Funding education through sustainable tourism, not voluntourism

The idea of ‘giving back' is used a lot in sustainable tourism, but to give back suggests that we take something away in the first place. Which of course we do, as travelers, like it or not. Tourism is by its very nature an extractive industry. Many destinations and travel organizations are now finding ways to change the emphasis from extractive to attractive. Attractive, that is, to host communities, not to tourists. Most destinations know how to attract visitors, albeit not always in a sustainable way, otherwise they wouldn’t be in the tourism industry. However, destinations that create and lead on tourism products that are all about outreach and education of people who live in a place are still thin on the ground.

Creating tourism with value for the people who live in a place 

It’s time for tourism destinations to start thinking out of the box and create tourism with value for the people who live there. Only local stakeholders can be true judges of what local communities need as compensation for opening their doors to visitors day in and day out. Here are examples below of destinations or travel organizations facilitating a form of tourism that empowers local people to go on a journey of their own. We believe that these models could be applied to all countries around the world, as there are very few places where some people aren’t crying out for more educational resources. 

Photo by Aaron Burden

Funding schools through tourism

One of the best international examples of tourism funding local education is at the Kasbah du Toubkal in Morocco. This haven of sustainable tourism in the heart of the Atlas Mountains’ Berber community takes a 5 percent levy on all bookings, which goes towards their Bassins d’Imlil organization, funding projects within the Imlil Valley communities. These include funding boarding houses for Berber girls from remote communities so that they can attend secondary school, in a brilliant initiative called Education for All. Without this tourism fund, these teenage girls would simply not be able to go to school and just farm or feed the family, as per their traditions. All kudos to the Kasbah. 

Photo by Julia Maudlin

Volunteering versus voluntourism

It’s a total misconception, and one that is well documented, that by volunteering in a school for a few days on vacation, you are going to have an educational impact. Voluntourism holidays have been criticised by many for being tokenistic and tick-box. There are ways, however, in which you can invite travelers to have a positive impact on the education of young people in your destination through locally run programs, cultural partnerships and community conservation. Creating content around these projects not only brings them to visitors’ attention but also empowers the communities you are endeavoring to support. Award-winning People and Places is one of the best models for ethical principles and practices in volunteering while traveling. 

“Building a school, feeding orphans, and digging a well are just a few of the activities that would have once been celebrated as responsible travel success stories. Today, however, voluntourism has a murkier reputation.” - Holly Tuppen, Sustainable Travel - The Essential Guide to Positive-impact Journeys. 

Earth Changers

After publishing a world-first Masters thesis on “The online marketing and greenwashing of voluntourism,” Vicky Smith set up Earth Changers, selling responsible holidays that are transparent and transformational. Among these are trips that have education as their core mission, Vicky applies Sustainable Development Goal #4 on Quality Education to her travel company ethos. Trips include Grootbos in South Africa, which created Green Futures College for community members to learn horticultural, guiding and hospitality skills.  Or Lapa Rios in Costa Rica which has educational empowerment to prevent emigration, as its core mission.

Photo by Flowcomm

Education to stop emigration

As with many of Earth Changers’ partners, we know that keeping families sustained in remote, rural areas is fundamental to development and education. Destination stewards such as DMOs or tourism operators need to help found, support and then promote tourism in such places. Sometimes it only takes one or two tourism businesses to sustain several families and, in so doing, keep a school open.

Village Ways is an award-winning sustainable tourism business offering walking and cultural holidays through remote villages in India, Nepal and Bhutan. They describe themselves aptly as a “shared value enterprise, supporting and benefiting needy rural communities through the creation of village tourism enterprises.” The host villages are full partners in the business and there are village representatives on the board of Trustees, ensuring that tourism works hand in hand with village life, in a sustainable and transparent way. 

Photo by Vishnu Prasad

Lighting the way

Another exemplary organization supporting villages and improving the way of life for hundreds of people is Global Himalyan Expeditions (GHE). This organization’s strapline is ‘Travel to empower communities’ and their trips all have some aspect of sustainable change-making incorporated into them. The main one is solar electrification, with tourists transporting solar micro-grids to remote communities in the Himalayas. At the last count, over 131 villages had received electrification through tourism. 

Photo by Sebastian Pena Lambarri

Planeterra Foundation

Planeterra are considered pioneers in impact travel, with entrepreneur and CEO of G-Adventures Bruce Poon Tip setting the Foundation up in 2003, so that adventure tourists could fund social enterprise, healthcare, conservation and emergency response projects around the world. Projects include Women with Wheels, an Indian taxi company which is literally driven by women. Over a thousand women in fact, who have successfully swapped exclusion for empowerment. Another project funded by Planeterra is Migrantour in Naples, Italy, which runs tours led by migrants. The tours are aimed both at the domestic and international market, with cultural cooperation, acceptance and education high on the agenda, as well as generating much needed income of course.

Photo sourced from Unsplash

Trip for a trip

It’s shocking to find out just how many young people never get to visit, experience and learn from places that are on their doorstep. Places that tens of thousands of visitors go to all year round, be it hiking or cycling trails, glamping or gourmet-ing and even national parks or national museums. There are inventive ways in which destinations can support these trips, one of which was put into action by responsibletravel.com. Their Trip for a Trip program gives 1% of sales to school and college trips that have been requested by host destinations. These trips tend to be in Global South countries, but all destinations can fund trips to schools on their own doorstep. 

Photo by Nick Fewings

Citizen science

In a world of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, citizen science pulls on the general public’s ability to collect data for scientific purposes. This ties in with tourism rather perfectly of course, and when travelers are able to contribute to stats and surveys, they can have an immediate impact. Examples include: Visitor and host communities can take part in the worldwide network of BioBlitzes; they can upload nature images to and share with the iNaturalist network; night owls can sign up to the Globe at Night program, which surveys light pollution and monitors the visibility of night skies; people worldwide can report bird sightings and observations on a number of platforms, including Ebird. Nearly every place in the world has some organization in need of citizen scientists, and the tourism industry can do a lot more to contribute to and create content around this.

Photo by GLP Films