Community tourism: how to leave something good behind

Let’s face it: sustainable tourism doesn’t exist. As soon as you leave your house, take a car or plane out of pure pleasure, you’re already leaving a negative footprint on the environment. So, it’s time leave that outdated green washed concept behind. When we are conscious of that our choice of visiting a place away from home is bad for the planet, let’s look for solutions to at least make a positive impact on the region we visit. This article serves as inspiration to invest your precious travel budget in the good stuff. Like in local products, authentic places and native people – because if the community profits from your journey, chance are that they see the value of where they live and protect their tourist-attracting region for more visitors to come.

TRADITIONAL Mayan cleansing ritual with the sacred tree resin copal burnt on a coaL

An approach towards positive community tourism

Egoistic party tourism is outdated, but still thriving – especially in Tulum and all along the Riviera Maya.

I’m not saying that we can’t have fun anymore – but as conscious responsible earthlings we now know better than ever that when we already put up with our impact on the environment by our decision to travel, it’s necessary to compensate it the best we can.

Unfortunately that doesn’t happen by behaving like the world’s crisis don’t exist anymore, just because we changed the setting around us. It’s a conscious decision to adjust the way we travel. What you do at your destination counts as much — or even more — than at home.

“Ok, I get it. When big music festivals in the jungle are off the list, how can I make my holidays enjoyable then?”, you might ask yourself. Maybe begin with having a look on what *enjoyable” means to you. Is it really fun standing in a drug-infused sweating crowd kept high by armed cartel members on a ground of corruption where hectares of pristine jungle were cut down for a dance floor for 5’000 party animals, then waking up with a hangover and missing a day to get to know the place you spend your free time for real?

Let’s re-think what’s important to us
Enjoyable can also look like this: You wake up exited by the adventure ahead of you. With a cup of shadow-grown coffee you bought at the fruit store around the corner you think about how today you will do something that you’ve never done before and that you can experience nowhere else in the world. You’re picked up by your lovely local guide who greets you with the warm words “Ma’alob k’iin” – the greeting for a smoothly flowing day in the native Mayan language. You drive off into the endless green of the jungle and learn fun facts about animals, plants and culture of the region. After 45 entertaining minutes with fresh regional fruit as a snack you arrive in a small village where you observe the people living their everyday life…it feels so different to your life back home. You see how they put seeds in the earth, water plants, harvest and prepare vegetables they are growing in the old way in sync with the cycles of the moon. Respect for their knowledge and skills arises in your chest and fills you with appreciative pride, that they are still here: the elders, from whom we can learn how to sustain ourselves with self-grown food. Now your tastebuds are partying with the funky new flavors from the fresh ingredients on your plate. Sikil Pak, xcatic, cochinita pibil are some of the exotic names on today’s menu. For dessert your eyes are filled with the sweet beauty of endemic stingless bees, colorful birds, abundant flowers, playful monkeys, turquoise crystalline water holes, and the hand-embroidered dresses of the women in the field who wave goodbye to you as you leave back to Tulum with memories better than any souvenir you can buy.

This sounds super romantic, right? And it is. But it’s just one side of reality. In the same village our modern world also has planted poverty, inequality, malnutrition, alcoholism, violence, trash problems, ignorance, hopelessness…We as respectful tourists can help to change that by valuing the people who lived here first, their roots, their land, their wisdom, their rich culture. The reasons for the troubles in paradise are manifold, of course it’s not that easy to erase them. But step by step we can support the change into the direction for the better – for all people and for nature.

Protecting native lands by valuing them
With your conscious visit to the local village you take home an unforgettable experience that opened your mind and heart for the diversity of the world. In the people of the village you leave behind the feeling of being seen, appreciated, respected by the far-traveled foreigner. They might start realizing that they have something to share with others. It’s empowering when a stranger spends time, energy and money to see where and how you live, right? It gives extraordinary value to what’s “ordinary” for the locals. Like this they might see, that it’s worth protecting their lands. To make a living with their everyday life they might see the importance to keep their passed down traditions alive, to have a healthy forest full of animals and plants to admire, to keep the village and water clean and maybe to learn some words in another language to communicate with the next visitors…

Choosing a touristic experience in a local community can strengthen:
🌟 Cultural heritage
🌟 Environmental consciousness
🌟 Self-sufficiency
🌟 Education

If that doesn’t sound enjoyable I don’t know what does 😅

Go with local guides for 100% real community tourism
I’m an expat myself. Although my heart is full of love for these lands and I try my best to transmit the essence of the region to my guests on every tour, I can’t hide the fact that I’m not from here. A person who grew up in Mexico can give you a different, often more profund picture of the country.

To live community tourism in a 360° way, choose local guides over big tour operators. Often they are harder to find online, because small independent guides can’t invest in ads and marketing and thus won’t pop up on Instagram or Google right aways. To find them, a bit of research is necessary. I already did that for you. So, here are my loving recommendations of Mexican guides who follow a similar concept as I do and will take you on unforgettable experiences to communities in the Yucatan Peninsula:

🐒 Marlon from @elviajedekanan – the best to go to Chichén Itzá, Cobá or on a gastronomical tour to Nuevo Durango
🌽 Enrique from @mayankajtaj – a guide in the nature reserve Punta Laguna and Head of Community Tourism in Nuevo Durango
✨ Ismael from @mayikalexperiences – a young crew of local guides taking you on private tours to the most beautiful places
🐆 Cecilia from @realmayantour – the biologist of Mayan origin guides you into nature and the home of her family in Laguna Chabela

Local guides specialized in bird watching:
🪶 Jorge from @avemayatulum
🦜 Eddy from @eddy_birding_tours
🦅 Claudio from @calakmul_birding_yucatan

Community Tourism Cooperatives:
🌴 Alianza Peninsular para el Turismo Comunitario – the network of ecotourism offers in the three states of the Yucatan Peninsula
🛶 Community Tours Sian Ka’an – the association of offical guides in the nature reserve and UNESCO worlds heritage Sian Ka’an

Happy traveling everyone!
Stay open, connected and healthy – your Tuluminiña

PS: I found an inspiring poster from Design Hotels that puts together the 10 characteristics of “The Good Traveler” in a beautiful design to print, frame and live by.