People-First Tourism Lab Blog

Throughout my Fall 2015 semester I thoroughly enjoyed my experience in the Tourism Poverty and Health class at NC State.   From meeting local microentrepreneurs in nearby communities to the in-depth discussions in class, I learned more from this class than from many others.   The material covered in this class had very important takeaways that not only provoked me to rethink much of my earlier knowledge, but also made me want to be an agent for change. The class started with an introduction to the different types of tourism and the traits, good or bad, that went along with them.   Mass tourism continues to boom due to the ease of planning, low costs and lack of public knowledge about the detrimental effects it generates in destination communities. Next we were introduced to People-First Tourism to show that tourism can be sustainable, benefit the local economy and utilize local microentrepreneurs to provide fun, genuine, and enriching experiences to tourists [...

The P1t Dashboard Analytics report has changed format to include a longitudinal comparison of the previous year’s website visitation performance. Data included in these reports provide a snapshot of the overall reach of the project, as well the performance of the most visited micro-entrepreneurs.  Additionally, the report includes data about the reach of the project’s scholarship to the general public through select social media tools – e.g., this web blog. Some significant changes have shaped the changes in the performance of the website; moving the entrepreneurs to the new website format has greatly reduced the number of offers presented. P1t is moving the site offers from the old site to the new offerings in a systematic way to insure consistency and to keep the offers up-to-date. Here is the most recent report, P1t Dashboard Analytics Report for 1st Quarter of 2016 (see inset below). The report for the 2nd Quarter 2016 will be appearing in a July posting on this blog. ...

Now entering the third year of collaboration between the faculty/student teams of NCSU and U Tadeo-Bogota, our discussions are mutually improving each other's participatory action practices.  P1t lab's proven methods of action research are being challenged by the complex goals and practices of Tadeo's rigourous Industrial Design curricula, whose experiences include  along history of community involved design. With the support of several seed grants from both universities in Colombia and in North Carolina, the teams have been able to meet in Bogota, and in the communities of the Department of San Andres. In addition to the on-site cross-fertilization of concepts, theories and methods, we have communicated through various long-distance, tele-presence techniques to sharpen our mutual interests and skills and sustain the projects we are developing. Through these posts, we invite our partners on both sides and the public to post comments, photos, articles, videos and insi...

I created this video to explain my biography and my creative process. I dragooned my wordsmith husband, Jim Hickey, to write a small, quick, and credible script. Wow! He did great. Having a perceptive wordsmith husband is very useful in these sorts of endeavors. By having someone who knows you and your history well, you really get to say some useful and honest things that you would not necessarily have thought to share.     This whole facet of my life and my history comes out in ways that I had not consciously processed or examined; all having to do with my peculiar family history's interrelation with larger historical forces, and the psychic consequences. Yet, as Jim noted, all of that baggage affected all of what I've done - as well as all that I have neglected to do in life. Thus, it does inform my experience as an Appalachian based 'outsider artist' (for lack of a better phrase) Making the video also, clearly, allowed me to utilize all my creativ...

The P1t Dashboard Analytics report has changed format just a bit to include a longitudinal comparison of the previous year’s website visitation performance. Data included in these reports provide a snapshot of the overall reach of the project, as well the performance of the most visited micro-entrepreneurs. Additionally, the report includes data about the reach of the project’s scholarship to the general public through select social media tools – e.g., this web blog. Here is the most recent report, P1t Dashboard Analytics Report for 4th Quarter of 2015   (see inset below). The report for the 1st Quarter 2016 will be appearing in an April posting on this blog. This report revealed that new visitation to the www.peoplefirsttourism.com web marketplace has significantly increased when compared with new visits for the same quarter in 2014. The visits to the site on this quarter were spurred by media coverage from an NPRradio interview and the local WRAL news broadcast...

Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise (SMME) development has seen significant policy response in South Africa under the umbrella policies of Local Economic Development (LED).  Tourism as a LED initiative, and tourism-led SMME development has seen extensive academic investigation since the fall of apartheid in 1994.  However, the angle of developing microentreprises through technological innovation has seen limited focus.  People-First Tourism presents a tremendous opportunity to develop microenterprises with web-to-cell software innovations.  Technology is spreading rapidly in Africa, even in the most remote and impoverished rural locations in South Africa such as Bushbuckridge, Acornhoek and a number of localities bordering the Kruger National Park.  Mobile telecommunications companies like MTN , Vodacom and CellC are developing increasing coverage across Africa and cell phones are becoming cheaper and more affordable to individuals and communities that had n...