As we are finalising our reports to EU (whose SPF facility funded 75% of our Sustainable Tourism project in Thailand), we have received a highly rewarding message from the officer in charge of the SPF in Bangkok. Here it is:

“I was very pleased and interested in reading the report and outcomes of this project. I was impressed with the large number of stakeholders involved, the participatory approach utilised to discuss experiences, develop and disseminate information and results of the project, and with the high quality of the final products (in particular the two publications, but also the website and the linkages developed between Thai and European tourism related organisations).
I would like to share with you some of the positive comments reported in the recent final evaluation regarding your project. The project was considered to be highly relevant, and very efficiently managed; a good example of value-for-money, with concrete outputs, full realisation of the stated objectives and a very positive impact on the target groups and beneficiaries (about 150 tourism enterprises) and that able to strengthen the collaboration and mutual awareness between EU and Thailand. The two main implementers, ERIC and BKF (editor’s note: the Environmental Research Institute of Chulalongkorn University and the Bumi Kita Foundation), were complemented for their project management skills and the use of guidelines from leading international tourism organisations and lessons from sustainable tourism certification initiatives. The project also was recognised to have greatly contributed to increase EU visibility and increased awareness on EU standards and best practices in Thailand.”

Waow! It gives us a lot of energy to keep organising these projects around the world!

Available online: the directory of 150 Best Practices tourism operators in Thailand.

For those of you who are interested in the Good Practices guide “Sustainable Tourism Management in Thailand”, it is available for download here.

Ooops. Nearly 40 years later, mass tourism has become a dirty word. It may allow travellers to enjoy, but forget about learning : you’re not going to discover much about Spanish architecture or food while eating a BigMac under the sky-scrapers of Benidorm or Marbella. As for the locals, they are left with poorly-paid jobs, acculturation, deforestation, pollution, floods and storms linked to global warming, when they are not just kicked out of their own land by foreign “investors”. And we have not even started to talk about child trafficking and prostitution !

So the motto of the day is responsible travel and sustainable tourism. Right. We all agree on this : be a good traveller, leave only footsteps, take nothing but pictures… And yes, tourism development needs to care about its social and environmental impact. But lets’ be frank, the words “reponsible” and “travel” sound weird together. The combination is not appealing. It sounds like a wagging index, when travelling should be about freedom, joy, spontaneity.

We think that travelling should just be a positive experience for everyone. To be positive for the tourist, it needs to be about discovery, new experiences that challenge the way you see the world. New encounters with local people, in an authentic atmosphere. And to be positive for the locals, it needs to be about respect and care. Caring for nature, respecting the local culture, the communities. This is what we tried to foster when we created The Natural Guide books.

Well, let’s call it positive tourism… a tourism which is positive for the traveller, the locals and the environment. A tourism that creates quality jobs for the local community, revives the local culture rather than destroying it, and encourages the protection and restoration of the environment. A tourism, which is part of a Positive Economy. A natural way of travelling for the 21st century. You believe it’s possible? You don’t? Well, share your views on us… and above us, give us examples, share your experiences, tell us where you’ve been and whether it was positive or not!

Whoever has met Eléonore Devillers is not likely to forget her… Tall and energetic, Eléonore is all passion, commitment and hardwork. To get her Masters in Agriculture and Sustainable Development at Institut National Agronomique Paris, this 27-year old woman spent 7 months in the hills of Northeast Thailand, sharing the daily lives (and the ants salads) of the poorest farmers of the Isan Plateau. “The best moment in travel is when a bright, sincere, warm smile shines on the face of local person you met“, she reckons. After this experience, Eleonore accepted the challenge of being the Editor of The Natural Guide to Thailand, the first guide book dedicated to responsible travel in the kingdom of Siam. “We worked with dozens of local writers, photographs, experts, NGO activists to give them a voice in the guide book. We also organized training in sustainable tourism management for local SMEs.” Back in Paris, Eleonore is in charge of organizing our worldwide community of writers and our partnerships.

Don’t get wrong about Yvan Wibaux. In front of his laptop, he may look like the computer geek and web 2.0 expert he also is… But start to talk to him about travel and he jumps to the occasion: “For me, travelling is not about visiting all the monuments in a guide book ! It is about having fun, meeting the locals, learning from them, sharing their life… and leaving something positive behind.” This is why this 24-year old engineer with a Master in Sciences and Entrepreneurship from Ecole Centrale Paris embarked on a World Tour of Water in 2005. Along with two other friends, they visited NGOs in Senegal, Peru, Cambodia and India to learn about water and sustainable development and support their projects. Yvan is now in charge of creating our community website dedicated to positive, responsible tourism.

With ten ideas per minute, Anne Gouyon is a serial entrepreneur committed to making the world a better place for all. After getting her Masters in Agriculture and Sustainable Development at Institut National Agronomique of Paris, she worked ten years in research and got herself a PhD in Agricultural Economics (whatever that means). She decided then to create her own consulting company, working on sustainable agriculture and forestry in Asia and Africa. “I realized that the market is a powerful instrument of change… after working on FSC Forest certification, I decided to create The Natural Guide, the first series of responsible travel guide books.” This was in 2002. Two years earlier, she was also at the core of the creation of BeCitizen, a consulting company specializing in sustainable development, which created the concept of a Positive Economy. As such, she co-authored the best-seller Réparer la Planète, la Révolution de l’Économie Positive. She is in charge of helping developing the contents, the methodology, the network and the business models of the project.

This is what TravelPix, a new Facebook application, will let you do : localize your travel pix on a map and share them with your friends. You want to know more ? Leave us a comment.

Then “Drop the Guide” is for you. Our project is born from the meeting of 4 travellers : Eléonore Devillers, Anne Gouyon, Eric la Bonnardière, Yvan Wibaux. All of us believe that the real joy of travel comes from meeting the local people in an authentic setting – and that this can only be done with the values of care and respect at heart. Care for the environment, respect for the people: the values of a positive tourism.

Hence our project is to create a new community of travellers, directly connected to the local people of each city, each valley, each island… so you can learn from the people in Rome, in Koh-Samui, or in Marrakech all you need to create your own travel and discover the hidden life of each country, and drop the guide in your hotel room!

If you share this big dream, give us your thoughts, your ideas… Help us to create a new community website, which will grow on the ideals of The Natural Guide book series, and will enable travellers to create their own holidays in the spirit of positive tourism.