“GT” Insight Bites: On enrichment, repatriation, the double-edged blade, and war

Write no more than 300 words on a travel & tour­ism top­ic that is import­ant to you.

This is an open invit­a­tion to travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers to con­trib­ute a “GT” Insight Bite.

Simply con­tact “GT”.

Unlike oth­er “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites that have dead­lines and are based on spe­cif­ic ques­tions or hypo­thet­ic­als, this invit­a­tion is ongo­ing and wide open in scope.

I’ll pub­lish as and when I have a few or a couple; some­times even indi­vidu­ally if it’s timely, so don’t be shy in pitch­ing your “GT” Insight Bite. If you have more to say, con­sider a full “GT” Insight (600 – 1,200 words).

“GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” publishes.

Thanks to every­one who shared. Their responses appear in the order received. 

Click/touch a name to go to their “GT” Insight Bite:

‘Tourism has enriched my life’

Elysee Igiraneza, Kigali city tour guide, Rwanda

I was born and raised in Rwanda. 

My jour­ney in tour­ism began when I was 20 years old, with a pas­sion for explor­a­tion and a desire to share the world’s won­ders. As a loc­al guide, I found immense joy in con­nect­ing trav­el­lers to unique exper­i­ences and cultures. 

Tour­ism has enriched my life, provid­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for per­son­al growth and con­trib­ut­ing to my fam­ily’s well-being. It has also been a cata­lyst for pos­it­ive change in my com­munity and a source of pride for my country. 

Tour­ism to me is more than just a pro­fes­sion; it’s a gate­way to cul­tur­al exchange, con­nec­tion, and under­stand­ing. It’s about cre­at­ing unfor­get­table exper­i­ences, bridging divides, and show­cas­ing the beauty of our world. 

With your sup­port, I aim to con­tin­ue shar­ing these moments, pro­mot­ing glob­al har­mony, and con­trib­ut­ing to the growth of our com­munity through sus­tain­able and enrich­ing travel adventures.

Look­ing ahead, I aspire to con­tin­ue pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism, fos­ter­ing cul­tur­al under­stand­ing, and cre­at­ing mem­or­able adven­tures for all.

I want to go the extra mile in my career in tour­ism. I’m think­ing of open­ing a tour com­pany and also I’m think­ing of going for fur­ther edu­ca­tion in tourism.

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Thanks to tourism, I started a nursery school

Rick Masumbuko, Gisakura tea guide, Rwanda

My name is Rick Masum­buko, born in Bukere vil­lage, Kivu province, Congo DRC. I’m 55 years of age.

When I was a young boy I liked to go into the forest to see wild­life. I also liked to go to Bukavu town to meet and talk to tourists.

I moved from DRC in 1980 and stayed in Kibuye, West­ern Province, Rwanda where I met people from Switzer­land who taught me forestry prac­tices. From Kibuye they took me to Nyung­we forest in south­w­est Rwanda.

I star­ted in tour­ism in Nyung­we from 1986 as a guide lead­ing treks from the Uwinka Over­look. It is here I star­ted learn­ing Eng­lish. (I also speak French and Swahili.)

I moved to the nearby Gisak­ura vil­lage in 2003 and worked in hotels as a waiter.

In 2010 I star­ted learn­ing com­munity based tour­ism and I worked sev­er­al years in the Gisak­ura tea plant­a­tion tak­ing tour­ists on hikes.

I con­tin­ue to be a tea guide in Gisak­ura, show­ing vis­it­ors how tea is grown, har­ves­ted, and pre­pared. I also take tour­ists on vil­lage walks, where they can meet loc­als and dance with them.

Thanks to tour­ism and the money I am able to save and send back to Congo DRC, I have star­ted a nurs­ery school on Idjwi Island in Lake Kivu. [See fea­tured image (top of post)]

I would like to devel­op my skills in tour­ism. I also dream of pur­su­ing my pas­sion for wild­life. The main chal­lenges I face include trans­port­a­tion that would allow me to move to dif­fer­ent areas to take pho­tos of fauna and flora in my spare time; also a good cam­era, com­puter, and smart­phone would help me research and cre­ate a doc­u­ment­ary to teach people about nature conservation.

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Tourism is ‘a double-edged sword’

Anshu Tejuja, Managing Director, Ashoka Dream Holidays, India

Tour­ism is often touted as a win-win. Tour­ists get new exper­i­ences, busi­nesses get new cus­tom­ers, and loc­al com­munit­ies get a boost in their economy. 

But as a res­id­ent and pro­fes­sion­al in Mum­bai, India, I’ve wit­nessed firsthand that this story is nuanced. 

Tour­ism, while a sig­ni­fic­ant driver of eco­nom­ic growth, also comes with its share of chal­lenges, espe­cially for communities.

The double-edged sword: Mum­bai wel­comes mil­lions of vis­it­ors each year. The eco­nom­ic boost is needed and helps improve the stand­ard of liv­ing for many. But it also leads to price surges, includ­ing for prop­erty, and strains loc­al resources, dis­pro­por­tion­ately affect­ing those who aren’t dir­ectly benefiting.

Authen­ti­city vs. com­mer­cial­isa­tion: Mum­bai’s rich cul­tur­al tapestry is one of its attrac­tions. How­ever, this can some­times mean that cul­tur­al tra­di­tions, arts, and crafts are altered to cater to for­eign tastes thereby los­ing their authenticity.

An unsus­tain­able toll: High tour­ist foot­fall puts immense pres­sure on envir­on­ment­al resources. Waste man­age­ment becomes more dif­fi­cult, and nat­ur­al sites may get dam­aged. In Mum­bai, beaches and nat­ur­al parks are par­tic­u­larly vulnerable.

A sus­tain­able way for­ward: So, what’s the solu­tion? For one, sus­tain­able tour­ism needs to be more than a buzzword. Its prac­tices need to be imple­men­ted in earn­est; from pro­mot­ing the off sea­son to imple­ment­ing strict waste man­age­ment protocols.

The miss­ing piece: A truly sus­tain­able mod­el can­not func­tion without the community’s engage­ment and say in how tour­ism is developed and man­aged. Com­munity tour­ism ini­ti­at­ives, where loc­als can share their cul­ture, crafts, and cuisine in a mean­ing­ful way, can provide more authen­t­ic exper­i­ences for tour­ists while gen­er­at­ing dir­ect incomes for com­munity members.

Tour­ism is indeed a double-edged sword, bring­ing eco­nom­ic bene­fits and the poten­tial to cause social, cul­tur­al, and envir­on­ment­al harm. 

To me it is clear that we must tread care­fully ahead with the inten­tion to make tour­ism more sus­tain­able and inclusive.

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‘When the war stops …’

David Nenwa, driver guide, Red Rocks Rwanda

The Vir­unga Nation­al Park in DRC Congo has closed all its tour­ism activ­it­ies due to war. Tour­ist safety is our priority. 

Before the Park closed we would send tour­ists for gor­illa trekking fol­low­ing set pack­ages. I was a guide for these. 

One of my favour­ite pack­ages was called Mikeno Mist. For this we would depart Goma at 14h00, drive for about one hour to reach Kibumba camp where we stayed overnight. The next morn­ing we trekked to see the gor­il­las then stayed anoth­er night at Kibumba. On day 3, we drove from Kibumba to Kibati, thé start­ing point for the Nyiragongo vol­cano hike. We walked for about sev­en hours to reach the sum­mit and stayed overnight in cab­ins. On the last day, our group would des­cend Nyiragongo and return to Goma.

Now I am in Rwanda work­ing with Red Rocks. I have known and worked with Greg Bak­un­zi for 12 years. 

I am a driver guide here too, tak­ing vis­it­ors trekking in the Vir­unga Moun­tains on the Rwanda side; Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park. I have also guided for Amani Safar­is, a branch of Red Rocks, in Uganda and oth­er places in Africa.

My fam­ily is still in Congo. They are safe as the front line is 20 km from where we live in Goma city, DRC. I am able to assist them whenev­er I return home from Rwanda.

Hope­fully tour­ism will resume as soon as the war stops. Loc­al com­munit­ies in DRC benefited from tour­ism in the Vir­unga Moun­tains. Some 30% of tour­ism rev­en­ues were alloc­ated to them. The Vir­unga built three hydro­elec­tric plants, five ele­ment­ary schools, and sup­plied run­ning water to Kibumba and Rugari villages.

When the war stops, we hope to launch game drives in the savan­nah area where ele­phants, buf­fa­loes, hip­pos, lions, and ante­lopes roam.

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What do you think? 

In a com­ment below share your own thoughts about what’s import­ant in travel & tour­ism. (After sign­ing in you will need to refresh the page to see the com­ments section.) 

Or write a “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

“GT” is where free thought travels.

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Featured image (top of post)

“Thanks to tour­ism and the money I am able to save and send back to Congo DRC, I have star­ted a nurs­ery school on Idjwi Island in Lake Kivu,” Rick Masum­buko, who sup­plied this image, said. Mr Masum­buko is a Con­golese guide work­ing in Rwanda.

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Previous “GT” Insight Bites

• On tour­ism tech­no­logy, pro­gress, and loc­al benefit-sharing
• Hey, travel & tour­ism, are you ‘neo­co­lo­ni­al­ist’?
• Who’s the new boss? Asia Pacific tour­ism industry asso­ci­ation seeks leader
• ‘The hos­pit­al­ity industry offers a great career.’ Really?
• Cruise ships: Bless­ing or blight?
• Tour­ist vs trav­el­ler: What’s the difference?
• The heads of fin­ance, oper­a­tions, and PR walk into their boss’s office … 
• Yes, Tour­ism Minister
• What are tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years?
• ‘Tour­ism is built on the back­bone of white suprem­acy’. What do you think?
• Really, what’s the dif­fer­ence? ‘Sus­tain­able tour­ism’ vs ‘regen­er­at­ive tourism’
• Want a career in tour­ism? Import­ant things you should know
• Diverse per­spect­ives on travel & tour­ism and a fairer world
• Diverse per­spect­ives on eco­nom­ic degrowth and tourism
• Diverse per­spect­ives on vis­it­or dispersion

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