The impact of your tourist dollars on the destinations you visit should not be underestimated. The choices you make during your trip can have potent effects on local communities—for better or for worse. Travelers who care about the destinations and environments they visit should become aware of the social and cultural implications of the choices they make when they travel. Simple decisions such as buying local products instead of globally-available products and paying a fair price for the product or service can have a strong, positive effect on the community.
Community-based tourism aims to channel tourist dollars 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 these tours often take them beyond the traditional tours of the region. An excellent resource for general information on community-based travel is Ethical Travel Guide (UK£13), a project of Tourism Concern (☎+44 020 7133 3330; www.tourismconcern.org.uk).
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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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