Your tourist euros can make a big impact on the destinations you visit. The choices you make during your trip can have powerful effects on local communities—for better or for worse. Travelers who care about the destinations and environments they explore should make themselves aware of the social and cultural implications of the choices they make when they travel. Simple decisions such as buying local products, paying fair prices for products or services, and attempting to say a few words in the local language can have a strong, positive effect on the community.
Community-based tourism aims to channel tourist euro into the local economy by emphasizing tours and cultural programs that are run by members of the host community and that often benefit disadvantaged groups. This type of tourism also benefits the tourists themselves, as it often takes them beyond the traditional tours of the region. Fugues en France, 8 pl. de l’Hôtel de Ville, 21190 Mersault (☎03 80 21 71 18; www.bonappetit-france.com) provides extensive information on multilingual tours of vineyards and culinary centers in Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Provence. For more on French environmental concerns, see the French Institute for the Environment website (www.ifen.fr). The Ethical Travel Guide (UK£13), a project of Tourism Concern (☎+44 20 7133 3330; www.tourismconcern.org.uk), is an excellent resource for information on community-based travel, with a directory of 300 establishments in 60 countries.
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For 52 years, we have published the world’s favorite budget travel guides, written entirely by students and updated every year. With pen and notebook in hand and a few changes of underwear stuffed in our backpacks, we spend months roaming the globe in search of travel bargains.
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