OUR DONATION
Our idea
We have taken the decision to pledge a percentage of our profits to different foundations and organizations that have an important impact on the lives of local communities, on the protection of the native forests, and further afield, on the wellbeing of the tourism industry and those who work in it across the world.
This sounds like a major challenge, but we feel it is the least we can do to give something back to the local area and to the industry that facilitates our own livelihoods.
VWe are in the process of setting up a link with a local network here in the 9th region whose mission is to offer homestays and cultural interaction between tourists and indigenous communities. We will load more information up onto this page when we receive details of all their programmes.
Tourism Concern
The larger non-profit making organisation that we aim to support financially through donations is Tourism Concern, a London based organisation where I (Sarah) did a stint of voluntary work on the Latin American section in 2004.
Tourism Concern´s Mission Statement is to ensure tourism always benefits local communities.
The Tree House Hostel aims to do this as far as possible by supporting local producers of cakes, jams, cheese, laundry services, even the local off-licence!, but we feel this is not quite enough in terms of the bigger picture.
Tourism Concern has a wide range of exciting and innovative projects working with communities in destination countries to reduce social and environmental problems connected to tourism. They also work with the outbound tourism industry in the UK to find ways of improving tourism so that local benefits are increased.
Central to Tourism Concern's work is the fact that tourism often causes or exacerbates poverty. For this reason, the NGO has been working since 1989 to raise awareness of the negative impacts of tourism: economic, cultural, environment and social. They work with the tourism industry rather than against it. The statement on the header from the Tourism Concern website highlights just what a difference people can make if they work together for a common cause.
Tourism Concern has events London throughout the year and their projects and campaigns can be followed through their website, or better still, become a member and receive their In Focus magazine.
They also have a webshop stocking fabulous books for those who work in the tourism industry, or for those who want to travel within in. The second edition of the Ethical Travel Guide is out now full of suggestions of places where the local communities benefit directly from your visit:
We can only hope that out meager effort to support the above foundations and organisations will help someone, somewhere in their endeavour to better their own lives, or those of others.
