Leaving a country
better than you found it is a great standard to have while traveling the world.
I know that when I travel I like to make sure that I am staying at local hotels
and eating at local restaurants so that my money is staying in the country
instead of going to large private companies who may not be giving back to the
local community.
These standards that
I mentioned before are the standards of fair trade. In order for someone to
fully practice and be involved in fair trade they must have:
•
Fair working
conditions and fair prices
•
They must be
integrating into the local economy and regional development
•
Have fair
trade partnerships between all actors in tourism
•
Must use
sustainable resourses and environmental justice.
There is an
international company called Traidcraft that offers fair trade tours around the
world. Their motto is "fighting poverty through trade." Something
that they said on their website that I found to be very powerful was, "For more than 30 years,
Traidcraft has been fighting poverty through trade, believing in the positive
and transformational potential of trade to bring hope to millions trapped in
poverty."
I looked into their Nepal tour is see how they
demonstrated fair trade. On the tour you will spend time with the ceramic and
handmade paper producers. The company GPI ( Get Paper Industries) was
established in 1985 as a family business. It is" now a cooperative and
workers are involved in all aspects of decision-making through a number of
committees." "While on the tour, the tour facilitators, Mahaguthi,
bring their knowledge of local communities and fair trade to this tour and
encourage you to enjoy Nepal that few tourists get to experience.
Mahaguthi Craft with a Conscience is a fair trade organization who work with
more than one thousand individual producers, fifty percent of whom are from
remote and mountainous areas."
Traidcraft believes in leaving a positive impact on the
countries that you visit. Their tours are ran responsibly and seek to:
• respect all people - both
travellers and those who provide services to them
• work with local partners in
long-term relationships ensuring local people benefit economically and socially
from our visits
• ensure that guides and others
involved are paid a fair wage
• respect the environment,
minimise impact on resources and the natural environment and encourage
recycling where possible
• respect local culture and traditions
and report on our impact on them
• build links with locally-based
tourism projects that have a pro-poor focus
• operate in line with all
Traidcraft’s existing best practice policies towards suppliers
• ensure travellers are given
advice on how they can travel more responsibly
We make no grand claims for how
these tours will change the world, but we do believe that they will change
those who go on them and those who are visited by them.
I think that this is a phenomenal
company that is really trying to make a difference in both the consumer's and
the local people's lives. If we are traveled with these things in mind we would
get a better taste to what is going on in the world and how we can truly make a
difference. These tours are rich in culture and purpose. I know that that is
they way that i want to travel!
http://www.traidcraft.co.uk/,http://meetthepeople.skedaddle.co.uk/splash/index.rails
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