What is community based tourism?
Community based tourism is a unique travel experience in which local residents - often rural and economically marginalized - invite tourists to visit their communities to learn about their life-styles. Tourists discover local habitats and wildlife, and celebrate and respect traditional cultures, rituals and wisdom. Community based tourism is socially sustainable which is initiated and operated by local people. Shared leadership emphasizing community well-being over individual profit, balancing power within communities, and fostering traditional culture, conservation, and responsible stewardship of the land.
Projeto Bagagem is an awarded Brazilian non-profit organization dedicated to improving the livelihoods of low-income Brazilian communities by designing and implementing local development alternatives through community based tourism. Projeto Bagagem's itineraries generate income to sustain local communities and offer an exciting learning experience to the visitors.
The itineraries feature 3 main components:
1. The Special Destination, bringing together some of the most successful community development solutions in environmentally relevant Brazilian regions. With Projeto Bagagem it is possible to visit these places and experience how these innovative solutions came about;
2. The Special Traveler, who looks for a different type of holiday, chosing a non-conventional way of travelling that enables him or her to get in touch with community life and the local reality in an authentic way;
3. The Special Trip, translated into the way in which Projeto Bagagem conducts the tours, bringing out the best in each participant within the group, in a process where values such as cooperation, respect and flexibility are strengthened, creating a trust relationship with partner organisations and host communities.
visit www.projetobagagem.org
