Connecting curious travellers with Indigenous communities is an essential part of our identity at G Adventures. We are committed to respecting the rights, history, and culture of Indigenous people while ensuring that tourism supports their well-being. That’s why we’re aiming to raise the bar for the entire travel industry with practical global guidelines.
In 2016, we partnered with the International Institute of Tourism Studies at the George Washington University to develop a set of practical, international guidelines. The goal was to create guidelines that can be used by any travel company wishing to offer experiences with Indigenous communities. Using these guidelines, companies can ensure business relationships, tours, and experiences are developed and operated in an ethical and respectful manner. Most of all, these interactions are required to uphold the communities’ traditions and customs.
Why is this needed?
Previously, world-renowned and respected organizations like the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance and the Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada have produced guidelines for Indigenous tourism. These guidelines ensured communities are well-prepared and producing tours that represent their identities in a respectful manner, as well as providing fantastic experiences for travellers.
What we found was there weren’t a set of guidelines that could be adopted by travel companies (tour operators, hotels, travel agencies, and cruise lines), or non-profit organizations who interact with Indigenous companies. Without guidelines like these, the industry was lacking outlined methods for developing tours, contracting, operating and marketing travel experiences that are in line with Indigenous peoples' goals and respectful of their traditional decision-making and communications processes.
Unfortunately, Indigenous communities are at risk of exploitation and often have traditions that can be misrepresented or misused, even though unintended. This is what we’re committed to preventing with our guidelines: Indigenous People and the Travel Industry: Global Good Practice Guidelines.
Next Steps
At G Adventures, we offer nearly 100 experiences in Indigenous communities around the world. Now that these guidelines have been released, we want to ensure we abide by them ourselves. These guidelines will help us create our own Indigenous Tourism policy that will be implemented throughout our business and tours in 2018.