Adventures are fun and most of all, memorable. Many customers seem to want it “cheap and good” and as consumers, we can relate. The cost of Responsible Tourism is not small as we have come to realise.
Responsible tourism is a broad term that involves giving back to the local community and ensuring sustainability of the places that are visited – it involves 3 factors – economic, social and environmental. But it also involves a strong commitment from everyone involved. These accumulated factors add cost to the trips.
Let me give you some examples:
Once, talking to an operator, Steven (you know who you are!) caused my light bulb to switch on (that hasn’t happened in a while). Steven does a lot of travelling in between guided trips around the Peninsular to discover the best nature spots for camping. Often, these trips take him away for days. This is so he can offer genuine off-the-beaten track adventures and also to assess safety like ensuring the route taken is free of potential land slides and the site is not infested with snakes! I’ve known Steven to make trips almost twice a week (depending on the distance of course). A lot of these costs are not seen by his customers and are absorbed by him even if he has no clients, and there no returns on some trips because some of them may turn out too dangerous.
Another example of safety adding to the overall cost is due to the equipment itself. Not too long ago we went on a riverboarding trip. Jo took part but I didn’t (basking in sun was too tempting!). Jo was made to put on wet suits with knee guards and a whole lot of other safety equipment. The wet suit for riverboarding costs at least 400 hundred bucks and lasts on average 6 rounds. After Jo completed our riverboarding ride, we realised that the minimal bumps and scrapes that he got were absorbed at the expense of the wet suit. Each round takes off at least 50 to 100 bucks of the wet suit in wear and tear, and that’s just the suit.
Responsible tourism is about giving back to the local community but it’s also about ensuring that the community doesn’t take from nature in an unsustainable way. Some tour programmes initiated by the local government such as those involving Rafflesia are to discourage the villagers from plucking the giant flower to sell. These villages are remote and it’s difficult for the authorities to “guard” the Rafflessia. Even if the flower was plucked it won’t be easy to find the culprit. These Rafflessia tours are designed to involve the villagers to enable some side income. With the carrot dangling in front, the villagers would tend to treasure these flowers in their natural habitat. This is a sustainable practice as they derive the same amount of income from tours as they do selling flowers.
Adventurers do what we do because they love it! But that doesn’t mean that they don’t want to earn a decent living. These guys have the same bills to pay that we all have. Some are also qualified professionals; accountants, network engineers etc. It takes time and training to learn the ropes in safety, it would only be right to recognise this. It’s the same with any other job. Others invest lots of money and time to get a degree so that they don’t have to start with a minimum wage.
Please do negotiate for a fair price but we all need to take in the adventurer’s point of view too. Most adventure guides want consumers to pay a fair price as much consumers don’t want to get ripped, so make sure you get a fair price. Ultimately, think of your adventure as ‘fair value’ taking into consideration the factors we have highlighted in this article.
Thanks for reading my random thoughts and we all hope your next adventure will be a blast!
Loon-ie