Not Just a Tourist

Not Just a Tourist. Why Travel is our Greatest Investment

5 years ago I was sitting on a local bus traveling to the country of Malawi Africa.  That summer I had the chance to live in one of the most poverty stricken countries in Africa. I lived like a local, because I wanted to really truly understand what life was like. I went gorilla tracking with park rangers, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, ate “sundried” mice, and passed through at least a dozen overland border crossings (and more than a few stops at the US embassy to add new pages to my passport). While I was there I was training with several different businesses and organizations, and I walked away having learned a great lesson. 

Throughout this experience I met individuals who changed my life and opened my eyes to the great opportunity there is to change the world through travel.  Now, I’m on a mission to make a friend in every country around the world.

Did you know that 1 in every 10 Jobs around the world is in Tourism (contributing $7.5 Trillion, 300 million jobs, and over 10% of the World's GDP), with over 60% of the jobs in the Worldwide Travel Industry held by women. There is massive opportunity here for the synthesis of International Development and Business! That is what we are striving to do at Acanela. International Travel, when done appropriately, has the power to lift up developing economies (in particular minority groups) and invest foreign dollars directly into the hands of locals.  As for the traveler, Immersive travel experiences stimulate innovative reasoning, intercultural-learning, and break down barriers.

One such person I met on my journey was named Abdul, who lived in a small village outside of Moshi Town (the town at the base of Kilimanjaro). Abdul was a talented Kilimanjaro guide and during our 19,341 foot trek to the summit we became close friends. During the trek Abdul expressed how his great ambitions for his family and community and how he expected more out of life than just guiding for his own family’s welfare. Abdul had the desire to create lasting change for his community. It was during this trek that the idea came to us to collaborate and help Abdul create his own business - we built him a website, we came up with a name, and we worked together to devise how we would make his business successful and sustainable. Before long we were sending travelers up the mountain with Abdul’s team and the business grew. Up to this point Abdul lived in a one bedroom home he had built himself brick by brick for his family of four. Now, Abdul employs the men of his village providing good living wages and sustainable income for the community.  

There are thousands and thousands of Abduls’ all around the world. People with the incredible potential to drive change and prop up their communities. My travels to over 100 countries around the world have shown me that this is possible wherever you go and irrespective of social class or experience. Even minority groups (such as women or those in rural communities) have the potential to create lasting change in their communities through sustainable businesses. It all begins with the spark of experiential travel.

While the experience of Abdul is special and highlights many of the benefits of travel international travel can also be riddled with controversy. For those who refute the benefits of going abroad - environmental damage and pollution, cultural-homogenization and cultural-appropriation, and community crowding are often the first things to make their list of the reasons why not. They believe that tourism takes advantage of culture, history, and natural beauty of a place or people and packages it for financial benefit without any consideration of its effect on the land and its people. Even potentially well-intentioned travel like volunteer tourism can be controversial as it has the potential to commercialize poverty, fostering a dependence on foreign aid and ingenuity.

Despite the controversy, I am a believer that the travel industry has much more potential for good than previously realized as in the case of Abdul and so many others.

Travel doesn’t have to foster dependency on foreigners, and purposeful travel can amplify the rewards for all participants. The visitor and the visited can both be winners. The way you avoid the pitfalls is through what we call ‘experiential travel’. Experiential travel has the ability to reward an explorer and enrich the local community in a sustainable, enduring way. The question is - how do you ensure your travel is truly ‘experiential travel’ without becoming ordinary - or potentially worse, has a negative impact on the local community. This is an issue we face daily at Acanela Expeditions and why we ask ourselves what makes an experience impactful.

We empower local people and ‘artisans’ and leaving the path clear for them to run his or her own business. They bring unique skills and talents to the table that can be enhanced through collaboration - not changed based on an external view. It is by creating experiences around the pools of local knowledge and having it be driven by local artisans that makes for a meaningful experience and lasting community change.

What today’s generation values more than material things and money are time, experiences, and genuine connection. We are moving into the experience economy which means now more than ever we have to be extra sensitive to what’s happening around us and the impact we are having. Acanela addresses this head on through ‘experiential’ tourism that also benefits the community that we visit.

For example, Sashi runs a cooking school out of her house in Udaipur, a city located in the state of Rajasthan India. It took her years to start this local organization but has developed a sustainable business through her talents and abilities. This was all facilitated through sending her ‘experience’ seeking travelers. While someone visiting Udaipur could find a cooking class and master the intricacies of Indian cuisine at a more formal cooking school (a good experience I’m sure), how much more rich of an experience is it to learn from Sashi, hear her story, and come away with memories of a person and an experience unique to any other. 

This is the difference with experiential travel. Not only do you walk away with truly life changing experiences, you support a local entrepreneur and their business. In Experiential travel locals are trained to operate their own businesses and the funds they are able to create are reinvested in the community - adding a new flow of local capital into the local economy.

When I attended University I studied Strategy in the Business School and International Development - a cross section of Sociology and International studies.  I found it interesting that Business and Social sciences always seemed to butt heads - social scientists arguing that businesses are always profit driven and focused only on maximizing shareholder value irrespective of the consequences while businesses argue that socially minded projects (e.g., non-profits) lack the structure or rigor to drive results. The key lies in a mix of the two, as the blend of the two mindsets will yield the greatest returns for the community. The rigor and performance mentality often found in a profit-focused entity and the broader perspectives and conscientiousness of a socially minded entity are a perfect pairing for creating lasting change for these global communities. The solution doesn’t sit on just one side of the spectrum, but in a blend of the two. 

There is a misconception that we must build a house, dig a well, volunteering at a refugee camp, or do something grand to impact the world.  While those things are definitely needed at times, you don’t have to necessarily do that to make a difference; simply leaving the doors of your own home can make a difference.

Travel is an Investment in yourself, local lives and communities, and our world.

It’s not my goal to travel to every country in the world, it’s my mission to make a friend in every country around the world and really appreciate and grow the talents they have.

I am not just a tourist, and You are not just a tourist.

Kylie Chenn, CEO & Founder Acanela Expeditions

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