By Kim Houghton, Marketing Manager, African Impact

Volunteering offers an opportunity to see and experience a culture in a way that’s not possible through conventional travel. By visiting parts of the world not available as a normal holiday destination, you become immersed into a local community. No longer bystanders on the side of the road, volunteers, with dirty hands and broad smiles, are integrated into the local community in a way they would not have been before.

By Victoria Okoye

Mole National Park, Ghana’s largest protected ecosystem, is surrounded by nearly 30 indigenous rural communities that rely on the land for their livelihood. Addressing these fringe communities’ livelihood concerns is an important part of the work done in the area by one tour company, M&J Travel and Tours, committed to ecotourism in Ghana. It currently works with more than 350 women to support the local Shea-butter production efforts for commercial trade.

Situated in the heart of Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia, EcoCamp Patagonia has gained an award-winning reputation for its eco-friendly policies and innovative use of green technology. EcoCamp Patagonia, owned and operated by the Chilean in-bound tour operator Cascada Expediciones, is carbon neutral, 100% renewable energy, and carefully designed to minimize environmental footprint. EcoCamp’s dome design was inspired by the ancient nomadic Kaweskar inhabitants, who relocated within the park without leaving a trace.

By Adriana Braun

What a great experience it was, returning to Fernando de Noronha and finding that previous obstacles for us wheelchair users no longer existed! When I first visited here ten years ago, I almost went crazy looking for a hotel that would accommodate me. It was beyond difficult just trying to put luggage in a buggy, dealing with a rude taxi driver who did not hide his prejudice for the disabled people, and trying to get through a bathroom door only 0.6m-wide with my wheelchair, let alone participating in any of the activities that the islands offers.

By Ezekiel Ole Katato

Joseph Thomson, the 19th century explorer and first white man to cross Maasai Land on a caravan in 1883 and came out alive, was a pioneer reporter who wrote about the “Dark Continent of Africa” – so named because no body knew anything about it save that it was full of savage tribes and wild animals. Across Maasai Land Initiative offers a unique opportunity to follow Thomson’s footsteps on a five-day walking adventure.

By Katja Bechtloff

Nutti Sámi Siida is a Sámi tourism enterprise owned by Nils-Torbjörn Nutti, a reindeer herder from Saarivuoma Sámi village, and Carina Pingi from Gabna Sámi village. During one particularly bad winter in the pastures, starvation of the reindeer forced Nils and Carina to move their reindeer to corrals. The high costs of feeding the reindeer caused the needed an additional source of income, and invited visitors to the corrals. This – combining reindeer husbandry with tourism – led to the foundation of Nutti Sámi Siida.

By Lenka Uhrova

In July 2010, I published an article on the Local Travel Movement website about how I saw tourism in Iceland at the time. I’ve always been particularly interested in regions off the beaten tourist track, which in the past would often be overlooked and overshadowed by the more commonly promoted highlights and ‘must-sees’ of Iceland.

By Lennart Pittja

Sápmi (or Lapland) has long attracted visitors from all over the world, and today it is visited by millions of tourists every year. In spite of this bustling tourist activity, and even though Sámi traditions are frequently portrayed through various media, today we can see very few successful Sámi tourism companies. The Sámi community wants to change this, and wants to be more involved with decision making in the Swedish tourism industry.

By Irene Lane

One of the more memorable moments during our family tour of Northern Europe last year was during our stay in Gothenburg. While Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden, it certainly has not taken on a diminutive status to Stockholm. Instead, the city has a standing of its own including having largest seaport of all the Nordic countries, a diverse music community and beautiful open spaces of forests, meadows, lakes, parks and gardens peppered throughout the area.

By Tara Harrison and Samira Said

The UK’s Unseen Tours volunteer group has launched a socially sustainable tourism project to bring together the homeless and visitors to London in order to showcase the city at the ground level. Training, pay, and recognition has helped some of those who are out of work and out of home find a way to support themselves. The project has been so successful that numerous other countries are looking to launch similar initiatives.