We are passionate about travel and yet we are concerned. As digital nomads, constantly moving from one place to another, we believe it's crucial to ensure our travels contribute positively to the destinations we visit. We worry about our impact on the environment and the communities we visit? Apparently we are not alone—83% of Americans share this concern. This growing awareness is driving a shift towards more responsible and ethical travel practices - a shift we are happily embracing.
We’ve made the shift in our videos too. Our YouTube channel, Breakaway Bravehearts, now uses Social Tourism focus to review every destination we visit or activity we take part in. We are also now actively searching for tourism providers with a Social Tourism focus so that we can help promote them more widely. We are trying to balance our sense adventure with our commitment to social responsibility. To achieve this, we’ve developed the BB STARS system, a comprehensive framework that evaluates tourism experiences based on five key principles: Social Growth, economic impact (aka Treasury), Accessibility, Relationships, and Sustainability.
Our latest video, linked above, will give you more information and a detailed explanation of the questions we use when we review tourism destinations and providers against our Social Tourism criteria. But for those that prefer text, keep on reading...
The concept of Social Tourism has become new learning for us, and it's helping us make sure our travel choices help others, while still providing us with a whole heap of fun.
So, what's a social tourist, you ask? Well, it's someone like you and me, determined to find that balance between ticking off our bucket-list destinations and being responsible, respectful travellers, who contribute to the communities that host us, all while enjoying the personal benefits of travel! Social tourism is about balancing both the enjoyment of the traveller and the well-being of the people and places we visit.
It’s an approach to travel that supports local economies, preserves and promotes cultural heritage, and contributes to global sustainability. Pretty awesome. For us, as constant travellers, social tourism means we can visit a community knowing that our travel has been a positive experience for everyone we meet, and that we have grown from the connections we’ve made. To make sure this happens, we have taken the five key principles of Social Tourism and turned them into a five-point-five-star system which we use to review the places we visit or the activities we take part in.. Let me explain…
Social Growth
Travel has always played a role in promoting understanding, tolerance and peace worldwide. It's all about experiences that help us connect and understand each other better. Social Tourists seek to immerse themselves in local languages, traditions, and history. It's all about embracing the vibrant cultures of the communities you visit. This helps build global knowledge, particularly of underrepresented cultural groups, something we should all be focusing on in this interconnected world where we seek peace and collaboration. So the Social Growth star is all about creating positive bonds and increased understanding.
When we rate tourism opportunities against our Social Growth principle, we are looking for five key elements.
Firstly, cultural learning. What kind of learning and new knowledge does this activity or destination offer? How can we learn more about the people and the place we are visiting? We’ll be looking for providers that offer information or activities that help us learn more about the cultural, historical or political background of the community that we are visiting.
How did it ‘build positive bonds and increased understanding?’
What did we learn about?
How did we learn it?
What knowledge wasn’t represented?
Secondly, we look at how connections are made between the visitor and the tourism provider. Is there a chance to chat with locals or experts and ask questions about what we are learning, while sharing our perspectives?
2. How were connections between locals and travellers made?
Are there guided tours?
Is there an opportunity to ask more questions?
Is it interactive?
Thirdly we consider which population group is being represented - will we learn more about indigenous groups, minority cultures or underrepresented groups? Are they offered a fair and respectful space to share their voices?
3. Does it support underrepresented population groups?
Whose story wasn’t told?
The fourth criteria is uniqueness. This is where we highlight a location or an activity that is less well-known and isn’t yet getting its fair share of tourism exposure. This is important because tourism, when it is positively managed, can be a significant means of economic and social development. Could the location benefit from pulling in a greater number of tourists, helping their economy and spreading awareness of their community?
4. Is it a less-well known destination, activity or story?
We will also be reviewing the tourist hotspots, because let’s face it we have a bucket list too and we need to know about the pros and cons of visiting those big destinations so that we can help others learn about them as well. But spreading the load to lesser known destinations, or choosing off-season travel, helps reduce overcrowding and the impact of dramatic seasonal tourism. It’s a win-win for everyone. So the fourth point on this star will be awarded to activities and locations that offer something off the beaten track, helping reduce the impact of over tourism while giving travellers a new experience.
Finally, the last point on the Social Growth star is a big one.
5. Are there volunteer activities that tourists can easily join?
This is where destinations or providers offer volunteer tourism opportunities that directly benefit both the community and the traveller. This isn’t always easy. Most beneficial volunteering activities require consistency or a specific skill, not always something a transient traveller can offer. But there are some great examples out there of providers that give tourists a chance to give their time or expertise directly to the community or environment. So we will be looking for those, sharing them with you and awarding them the final point on the Social Growth Star.
So that’s how each of the stars work, and this is why we call it our ‘five-point-five-star’ system, because each of the five stars have five points to earn within them, giving you plenty of information to make your travel decisions. In our videos you’ll see each point on the star pop up as it is awarded - it will be white if we couldn’t find evidence of that criteria, grey if that particular criteria isn’t applicable, transparent/pale gold if the we see the criteria in action but not quite at its full potential, and full gold if what we experience shows us that our criteria has been fully met.
Let’s look at the second star - which we’ve named “Treasury” because it's all about the money.
Trea$ury
A social tourism approach is about using travel as a means to improve the economy of local communities and help out small business owners, particularly those in disadvantaged regions. We’ve always tried to eat in small locally owned restaurants and stay in community owned accomodation, and we thought most travellers did too. So we were very surprised to learn that, on average, from every $100 spent by travellers in developing countries, only $5 stays in the local economy!
From now on we will be committed to doing our research on where the money goes and who benefits from it. Sometimes big chains can support local economies by generating employment opportunities, and contributing to local initiatives, but other times not so much. So we will do the work and present our research to you, with a fair and balanced perspective.
Points on this star will be awarded to providers who are ...
...channelling money back into the local community,
Who is funding it, where do the profits go?
... committed to respecting the rights of their employees to a safe, enjoyable workplace with fair wages,
2. Are there employment opportunities for locals (to what extent?)
... providing their employees with development opportunities,
3. Are workers rights respected?
Do they have any breach of fair employment practices / laws?
Do they have an anti-discrimination hiring policy?
... following equitable hiring practices and
4. Do workers get a chance for professional development, or are there training opportunities for the community (particularly youth or disadvantaged groups)?
and respecting the principles of tax justice towards the country at large.
5. Do they pay tax fairly?
Accessibility
Travel should be for everyone, regardless of background or health. Everybody has the right to move, learn and grow through tourism. So this star considers how destinations and providers cater for social, cultural, physical, psychological and financial diversity to ensure access for the greatest number of people. When we visit sties we ask ourselves questions like “Whose needs have been catered for? Who can’t be here, can’t do this, or wouldn’t feel valued in this space? Points on this star will be for features such as wheelchair accessibility, provision of language and communication options, support for the LGBTQ+ community, menu variance and the overall social perspective presented.
Wheelchair accessibility,
Clear wide pathways?
Wheelchair elevators/ramps?
2. Provision of language and communication options
Accommodation for hearing impairments?
Accommodation for sight impairments?
What languages are catered for?
Written info? Audio info? Subtitles on videos?
3. Support for the LGBTQ+ community
Are the toilets unisex or gender divisive?
What are the laws of the country in regards to LGBTQ+ rights
4. Menu variance
Are there vegan / vegetarian options?
Are there Halal / kosher options?
Are allergies noted?
5. Overall Social Perspective
Was it highly political, religious or mono-cultural?
While we will do our due diligence to cover as many aspects of accessibility as possible, we simply can’t represent, and don’t have firsthand experience of, the needs of all the diverse individuals in the world, so this is one star where we would really appreciate your help. If you have any first hand information on the places we visit that will help us be more accurate when awarding points on this star, please leave us a comment or join our community to share with us all. That really goes for all the stars of course, we would love to have as many perspectives as possible, so we are seeking your input too.
And this leads nicely into the fourth star:
4. Relationships
Travel should be fun, rewarding and fulfilling. Social tourism should leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy about what you’ve learnt and who you’ve met. Points in the relationships stars are rewarded to destinations and providers who are friendly, welcoming and well informed. They provide quality service, value for money and deliver exactly what they promise. We’ll be commenting on how we felt during our visit, how our providers and the community interacted with us, including aspects of safety and respect.
Was it fun?
Was there plenty of info when needed?
Quality and tone of service?
Was it value for money?
Did it deliver what was expected/promised?
Having been in the service industry for 30 years, Darryl is a bit of an expert in this area, and takes a fair approach to his comments. He totally understands the hard work ( often for low pay) that service workers put in on a daily basis, and the many demands of customers. But he also knows what it is reasonable to expect from a consumer point of view. So we’ll be fair and discerning when reviewing this star and just detail exactly what we experienced on the day so you can get an idea of how things operate and decide whether or not that sounds like a place for you.
Lastly, but most definitely not least, the star of huge importance to the future of our environment:
Sustainability.
We were really pleased to find out that the majority of travellers now worry about the environmental impact of their travel. This is great news - because when consumers are looking for ways to do better by the environment, providers will meet that demand. In fact six in 10 people are willing to prioritise eco-friendliness over convenience when making travel decisions. We want our Star system to help you find the right balance for you, giving you guilt-free enjoyment. So the final star is all about assessing destinations, tourism providers and travel activities in terms of the fight against global climate change and the depletion of natural resources.
When we award points on this star we will be looking for commitment to sustainability goals. We research providers to check their policies around care for biodiversity and environmental impact.
Are they committed to sustainability goals?
Are they carbon neutral?
Do they belong to any sustainability agreements?
Do they have an organisational policy on sustainability?
Can you get there by public transport or are electric car charging points offered?
Consumer Choices
Do they offer ways visitors can act environmentally responsible? Eg:
Can you leave your towels not to be washed, Do they offer recyclable disposables. Can you bring your own cup? Do they offer a chance to separate your waste responsibly?
Do they mostly offer local and/or eco-friendly products, or take care in the choices they make in their supply chain?
Does the activity or industry they promote help or harm the environment?
Is it a high-impact industry?
How are animals treated?
How is the environment cared for?
We consider practices such as the providers’ commitment to sustainability goals, the choices offered to tourists re: the use of plastics versus sustainable local products, waste management, responsible means of transport, etc. We’ll also consider what information and guidance the provider offers travellers on sustainable practices and responsible tourism choices. This is something we recognise that we need to learn more about ourselves.
Sometimes the information out there is contradictory or hard to understand, or sometimes we just don’t know the right questions to ask. So stick with us, make sure you subscribe and hit the notifications bell, because we’ll be doing more vlogs & blogs that share everything we learn and give travellers more information to help them make informed decisions and responsible choices.
And that’s the crux of our whole mission here really - giving you the information so you can make choices based on your values. We are so grateful for the learning and joy we gain in each of the communities we visit, and we really want to share that with others, in a way that benefits everyone.
We hope you like our ‘five-point-five-star’ system. Please let us know what you think in the comments. If it works, and it helps us all (both tourists and providers) we’d really like to develop it more. We’ve started off a kickstarter page, to see if we can develop the idea into an app that will allow you to search for, and contribute to the BB Stars for yourself. The link is in the description, so please take a look.
We dearly hope you will join us on this journey, and be part of our community as we move, learn and grow together. Please comment and let us know your thoughts and ideas. We’d love to know what you want to know about, where you’d like us to visit and what questions you need answers to. And don’t forget to share the video or blog and spread the word - as many people we can get on board the Social Tourism journey the better for all of us! If you subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the notifications bell, you’ll get the alert for each our review videos using the BB STARS system.
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