churches, fair trade Christmas bazaars and to other women groups about their PPT enriching Kenya tour experiences. After sharing what PPT had to offer. The Christmas fundraising theme adapted by our above clients was known as “count your blessings and bless others” As a gesture of appreciation with what God has gifted them with, the UK benefactors were able to raise a modest amount of USD $ 5,734 in support of the handicrafts women group merry-go-round kitty. The Kisesini artisan women group from 75 villages in Yatta district -Kamba land -Kenya are this day able to borrow USD $ 70 each from the USD $ 5,734 kitty. From the above living or practical examples and lots of others, one can tell that our down to earth tours, exposure and experience do change those who go on them and those who are visited by them. In order to enhance the travelers’ experience, we do provide customers with information on the importance of PPT brand of tourism. This includes informing customers of the importance of purchasing locally produced goods and services – souvenirs, crafts, meals and guides – from locally owned establishments and how it has beneficial effect.
What types of partnerships or professional development would be most beneficial in spreading your innovation?
Increasing the visibility of our products innovation in a global-scale is what PPT is keen on promoting. Therefore, PPT is more interested in partnering with professionals interested in helping us to strategically develop and strengthen PPT marketing networks regionally and internationally. The aim of PPT is not just to work with communities, but ensure that our mutual partnership with them is a long lasting one; that builds self reliance and makes sure that the resulting benefits are equitably distributed among host communities. PPT believes that the poor should benefit from tourism in their local community as much as tourists benefit from staying/visiting there. This is so because destinations are no longer about volume but value, and most importantly its impact on local communities.
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 | 149 weeks agoDanielle Evonich said: very thorough and eye opening. about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 156 weeks agoPeter Wahome said: Great work! this is innovative Njoroge about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 158 weeks agoRobert Billington said: Mr Wahome, Your group is to be commended. The PPT project sounds amazing on such a small budget. Could you tell me how many tour ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 159 weeks agoPeter Wahome submitted this idea. |
