The sites are part of wholly community owned enterprises, run for and by the local community in which they are situated. Environmental considerations are an integral part of the enterprises.
Ecotourism is a fundamental part of the project.
- numbers of tourists per site will be limited to 6-8
- eco-toilet (dry composting urine separating toilet)
- water available for washing, but tourists made aware of limited resource
- shower – (sun heated water) water diverted to promote tree growth
- Indigenous tree planting
- Protecting cliff faces with terracing
- Encouraging local community to see flora and fauna as a resource to protect These community tourism sites are owned and run by the communities themselves, with the support of a local development organisation. The tourism generates incomes for some community members and the profit goes in to a fund for the whole community. The community receive training on management and running of a business. Given confidence to work together for joint benefit.
The communities are your hosts. Sixty percent of your payment goes directly to them, twenty five percent goes to the guides and their business (which supports the community run trekking sites) and fifteen percent goes to cover marketing costs and coordinate the bookings. This fund will be held by the community to be used as they decide. One community is saving for a grinding mill (they currently hand grind corn or have to travel a long distance to a mill).
Every drink you have puts more money into the local communities, and as much of the produce as possible is sourced by the communities from themselves and their neighbours. TESFA, the local NGO supporting this community tourism initiative are working hard to help communities realise how important it is to conserve and improve their environment and are planting indigenous trees and the like.
We invite every traveler who books a vacation via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the vacations they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same vacation can have different views!
