Engendering Continuing and Reciprocal Tourism
- Intercultural Programmes
DEFINITIONS:
Continuing Tourism - Tourism that stimulates development of friendships encourages
continued contact between locals & tourists after the tourist has returned home.
Reciprocal Tourism - A 2-way type of tourism. It specifically aims to encourage the
tourist to act as host in return to the friends (s)he made when visiting another culture.
Intercultural - Between and about cultures. Eg.: Intercultural understanding - An
education, derived from experience, about cultures and the ways they interact.
Human Social Commonalities - (HSC) Social characteristics that occur across cultures
[such as the family environment, the desire for friendship and interest in other
cultures]
OUTLINE
In this paper a way of utilising tourism's huge potential to stimulate better
intercultural understanding is presented. It first examines the psychology behind
travel, (drawing parallels with childhood learning), then uses these insights to develop
a tourism programme which promotes friendship, intercultural learning & continuing
contact between locals & tourists.
The programme is one of 'direct tourism', based on self-organisation between locals
and tourists, in the conviction that it will therefore satisfy their mutual needs better
than conventional tourism. It is designed to be easily replicable, not rely on any
funding sources, and to make solid contributions to the local community in the form
of educational resources.
Intercultural Programmes (IPs) as an example of such 'direct tourism' are presented
generally. (Case studies from Transylvania and Kyrghyzstan will presented in a longer
paper later). The critical role of E-mail and the NET is emphasised.
The benefits & drawbacks of such intimate and continuing tourism, are discussed.
It is proposed that using HSCs as the basis for tourism programmes allows a form of
communication between cultures that is both adaptive and mutually respecting.
Such a form of communication may be fundamental to the survival of cultural
diversity, for in a business dominated & technologically shrunk world,
communication between cultures will occur but with little regard for their survival.
THE PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND TRAVEL
People travel for a mixture of hedonism, voyeurism & discovery. But it's worth a
closer look at more fundamental psychology. Travel represents a voluntary
displacement into a foreign environment that wrenches us out of the routine and
confronts us with new possibilities. This attraction to the new is an excitement that
dates back to childhood when we were learning about our surroundings. The
foundation of childhood learning is play, which itself is fun. Thus newness has been
associated with fun right from our formative years and it is the basic pull of
holidaying.
But newness, or the unknown, is also characterised by fear & insecurity. In an
unfamiliar environment, with much beyond our control, reassurances of a kind are
what we seek. In the child these take the form of emotional support. In the tourist they
are represented by information consistent with our perspective of security. It is
suggested such information springs naturally from basing the tourism programme on
HSCs.
Intercultural Programmes are an attempt at this and bridge the information & security
gap which to an extent conventional tourism promotes and feeds upon. One of the key
abilities IPs help to develop is intercultural empathy - the ability to see a situation
from another culture's viewpoint.
INTERCULTURAL PROGRAMMES (IPs)
An IP is basically a friendship programme specifically designed to use tourism to
develop lasting friendships across cultures, a tourist market that is reletively untapped.
They provide: others interested in making friends; a host family environment for the
tourist to live in and a locally guided understanding of the culture and geography that
they would be unlikely to get if on a conventional hotel based holiday. Contributions
to the local community are made in the form of English teaching and educational
resources.
The IP is run by an unpaid working group composed of local teachers, students and
parents. They write an advert which describes the philosophy of the IP, gives
information about the local cultural history & geography, provides logistical data
about: board; lodging; English teaching schedules; etc... and sends it by E-mail to
University Careers Advisory Services and WWW NET sites. English speaking
'tourists' apply by E-mail, the working group selects the most appropriate, and then
pairs them with aspiring host families. The whole programme is organised by E-mail.
Most importantly the working group provides a base for continuing the IP in future
years, takes responsibility for the IP, acts as a contact point for communications and a
forum for discussions, spreads the load of organising, deals with any problems, and
gives the IP credibility.
In the first year IPs need a partnership between the local working group and a
facilitator who has university, NET and tourism contacts in the tourists' countries of
origin and who is trained in local NGO development work. The facilitator trains the
working group up in: E-mail, project management and organisation.
English teaching is simply a tool to encourage cultural interaction. It is not an ideal
tool but one that is much in demand by the local community and one that gives access
to a wide range of tourists from different cultures.
The strength of the IP is that it is as personable as possible. Direct tourist to family
contact. This closeness, it is hoped, will stimulate C&R tourism. (Methods of enabling
Continuing & Reciprocal Tourism will be discussed in the longer paper later).
CONCLUSION
C&R tourism may have a future if promoted as a way to really learn about another
culture. By investing in a C&R tourism programme locals & tourists have the
opportunity to learn way beyond the initial holiday meeting. The continued contact
will in fact provide the bulk of the learning especially if taken as far as Reciprocal
Tourism.
English teaching is only one of many such catylysts that enable C&R tourism. Some
kind of contribution to the local community is the key ingredient. It is very important,
however, to place the emphasis on developing firendships, not on getting some
community project done.
The benefits have been discussed already whether real or potential.
Some potential drawbacks may be:
- Using English teaching as the oil for the programme may simply be spreading
English-speaking culture. A cynic might even suggest it simply prepares the ground
for English-speaking businesses.
- The intimacy of C&R tourism only accelerates cultural erosion. The tourist's culture
is often a more aggressive one than the cultures they are visiting.
C&R tourism & IPs are based on the belief that:
- Communication between cultures, if adaptive and mutually respecting, is beneficial.
- Friendships between cultures provides a better intercultural understanding than that
afforded by the media.
- Incorporating HSCs into the programme will provide an atmosphere that engenders
C&R tourism.
QUESTIONS
- How to avoid drastic cultural erosion given that communication between cultures
will occur ?
- How to include C&R tourism within a wider cultural & developmental education ?
- How can tourism ever realistically contribute to a greater mutual respect that is
reflected in actions, and a wider understanding of global happenings - given that it is
the domain of a few, ie. the rich ?
BIOGRAPHY
The author has facilitated an IP in Transylvania ('97) and Kyrgyzstan ('98). Prior to
this he worked for Oxfam for 4 years helping advise projects in Africa. He has
travelled widely.