People-First Tourism Lab Blog

People-First Tourism has a page on Twitter.  We post thoughts about social entrepreneurship, human development disparities, travel trends, progress on the project, etc.  Visit twitter.com/PeopleFirstTrsm to become a P1T follower.

This week our colleagues at NC State's ITng accomplished the first step in developing the beta version of the People-First Tourism Marketplace, an open source web-based IT system designed to mediate interactions between networks of tourists and networks of micro-entrepreneurs.  With this system, tourists will be able to browse lists of People-First Entrepreneurs online (even with smart-phones) and entrepreneurs will respond to their inquiries using the simplest cell-phones. This step consisted in writing a detailed "Statement of Requirements" that will inform their programming work during the next couple months.  This document is available to your perusal at http://bit.ly/jg0LDq    Please do let us know what you think by contacting us directly or posting comments to this blog. Cheers,   Duarte

Today I had the pleasure of presenting the People-First Tourism concept to students in a colleague's World Forestry class with engaging students from all across the NC State campus.  While their academic backgrounds varied from social sciences to biological sciences and engineering, they all seemed captivated by our attempts to identify a people-centered model for community development and environmental conservation.  I've invited them to visit this blog and voice their impressions, advice and questions.  Can't wait to see what they say! The People-First community is growing  :-)   Duarte PS:  In Shangri-La, Yunnan, PRC, Tibetan communities had to quickly create cooperative tourism and non-timber forest product businesses to adapt to the government's prohibition of logging in the headwaters of the Yangtze river.

Last Tuesday, April 5th I had the pleasure of participating in a panel presentation titled "Sparking Social Change" at Harvard's Graduate School of Design; the co-presenters were Marshall Ganz (prof of Public Policy at the Kennedy School) and Maurice Cox (prof of Architecture at UVa and former mayor of Charlottesville).  In this event, we discussed ways to engender change to favor the most vulnerable segments of society.  Maurice Cox spoke about the importance of building trust with communities and of identifying and empowering community champions or change agents.  Marshall Ganz elaborated on process and challenges in organizing social change;  some of his most poignant comments included: "Don't help people - lead and organize them for social change." "In a healthy democracy, equality of voice must compensate for innequality of resources." "Those with power have all the resources.  Don't wait until you get the resources, be resourceful...

Hi folks... in class this week we talked about the good, bad, and ugly aspects of tourism.  As you know, a number of us are trying to find ways to make tourism helpful to the most vulnerable people in the State.  You are experts in all things North Carolinian :-), so I would ask you to please drop ideas on how we might engage poor North Carolinians in small tourism businesses - so that they can make some income and have better control over their lives.  Insightful comments will merit extra credit!  Thanks for your help.   Duarte

A number of us, faculty and students in tourism, community development, and environmental conservation, have been interested in examining ways to use tourism as a force to help marginalized communities gain improved well-being and self-determination while also improving their often eroded relationships with the natural environment.  We are constantly faced with limitations in dominant tourism paradigms (e.g., eco-tourism, sustainable tourism, pro-poor tourism), so we decided to think of a new way to approach tourism.  Whence "People-First Tourism!" People-First because we think the focus of our efforts must be on the development of human beings - perhaps through the creation of improved eco-dependent livelihoods that will then elicit pro-conservation attitudes and behaviors.  This directive is influenced by Amartya Sen's assertion that development is more than improved access to income and should instead be seen as individuals' freedom to pursue fulfilling lives....

Today I am in Delhi discussing the merits and challenges of the People-First Tourism Cooperatives concept  with a group of students in TERI's Masters of Sustainable Development Practice.  Here's the advice they have for us.  Thank you for your input folks,   Duarte