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Onefinestay and the unhotel

Following on from Stephen’s great post about travellers trading hotels for quirky holiday homes (see Are holiday homes replacing hotels?), one innovative new website www.onefinestay.com is taking this a step further with the introduction of the ‘unhotel’.

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What’s The Deal With Volunteering These Days?

Photo by Sally Broom

Since Judith Brodie, CEO of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), claimed that modern day volunteering had become a form of neo-colonialism, few issues in the responsible tourism world have become as heated in debate.  Companies offering volunteering holidays, often those associated with gap years, have been pitched against charities and not-for-profits in fierce battle. The former argue, often with support from local partners, that without their schemes vital work in conservation and development would not take place due to lacking resources. However check any travel forum and you would likely find a disgruntled volunteer who feels fleeced by the price of a project and asking if they should have simply donated the money directly to a local cause. But is that possible?

YourSafePlanet is in a fairly privileged position working with local stake holders worldwide. We connect travellers with trusted local experts in the places they want to visit. A common theme throughout our network is a passion for sustainable tourism and engagement of visitors with the community. This ranges from our ‘YSPerson’ in Trinidad being a long-standing advocate of responsible travel to the Caribbean to our YSPerson in Spain who runs her own ecotourism and community volunteering company. This gives YSP an insight into the situation at the very grass roots and, in general, this is what we find:

1. There is ground-breaking work taking place at the global grass roots without input from international bodies
2. International bodies can support local work by providing profile and sponsorship
3. Local stake holders are the best informed about how to work against a certain local problem but benefit from sharing best practice with similar projects
4. Volunteers are a useful resource when they can offer relevant skills.
5. Visitors are of benefit to local projects if they promote that work and donate money to the cause while they are there.

Finally, we find there is a need to provide a connection between the local project and the overseas visitor or volunteer. Any organisations with this aim as its core ethos will provide an important service to both customers: the volunteer and the project. Done transparently, projects have access to extra manpower and possibly specialist skills as well as financial support, while the volunteer feels they are getting the necessary support in finding a suitable placement and getting a fair deal.

Can such organisations be profit-making? Yes, we believe so, as long as they are not taking money away from the community or project in question. If a service is being provided to a traveller or volunteer then fair payment should be taken. However the key again is transparency. This is the wonderful opportunity offered by the internet – freedom to information to make informed decisions. We can now check internet forums to see if we should be using a certain company or visiting a particular place and find out from our peers what their views are. I hope this will be used wisely and to democratise travel.

As an industry of travel providers we need to make our local service providers a core customer, not supplier. They should be treated with the same respect and consideration as any traveller. Not only will this mean tourism becomes a more responsible business but that everyone involved will benefit. There is a win-win opportunity here for the taking, but rather perversely it requires a middleman. Which is something I never thought I’d hear myself say.

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Conservelopment

Balancing conservation and development

Conservation and development have long been seen as arch rivals, neither accommodating the other in a bid for the upper hand. In order to conserve, barriers must be erected and access to the resources that are to be preserved must be controlled. In order to develop, space must be cleared for the erection of infrastructures to accommodate a growing population. It seems that you can’t have one with the other, or can you?

Is there a way to enhance the social situation whilst conserving the natural environment? Can people find a way to co-exist with nature and still increase standards of living? Since the Industrial Revolution it has been accepted that where there is development there is environmental degradation. Take China’s massive growth phase – it is already the second most energy consuming nation on earth and looks set to increase its draw on resources by 5% each year (http://www.eia.doe.gov/).

We cannot feasibly ask these developing mega-nations to forsake the short-term benefits of rapid growth in order to prevent environmental damage. A report published from the IPCC shows that those forecast to be worst effected by the effects of climate change will be developing nations anyway, so it is a little unfair perhaps to start blaming them for the damage being caused. Developed nations were not called to account during their era of major industrial expansion so cannot reasonably impose sanctions on other nations as they begin their development. It does mean, however, that we can lead by example.

It is true to say that money makes the world go round and to ensure that the environment has a chance of fighting back against the onslaught of industrial development we need to show that environmental protection itself enhances economic benefits. It takes a lot of lateral thinking to work out how this can be done effectively, and as soon as consumers start seriously demanding more environmental responsibility from their producers, multi-national corporations will start to listen.

Tourism is the largest industry in the world and does not look to be subsiding any time soon. Even with the recent publication of the IPCC’s report about climate change, human behaviour will not be immediately influenced and people will continue to fly for business and leisure, simply laden with more guilt.

So what is ‘responsible travel’ (RT) and what does the term even mean? RT is basically a way of travelling that is both socially and environmentally respectful, and until recently the travel industry has been held to relatively little account for the impacts it has on destinations. The concept of RT revolves around ensuring that you maximise social benefits when you travel whilst minimising environmental damage. One way of doing this is to ensure that any money spent by travellers goes direct to the local people providing the services, anything from accommodation and meals to excursions and treks. Money spent locally, brings social benefits that lead to development opportunities, but what about the conservation aspect?

The term ‘ecotourism’ has lost much of its meaning as it is now used to communicate a host of different travel-related ideas. But consider it as meaning travel that involves an appreciation of nature, perhaps in visiting reserves, ecolodges, conservation projects, working sustainable farms and similar ‘ and it begins to offer the conservation element of RT. Suddenly the natural environment becomes a valuable commodity as travellers pay big money to have the ecotourism experience. Whether it’s silverback gorillas or a rare orchid species, someone will pay money to see what that destination has to offer. It is in the interests of the community to preserve their most treasured natural possessions and to ensure that they are available for the next group of travellers to experience.

If you can plant the seeds of environmental responsibility in the thoughts of the traveller you can open their minds to the challenges faced by the countries they visit, even encourage them to get involved in community projects. An ancient Chinese proverb gets this point across much better than I can

“Tell me, I will forget;
Show me, I may remember;
Involve me, I will learn.”

Until you experience first hand the catalytic effect of introducing a traveller to a local person who wants to share their knowledge and thoughts can you appreciate how much there is to gain from cross-cultural interaction. Travel is all about seeing new places and cultures, and how better to do that than through local eyes. When you stand in someone else’s shoes you can’t help but gain apathy for their situation. This is why when travellers meet and interact with local people they gain such a different experience and always a more rewarding one if that person is reliable and hospitable. This is the foundation of responsible travel – equality and involvement between different people. Involving travellers in local efforts to encourage social and environmental awareness, and involving local communities in the benefits of global tourism. You remove the middleman and suddenly many more benefits – social, environmental and even economic – are exposed.

Exciting? It is, and the fact that it actually makes good economic sense to support these efforts makes it even more interesting. The smart money for those in travel is to join these efforts now and be pioneers. It offers a way to differentiate within the biggest industry in the world and gain access to a larger, more sustainable customer base. But this is not something huge industry leaders can do easily, It’s an opportunity for those at the grass roots level to implement projects and initiatives that offer travellers new experiences, communities, sustainable futures, and protection for the environment. It also stimulates equality across cultures.in an industry controlled by global corporations.

So yes, there are ways to stimulate development with conservation and there are practical solutions being put in place all over the world in small settings. 2007 sees the first World Responsible Tourism Day on November 14th and promises to be a revolutionary year for travel and RT in particular. The pioneers in this sector are already aware of these issues and leading conservelopment to new heights.