best practices
How to avoid ‘localwashing’ while on vacation
Have you noticed how companies of all sizes are touting their local credentials these days? Whether you are shopping at your local supermarket or deciding on your next vacation destination, advertisements are replete with images of locally sourced fresh food or locally guided unique vacation services. And why not? “Buy local” and “local first” campaigns [...]
The benefits of Local Travel in the hills of northern Thailand
The ‘mountain people’ otherwise known as the hill tribes of northern Thailand, came from neighbouring Laos, Burma and China to settle in the remote highlands of northern Thailand hundreds of years ago. Their primitive way of life, as subsistence farmers living off the land in the remote mountain forests, is a cultural curiosity for the [...]
Voluntourism vs. Local Travel – making a (sustainable) difference abroad
Many travellers get to a point in their experience when they want to make a difference in the places they’ve visited. Whether it’s by donating money to a local charity, spending a day at an orphanage, taking a week to help build a school, or spending months working on a local development project, voluntourism has [...]
When local cultures aren’t so great
Travel exposes us to many strange sights and experiences. By setting foot beyond our own borders we might explore palaces and temples that we’ve seen before in movies; we might meet people of races we’ve never encountered and see their colourful national dress; we’ll probably hear many languages that we don’t understand. Most of our [...]
Going local in Chile!
Traditional tourism, sitting on a comfortable bus and taking pictures of the main landmarks of a place can certainly be fun and interesting. But there’s nothing better than going in deeper into the local culture of a destination and exploring off the beaten path. At least that’s what I try to do whenever I travel [...]
Visit local to have a better vision of the world – Tour de Chocolate
Partaking in local tourism gives us a concrete and practical approach to better understanding how the various communities around the world evolve. Going local is not always the easiest way to plan a trip because usually it doesn’t come in a package. But the research is worth the effort because it makes us take a [...]
Linking Cultures Through Sustainable (and Local) Tourism in Celebration of World Tourism Day
Do you believe travel can be a force for good? Since 1980, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNTWO) has celebrated World Tourism Day on September 27th to bring awareness to the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political, and economic value. “World Tourism Day is an opportunity to reflect on the importance of [...]
Stories from a local traveler
I don’t need to go anywhere except my front porch to encounter life in its finest form. Living in Los Angeles has forever redirected my reasons and motives for traveling. When I travel, I often think of my LA days as a reference point for the type of openness, ingenuity and experiences I seek to [...]
Conscious travellers want suppliers to think globally but act locally
Because most visitors to a place come from another and because most other places are far away, suppliers of tourism services have inevitably had to adopt a global perspective. Considerable attention is given to understanding cultural and linguistic differences of various source markets and to researching and deploying the different channels of distribution at work [...]
How to become a responsible traveler: 5 tips from a local travel expert
I remember the first time I saw ‘local travel’ mentioned in writing. I don’t recall the actual article, but I must have been thinking about food; I read ‘local’ as ‘lo-cal’ travel (i.e. travel on a low-calorie diet). My confusion didn’t last long, but it made for some welcome chuckles while I pondered the possibilities. [...]