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News from the tourism world, here and elsewhere.
Tourism in search of meaning
Created 20 years ago, the American non-profit organization Tourism Cares has organized “Meaningful Travel Summits” in its current form since 2018, in addition to those in the United States. Initially, the goal of Tourism Cares was to help destinations resume their tourism activities after a natural disaster or crisis. But today, the institution says it is convinced “that we can change the world through travel.”
“We try to gather, educate and inspire”, summarizes Greg Takehara, president and CEO of Tourism Cares, meeting during the event that took place in Panama in early June. To escape from infinity bucket lists, which exert great pressure on the targeted regions, the organization supports the destinations in identifying experiences that are meaningful and beneficial to the communities. The 2018 summit was intended in particular to attract visitors other than to Petra, which is beginning to suffer from overtourism. A Meaningful Journey Map intended to circulate in member circles – and beyond – is then put together.
In addition to educational sessions, panels and workshops, on-the-ground activities are planned during the events to explore some of the projects chosen by the team. In Panama, for example, I was able to try an ecotour created by Jenny’s El Trip agency in the Achiote region (Colon province). And this, in the company of about forty leaders and managers of the tourism industry, sectorial associations and other tour operators.
One of my biggest favorites of the stay was undoubtedly the tour of the “less recommended” district of Panama City, El Chorrillo, in the company of the founders and guides of Localinpty. They can highlight the positive aspects. I also enjoyed walking the La Caldera trail in the Anton Valley, which ended with a visit to Evelio, a friendly patriarch. Hats off to the eloquent guides of the Ancon Expeditions agency! Meaningful travel maps can be found on the Tourism Cares website.
See sea turtles in Panama
After the Meaningful Travel Summit, I continued my journey in the province of Veraguas with the agency Pacific Adventure. If you are in the area, you absolutely must stop at the new Fundacion Agua y Tierra center, in Morrillo, officially inaugurated on June 15. It was after seeing sea turtles being slaughtered on a beach that agricultural engineer Jacinto Rodríguez Murillo looked for ways to help protect them, about fifteen years ago. “I said I had to act, but I also understood that the community needed food,” he says. Then he imagined the Eco-Ruta Tortuga so that the families of the area could earn thanks to the enthusiasm of the vacationers for these reptiles. Different experiences today make up this circuit focused on encounters: kayaking in the mangrove, milking a cow at Finca Mamacita, discovering the traditional method of extracting sugar from sugar cane with a villager from the community of Mata Oscura… community would have done from the sale of turtle eggs highly appreciated for the profits generated by the tourist activity, Agua y Tierra found that the income from the ecoroute was four times higher. Did you say “win-win”?
Ecology of possibilities at the Jardins de Métis
For his 25e edition, the International Garden Festival has chosen four new works focused on the environment. First of all, natural color, from the Quebec studio Vanderveken, Architecture + Landscape, offers a reflection through the strange on the position of the garden in our society. FUTURE DRIVES, by the American Julia Lines Wilson, questioning both the past and the future taking the example of the Anticosti star. Liereman Street/Organ Man StreetPioniersplanters Belgian, notes the potential of domestic gardens to reduce the impacts of climate changes. Eventually, superstrate, from the Italians of mat-on, it is inspired by the rhizome, a concept developed by the philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari favoring the replacement of hierarchies with new ways of horizontal intervention. From June 22 to October 6, 2024.
Not new, but still nicer
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