The Tourism Voices project is about local people taking control over the messaging on their communities.
Touristic information comes in many forms, and there is a long history of specialized travel writers, mainly from western countries, describing the places they visit. Although these stories can be interesting and entertaining, they are conceived from the perspective of, and by, visitors and therefore, by default, lack the authority and authenticity that many tourists are looking for.
Not only to improve the authenticity, value and depth of information, but also as a matter of justice, it is time that local groups take ownership of the stories about their homes.
These stories should not only be attractive enough to interest tourists (and other tourism stakeholders), but also show the way forward to a more sustainable tourism, from a local perspective. Creating valuable stories that deal with the complexity of sustainable tourism development, and the specificity of tourism information channels, requires a number of competencies:
- The specific and essential competency to tell an interesting story on tourism
- The capacity and empathy to work with local groups to create their stories
- An understanding of how tourism works and is organized
- Mastering the method to gain the interest of tourists through stories
- An understanding of how sustainability should serve the interests of all
- Making sure that the whole community is represented
To generate these competencies, the Tourism Voices platform offers trainings for (aspiring) local storytellers, where we share and exchange expertise on sustainable tourism and storytelling.
We are interested in getting to know local storytellers and other potential partners to cooperate with. If you are interested in organizing a training with us, please contact us.