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| Introduction to
Community Tourism |
| More on Community Tourism in Ecuador |
| Examples of Community Tourism in Ecuador
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Community
Tourism
It's a new and totally different
way of making tourism. Small indigenous communities share their
homes with tourists and let them know about their ancestral ways
of living, their cultures and to experience a daily adventure sharing
their knowledge
Some communities have seen in tourism a good source of resources
so they have opened their doors to show the attractions of their
regions from a unique angle.
This form of tourism let the tourist to have better contact with
the people, having an inside view of their cultures and their traditions.
People from the community become guides and the money earned from
tourism is invested again in communitary projects which is also
a good reason to give it a try.
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I want to
know more about community tourism
It's not the same to learn history from a town if it's told from
a native's perspective rather than the one of a tourist guide. Nevertheless,
in a tipical tour is hard to find the time and space to know the
people and its costumes in depth.
The idea of comunitary tourism is that the tourist can experiment
how is life inside an ancestral indigenous community, to be en contact
with the people from the community, to share their daily activities
or learn their traditions in a direct way.
People from the communities have to learn also how to treat the
tourist and how to generate atractive activities for them.
At that point begins the teamwork...some become guides, some others
start to prepare delicious tipical meals, the craftsmen begin to
sell their work and someone else transform its house into an hotel.
With the comunitary tourism, everybody wins. The tourist live a
unique experience that no travel agency can superate, while the
community uses the profit made by this activity for the bennefit
of all.
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Examples
of community tourism
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In the Amazon there are close to
40 community projects dedicated to eco-tourism. In the Napo Province
there is the Ricancie Project that brings together 10 traditional
settlements that host tourists. Travelers can participate in different
activities such as the preparation of traditional foods alongside
native guides and the Quichua inhabitants of the region. Another
location is Aacllac, also just a few minutes from Tena.
The community is home to a complex of traditional cabins. Cotococha
also offers similar lodging to tourists. Tours organized by local
operators include long walks through the jungle or traveling by
boat on the Napo and Curaray Rivers. Further on, located in Pastaza,
is the Atacapi-Papangu Project. Puyo also possesses sites like the
Fatima Reserve, a zoo that is home to various animal species of
the Amazon forests.
Close by are the Omaere Ethno-botanicical Park and the Hola Vida
Reserve. The two areas offer opportunities to see the flora and
fauna of the region, as well as experience the customs of the indigenous
communities in the area. The majority of such destinations house
tourists in cabins or as guests in the homes of the indigenous inhabitants.
The best way to arrive to such areas is to pre-arrange a tour with
one of the travel agencies of Tena or Quito.
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| Introduction to
Community Tourism |
| More on Community Tourism in Ecuador |
| Examples of Community Tourism in Ecuador
|
|
