Tag Archives: Local

Don’t forget the keys of the ecotourism at home during these holidays

August 1st, 2017

Among the notes of the trip, remember the keys of the ecotourism is nice in order to achieve that our footprint is always positive in the different places of the world.

Summarized in the 8 points presented by the International Ecotourism Society, these are the keys which we should follow during our holidays:

  1. Minimize physical, social, behavioral, and psychological impacts:

Obviously, at this point we cannot stop insisting on the kind of means of transport that we use. We, of course, prefer the quick, efficient and non-contamination bicycle, always knowing and respecting (the) each city‘s regulations.

  1. Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect:

And an interesting way to do that is moving around the city to the maximum in order to get to know its history, its art and its culture, in addition to its surroundings, especially if they are a source of nature and always leaving a minimum physical trace of our visit.

  1. Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts:

Knowing local people and sharing experiences with them will always make our trip so much richer. In order to do that, it is usually enough to be respectful and friendly.

  1. Provide direct financial benefits for conservation:

Collaborating, as far as possible, with these places which we love to visit.

  1. Generate financial benefits for both local people and private industry:

To go and use local shops and services will get us closer to the people of the place and to the way that they live together. So, why do we have to go to the same shops, which, surely, are also in our city?

  1. Deliver memorable interpretative experiences to visitors that help raise sensitivity to host countries’ political, environmental, and social climates:

The present context will indicate much about the place and the people that we are getting to know.

  1. Design, construct and operate low-impact facilities:

Something so basic that we surely will always intend to comply with it in our daily life.

  1. Recognize the rights and spiritual beliefs of the Indigenous People in your community and work in partnership with them to create empowerment:

Something so basic that we surely will always intend to comply with it in our daily life.

Convert yourself into one more citizen of Barcelona pedalling the bicycle

Getting closer to people of a city in a cultural, historic and social way is what will transform our journey into a unique trip. How should we do this? Get carried along the streets by someone who really knows them!

When we travel to new places, apart from breaking the routine, usually, we look for getting to know the city in detail. We look for all the information through guides and internet and, we leave with thousands of routes in our head to experience and to pass through. But all architectonic works, museums and corners of the city lack sense if we don’t know their history fully and, finally, we just forget them or we mix them up with memories of other trips.

In order to avoid this, the best choice is to look for a trip mate who knows all the details of the history, because he or she has lived with them all his/her life.

By travelling with local people, we will have a great opportunity to live a new experience, much richer and more authentic than all the notes that we could compile before and during the trip.

This, together with the opportunity of going through the streets on a bicycle, a vehicle which allows us to move through all the streets easily, much quicker than walking and appreciating more details than going by car, will be the perfect combination for assuring us that we are using our trip up to the limit.