A’aktun Jaleeb – Nuevo Durango
Citizens of Nuevo Durango participate in fair tourism by inviting people to experience the foods, traditions and culture. Located north of Coba and Punta Laguna. All I’ve found so far is the following link, but I’ve heard about their project and plan on posting more as I find it.
Fair Tourism in the Yucatan
I’ve never heard of the idea of “fair tourism” though I get the meaning of the phrase. Tourism that cuts out the middle men and connects the consumer (tourists) directly with a producer (community). I think of this more as “community tourism,” or tourism in direct contact with communities of a given place. This cuts out tour guides or tour companies which are a big source of employment to be sure, but also offer a great potential for exploitation and manipulation of both communities and tourists. Developing a concept of fair tourism hopefully cuts down on the B.S. that I’ve seen in my time in tourism of the Yucatan where companies exploit communities for their culture and natural resources.
I was told recently by a colleague that “eco-tourism” in a strict scientific sense is tourism that returns profits from exploits back into conserving and preserving the natural environment. That is not really the eco-tourism that is marketed by some companies where they take a big cut from the consumer dollar. This idea of fair tourism or community tourism is a return to this concept of returning profits to the preservation of the system in question. For rural communities on the Yucatan Peninsula this means preserving their own communities and cultures as well as their natural environment.
These are important questions as the tourist industry in the Yucatan continues its expansion. I’ve heard there are plans for a new airport in south Mayan Riviera near Tulum and realistically, tourism and developments are going to expand into the interior more and more. When communities have more and stronger access to tourist markets as they expand, the more they can control their own destinies and that of their lands. The more they can resist major corporate developments and retain the experience that many tourists are coming for (the culture and ecology native to the land).
There is much development towards this type of tourism in the Yucatan sponsored by nonprofits, governments and communities. These are the topics we’ll be exploring in this blog.
Welcome to EcoTourism Yucatan
We are pleased to have you here! We will be posting community related travel throughout the Yucatan so please keep returning as information builds.
Please check our pages for profiles of different tourism projects and browse our tags for information to meet your needs.
