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of Recording
SEARCHING FOR TRICKLE-DOWN
TOURISM
Adapted from The
New York Times
Monday, April 11, 2005
To see the mountain gorillas in Rwanda,
Andy Currie, his wife, Betty Jo, and 10 other tourists hopped into
SUVs and sped toward Volcanoes National Park.
"We passed women walking, carrying huge bales of straw
on their heads and water jugs," said Currie, a retired Atlanta
dentist, about the drive along a narrow dirt road, "They had
to move out of our way. You feel guilty." The feeling never
went away. It resurfaced that week when they checked into the Novotel,
a four-star hotel in the capital, Kigali. Down the street are Rwandan
homes without running water or electricity."We were in la-la
land," says Currie, who was on a $2,700 weeklong vacation with
Cox & Kings USA, a Florida-based tour operator.
Rwanda, where the average person earns $.76 a day
expects 30,000 tourists this year, up 82 percent from two years
ago. That number is an encouraging sign that the country is beginning
to win back tourists 11 years after the end of genocide there.
These tourists are people booking expensive trips
through travel agents in North America or Europe and who are expected
to spend an estimated $75 million this year. But almost none of
that money will benefit the country's many struggling communities,
some experts say.
"You can argue what you like for trickle down,
but " It is easy for the money to bypass the community"
and stay in the hands of transnational companies says the director
of the International Center for Responsible Tourism , a founder
of the pro-poverty tourism movement. ".
Tourism in the world's poorest countries is growing
faster than elsewhere in the world, because tickets are cheaper,
and these countries still have natural and cultural resources to
exploit. However, indigenous people are now offering their own vacation
packages, and community tourism, once considered a low-budget concept
among backpackers and well-meaning travelers, has grown from grass
roots to mainstream in the past 35 years as more vacationers escape
with their eyes open to the world around them, wanting to help.
For the communities sponsoring these activities,
the value is usually greater than the money spent. Profits allow
plans to hire a doctor and a teacher
for example.
The most successful projects seem to be those in
partnership with a commercial tour operator or a nonprofit organization.
(383 words)
End of Recording
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