Villages all over the world open their doors to tourists
The search for authenticity is central to postmodern traveling. Nobody, or almost nobody, wants to be the token tourist and be treated as a token tourist.Many destinations around the globe are starting to figure that out. Instead of assuming that "rich Westerners" want to sleep at the Marriott and sample foreign culture only by sipping a "theme martini", places like Thailand know that more and more travelers want to experience the authentic life average people of Thailand are living: feeding pigs, planting vegetables, harvesting fruits. Swapping places, if you will.
The Guardian has an interesting article about the "community tourism" phenomenon. The author spend time with the "mountain people" in Ja Bor in north west Thailand, a three-hour drive from Chang Mai "on a road of endless hairpin bends".
Visitors apparently "stay in a local home mattresses on the floor with outside washing facilities or in a large dormitory-style building, and are fed lavish amounts of food from the villages ubiquitous rice fields, its fish farm, organic vegetable garden and from the nearby forest, nurtured by sparkling streams. Close to a waterfall is a delicate bamboo shrine to thank the spirits for carrying water to the rice fields. And then there is coffee production. Dried by the sun, roasted over an open fire and sifted on bamboo platters, this arabica coffee bears a Fairtrade label and gets sold to Starbucks."
Aside from the Starbucks piece, it sounds blissful.
Filed under: Food and Drink, Asia, Thailand, Ecotourism
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
May 3rd 2008 @ 3:51PM
Rick Badman said...
In the future, once Experiencable Program Units are available, places around the world will allow people to "experience" those places electronically. When people see how wonderful or interesting the places are, they may want to physically visit the places. Some places like London or Rome may send out "period" programs which feature historical times for people to experience. Wouldn't you like to visit London during the time of Shakespeare or Rome during the height of the Rennaisance or time of the Caesars? With EPUs, people will be able to travel the world electronically and more revenue will come to places via programs as well as physical tourism.
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May 4th 2008 @ 7:44AM
Doug said...
My wife and i once stayed at a very nice little village in the mountains of Latvia...Sigulda, it was very charming, quaint, and the people were extremely nice...they kept the home-made beer flowing all evening...it was delightful, and the shoslic was wonderful.....
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May 5th 2008 @ 8:23AM
Mark Sloneker said...
This is also being developed in Laos. There are always good an bad to opening up remote villages like this. Many tour groups are approaching it with a very culturally sensitive attitude. They ask people to bring extra tooth brushes and bars of soap to help teach basic hygiene , a major child killer in remote Laos. It also brings sorely needed income to the village that helps send children to school, etc. The downside is it forever changes the culture and dynamics of the village. The next generation is less likely to stay put, and the villagers end up depending on the income. I struggle with this too as I teach marketing and business development at the school in Vientiane. I am helping organize silk and silver handcraft groups and teaching them how to bring their product to the West http://www.orijyn.com. Am I benefitting the culture, or hurrying it's homogenation. Things are inevitably going to change in these remote areas, and we all want to experience a "native" untouched culture, but in doing so you can't help but change them. We just need to be mindful on how we effect the evolution.
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May 5th 2008 @ 8:35AM
Matt said...
I can't agree more when it comes to the "search for authenticity." The first time I heard it discussed was at a lecture by long time travel writer Doug Lansky (http://www.douglansky.com) who talked about a dream of his to work with local villages and help them promote sustainable tourism by not sacrificing their inherent charm for Western amenities.
Matt
(http://talesfromtheroad.southernliving.com)
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May 5th 2008 @ 8:42AM
Iva Skoch said...
Thanks. Let's hope more countries (and their local villages) do this instead of over-developing.