Beautiful Venezuela: Tourism with a Social Conscience
By Tamara Pearson
Sunday, May 20, 2012
http://www.zcommunications.org/beautiful-venezuela-tourism-with-a-social-conscience-by-tamara-pearson
"One could argue that there are two types of tourism, and unfortunately the first is much more common than the second. It involves tourists passing through a country or place for a short amount of time in a kind of quick violation of it, taking what they want from it and feeling little need to give much back beyond the money spent. Such tourists stay in hotels beyond the means or dreams of locals, eat supposed local food that the actual locals could never afford, and hop in a taxi or go on a tour to visit the “main sites” – the famous bridge, the giant blue watermelon, the place where some ridiculous star had breakfast, the confusing abstract ball of twisted metal statue in front of some regal building with doors forty times the size of actual human beings – pose in front of them for a tonne of repetitive photos they stick up on Facebook. Most will buy some tacky mass produced “souvenir”, possibly something flogged off as “indigenous art”; art they don’t understand, sold by people who don’t make it but do make money from it, while the indigenous people and artists flounder invisibly in the background in a poverty of power. Then the tourists go home without having learnt very much about the country beyond how cheap its coffee is, but having done a good job at snobbing their way around, condescendingly tipping the locals and expecting the country to bow down to their needs just because they come from a different country, most likely a “first world” one.more .......
The second kind of tourism involves a lot more local dignity, but unfortunately it’s not very common. A few individuals practice it, but it’s rarely organised or planned on a larger scale. Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution is getting there though. We’re slowly constructing tourism for the development of humanity rather than the development of the bank accounts of a few tasteless business owners. Its contextualised tourism aimed at fomenting community organisation, encouraging environmental and ecological awareness and appreciation, rescuing local culture and collective history, and promoting solidarity and knowledge exchange between countries and regions."
I so want to go to Venezuela.
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Although I don't think the first kind of tourism is really very big there.
Americans stay away because of its depiction in the media. Europeans stay away because if they're going to that part of the world there are higher profiles places like Brazil and the Caribbean.
Tickets from the US used to be about 40% lower than to other parts of South America because of distance and oil subsidies. Internal travel is pretty cheap, too -- those infamous South American buses really enable you to see the countryside. Venezuela has fewer English speakers than a lot of other countries, but that wasn't an insurmountable obstacle.
One of the biggest challenges is actually the variety -- everything from the rain forest to the Caribbean to the Andes. There is no way to do the country in two weeks.
If you're thinking of going and are interested, send a DU mail or just reply to the post. I would be glad to share some photos, travel diary, and thoughts on itinerary.
