ANOTHER WAY TO TRAVEL IS POSSIBLE.
RESPONSIBLE TOURISM.
PhotoTravel accredited as a Responsible Tourism Agency, by the InterMundial Foundation and the Responsible Tourism Institute
Many years ago I started to travel the world, they were long trips, in which there was no hurry, walking with my backpack or pedaling on my bicycle, looking for different cultures, new sensations, with the sole purpose of learning. I was always accompanied by my camera, which I used, and still do, as a means of expression.
In 2011, when I started teaching photography classes, it was the moment when I decided to unite my two passions; travel and photography. I then started a project in which to share those experiences and accumulated learning, those sensations born from walking distant lands, those narratives through the lens of my camera. That’s how PhotoTravel was born.
This travel philosophy is what we wanted to maintain at PhotoTravel and it is what we want to transmit to all of you who accompany us in this project. Now we have decided to take advantage of all this accumulated experience and acquire the commitment to make PhotoTravel a Responsible Tourism company.
We refer to Responsible Tourism when we want to frame this activity within the scope of sustainability, responsibility and quality, programming activities that respect the environment, promote culture and have an impact on the local economy. Responsible tourism is not another type of tourism, it is rather a different orientation, a way of managing travel that minimizes its negative effects. In short, at PhotoTravel we understand travel as a concept of enjoying learning about destinations, without leaving a negative impact on them, so that the only footprint we leave in our wake is that of our footsteps.
We live in a global world where access to culture, including tourism, has become massive, while at the same time it has undergone a process of standardization. The great guru of our time is consumption, which controls all processes, including leisure. This fact has led to the emergence of a type of organized trip, already typified, with a route common to all tour operators, which makes its customers mere tourists, for whom it creates and recreates artificial activities wherever they pass, it is “controlled tourism”. I am referring to that type of tourism that, as an example, offers visits to the typical village where we find its inhabitants decorated and about to start their “millenary” show.
At PhotoTravel we flee from the tourist concept, we prefer to use the traveler concept. We want to distance ourselves from the standardized tourism that has forced local economies to move away from their ways of life, from their authentic roots, reconverting to unscrupulous Westernization, sometimes even at the cost of their own dignity. It seems irresponsible tourism, as well as insubstantial.
Tourism is not an innocuous process in destinations, so we are aware that our activity has to minimise its negative aspects, looking for sustainable alternatives. In this sense, PhotoTravel’s commitment to responsible tourism rests on three basic axes: economic, environmental and socio-cultural.
We intend to recover the lost spirit of those travelers, half philanthropists, half anthropologists, whose adventurous soul pushed them to discover distant cultures with a vocation for learning, for enlightenment. Of those travelers who respected the different customs and cultural traditions and appreciated how valuable there is in them.
At PhotoTravel we want to offer you the experience of capturing for yourself the cultural purity of other peoples, appreciating their differences and recognizing similarities, and all this using photography as a vehicle. That beyond having made a trip you have an experience and a learning experience that gives you something more than a handful of kilometers and hundreds of photos, that when you return it has changed the way you see this world.
Traveling should be understood as a means of personal and collective development. If approached with an open mind, they are an irreplaceable element of self-education, mutual tolerance and learning about the differences between peoples and cultures and their diversity.
Our goal is not only that you take photos, or even that you take technically good photos, what we are looking for is that they reflect all that baggage of a committed traveler, that you forget for a moment where you come from and let your emotions surface when taking your photographs, a photographic narrative. We want you to stop thinking that you are a tourist and feel like that traveler half philanthropist, half anthropologist, to tell us a story, your story. Only then will you have spectacular photos and unique experiences.
Why is PhotoTravel a Responsible Tourism company?
WE TAKE CARE OF THE ECONOMIC IMPACT
- We are aware that our activity generates an economic impact on local economies and we try to distribute this wealth among local agents. It is our way of contributing to their economic development.
- We directly contract our services only local suppliers. This, in addition to having an impact on a better economic offer of the final prices of our trips, contributes to the distribution of wealth among the local community.
- Our trips are organized, planned well in advance and with everything necessary to avoid to the greatest extent the negative impact, not only on the local communities, but also on the expectations and pockets of those who travel with us.
- All our travelers are covered by the comprehensive travel insurance policy .
- We recommend that those who travel with us to:
- The best thing you can take home as souvenirs are local products, so you will support the economy of the place.
- Take photos, and not fragments of protected cultural property, as a souvenir of your trip.
- Haggling is part of the trade in many cultures, but keep in mind the concept of fair wages at this point.
- Avoid giving candy and money to beggar children; instead, it supports community projects.
WE TAKE CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
- We appreciate the ecological and environmental value of the territories we visit, taking advantage of natural resources without endangering their existence.
- We help to conserve the natural environment. We protect wildlife and their habitat, and we do not buy products made from endangered plants or animals.
- We take care of consumption, not wasting, not dirtying and respecting the environment. We think that when we visit other countries we are like a guest in someone else’s house.
WE TAKE CARE OF SOCIOCULTURAL ASPECTS
- We respect Human Rights. Any form of non-compliance violates the fundamental objectives of our photographic trips.
- We find out about the destinations we are going to visit, we have previously visited them and studied all the locations, informing those who accompany us. We approach the places knowing their customs, norms and traditions, thus avoiding behaviors that may offend the local population.
- We visit alternative places to the usual circuits and tourist destinations. Quieter places where we can contact the locals, outside of contracts with large multinationals.
- We aim to promote a cultural exchange and experiences between our group of travelers and local communities.
- We encourage the values of traveling in a group. Sharing such intense experiences among the group favors reflection and awareness of the fact of cultural difference.
- Once at the destination, we will enjoy getting to know the culture, customs, gastronomy and traditions of the local populations.
- We try to adapt to the local lifestyle, moving in many cases by local transport.
- When photographing people we ask permission before pressing the button.
- We try to contribute with our presence to the development of responsible and sustainable tourism, collaborating in the construction of a healthier and more supportive planet.
And above all, thank you for trusting and supporting PhotoTravel…. We continue working to make it a fairer world.
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