Employer: Adventure Alternative
Gap Year Type: Adventure, Teaching, Voluntary
Country: Worldwide
Adventure Alternative operates a business model which provides investment and long term careers to people working in tourism in developing countries. In each country we provide capital for setting up a local 'AA' company and then invest in full time employment and training. The task is to make that company financially sustainable by giving it access to websites and marketing, so that it can get local income and become an independent ground handler, as long it keeps to fair employment rates and equal opportunities. We have made a success of this, and it has been an organic growth over twenty years!
Our holidays contribute to the local companies, but they also contribute to the Moving Mountains Trust, which is a charity that was set up by the founder Gavin Bate, who is a high altitude mountaineer and social entrepreneur. The gap trips, electives and sabbaticals are determined by the charity, which also has its own NGO in each country.
We share the spoils of tourism, giving people careers and providing equitable opportunities. We are part of Fair Trade Volunteering, and campaign with the Ethical Tour Operators Group and the Association of Independent Tour Operators. Gavin has always brought a strong ethical approach to tourism, long before it became fashionable.
Our gap trips are challenging and focussed, with lots of travel and integration into communities and progressive international development. In Kenya, Nepal and Borneo the trips we run identify the needs of different communities in different environments and demonstrates how tourism can be used to good effect. Details: Read more...
Responsible Tourism
Responsible tourism is difficult to describe in a single sentence, but the common aim is to minimise the impact people have when they are traveling. As tourists we perhaps do not realise that our presence can have negative effects on the economic, environmental and social fabric of a place. Our own personal impact may only be very slight, but when we pay our travel company for a month long cycling adventure in Patagonia, or a two week diving course in Indonesia, we are treading in the same footsteps as many other people who have been, and will be, visiting the same places.
One way to visualise this effect is on a smaller scale is to picture a local country park. The area around the car park, where people arrive and congregate, will have the most trampled bits of grass, the most litter, the highest concentration of gift shops and cafes. Wherever people gather, they inevitably alter the environment. This is true of towns and cities as well as coral reefs and rainforests.
That is not to say we should not visit places. Tourism can bring many benefits, especially if the tourism is well managed by an organisation that understands and cares about its corporate responsibilities. These companies may bring economic benefits to local people by investing in their communities. This in turn can improve working conditions, unemployment, and without being patronising, perhaps help local communities learn from the mistakes we have already made in our own countries. Companies who are committed to responsible tourism may also invest in environmental conservation projects which help ecological habitats that would otherwise be unprotected, or they may actively take part in preserving local cultural heritage. There are numerous success stories, where companies offering gap year travel have been directly responsible for improving the lives of local people and their communities.
Despite a global population explosion that shows no immediate sign of slowing, there are still many wild, untamed and relatively untouched places around the world. If you are lucky enough to be able to visit one of them, perhaps consider traveling with a company who are already working to ensure the pressure that your presence brings, will not adversely affect the local environment and ruin the place for future generations.
Gap Year companies offering responsible tourism.
Responsible Travel Gap Year Placements Employer: The Great Projects Travel to exclusive destinations in Africa and Asia with The Great Projects, and get the chance to work up close with Orangutans, Cheetahs, Lions and many more amazing animals. For every volunteer we donate up to £350 to the project to help the centre and local community ...[more] | Volunteer Community Projects Employer: Madventurer Spend your GAP year or career break with Madventurer and become part of something special! Based out of Newcastle University Students Union, Madventurer run Award Winning Projects, exciting Charity Treks and Overland Adventures that span the world, all lasting from 2 weeks to 6 months. Volunteers work as part...[more] |