Have you ever heard of ...sustainable tourism?

What plans do you have for the next holidays? Are you going to a peaceful beach in Australia or to a crowded and modern city like New York? Are you going to stay in a cosy hotel? Or maybe in an incredible one? Are you going to go to fantastic restaurants, and buy a lot of souvenirs, and pay for transport, aren't you? Would you visit a lot of museums, too?
In fact, you probably are going to pay a lot of money to a travel agency to stay a few days in a country.


Last summer I discovered another extraordinary way to travel. I read in a magazine an unpopular type of trips that are very interesting and not too much people know about it. I'm talking about the solidary tourism, also known as sustainable tourism. It's about a type of holidays organized by NGO agencies which want to go further than usual agencies: they allow all the volunteers to discover the country by the hand of local communities. These countries are always undeveloping ones. Do you know where the volunteers sleep? They accommodate in local people's house, who they also give some food to the volunteers. In this way, the volunteers have only to pay the transport from their rich country to the undeveloping one. Don't you think it's a cheap way to travel at the same time you learn a lot of things?
And what do the volunteers do in the country? These trips are made to collaborate with a project which contribute with a necessity of that country, so the volunteers help some NGO doing several activities, for example they help building schools or helping women and child's rights.


It's true: it's impossible to solve world problems in seven or fifteen days. Solidary trips expect to involve all volunteers in microprojects of local NGOs leaving them some time (weekends, for example) to sightseeing so even though the volunteers help local people and NGO doing solidarity activities, they also can visit cultural and natural sites.

Do you know that with only a quarter part of all milion travellers that travel around the world do it through this type of trip, poverty would finish? It was said by a director of one of these NGO. Actually, the number of these travelers are increasing gradually.

How these volunteers are like? Although the majority are between 27 and 50 years old, everybody can collaborate, except under 18 that must be accompained by an adult. They are eager to learn from different people and they usually have a high social consience. All want to cooperate and make this world a better place.


When the destination has been chosen, it starts a period of training for the volunteers that prepares them for the activities they will have to do in the country.

I have read in a magazine what some volunteers said about their experience. When I had finished to read it, I would have liked to leave home and go to one of this NGO/agencies at that moment. I'm waiting to have 18 to collaborate with it. It's one of my biggest dreams.

"When volunteers arrive to the country, they think they can do more than what really do" "You learn more from them than they from you" " It's a chance to live your holidays from inside the country" " Since I came back I don't worry about things which before I was worried about and they were a problem" "Travelling in this way, you teach, you learn and the most important thing, you share" "Move, travel, know, contrast....it will change your life..."