In rural areas of Ghana, the Student and Youth Travel Organization (SYTO) works to arrange volunteering trips, internships, homestays and cultural exchanges for foreign visitors. To reach and get around the most remote and underserved villages of rural Ghana, these visitors need transportation on which they can rely; however, they often find that there is nothing suitable in their village destinations.

Mynatour ecotourism community, sponsored by WHL.travel, is launching the Ecotourism Travel Blog Contest, an innovative competition inviting travelers to share their travel blog in order to promote green travel and ecotourism best practices. The idea of the contest is to promote ecotourism and responsible tourism through a travel blog competition where the audience is involved in electing the best ecotourism story.

Borneo is home to the Rungus people, one of the island’s few remaining indigenous ethnic groups who reside in the area surrounding the former capital of Kudat. Organisations like Borneo Ecotourism Solutions and Technologies (BEST) Society help the indigenous Rungus people harness the power of tourism to maintain their vibrant performing arts, customs and traditions. To this day the Rungus live in longhouses, which are extended single-floor structures elevated off the ground on stilts and are designed with an emphasis on community.

Nowhere in Europe are there so many different peoples living in such a small region. Although the cultural wealth is made possible by their peaceful coexistence, the different communities cultivate their unique traits in an effort to preserve their national identities. The Wealth of Diversity project was therefore launched by the Magelan Travel Agency DMC and the Istar 21 Danube Tourism Cluster, with the goal of spotlighting multiculturalism in the Danube region as a unified tourism product on the world market and lend this part of Serbia a recognisable brand.

By Karolyn Wrightson

Aboriginal elder Willie Gordon of Guurrbi Tours offers ancient stories oriented toward the human soul. The wisdom of Willie is what distinguishes his Guurrbi Aboriginal tours from others – his remarkable sense of what each visitor brings to the moment. To ensure that he bridges the gap between his culture and ours, he begins with his family’s story, then relates that to the story the visitor has (or lacks).

By Cynthia Ord

Living in splendid isolation in the remote mountains around Luang Namtha in northern Laos, the country’s most traditional ethnic groups have for centuries cultivated rice and inhabited small rural villages. These tribes, however, are at a crossroads between traditional ways of life and the forces of modernity and tourism. In 1993, the surrounding region was declared the Nam Ha National Biodiversity Conservation Area, and since then, streams of tourists plan treks to enjoy the outdoors of Nam Ha and the culture of Laos’ ethnic groups.

By Natasha Robinson

Aivar Ruukel has made quite a name for himself in ecotourism, particularly in his native Estonia, where he grew up in the midst of the country’s largest pristine wilderness: Soomaa. Roughly translated as ‘Land of Bogs,’ the area is, in Ruukel’s words, “a vast complex of raised bogs, wet alluvial forests with fens, transition mires and unregulated rivers with flood-plain and wooded meadows.”

By Michelle Rodrigues – Tourism in Mexico has seen a drastic drop since the swine flu fright and the recent economic downturn experienced throughout the world, but this doesn’t stop everyone. Mexico is still optimistic and thriving with the continuation of its beautiful colors, traditions and cultures. Initiatives like La Ruta del Tequila and the public awareness of World Heritage Sites in Mexico have been able to release knowledge and understanding of the deep history Mexico holds.

By Jacqueline Baleon – Located in the Ejido (communal land) of El Rosario, only 45 minutes to the south of La Paz (the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur), is the lonely Cactus Sanctuary (Santuario de los Cactus), in which 50 hectares of parkland have been divided into 50 distinct areas to preserve cacti and endemic plants found only in this part of the globe. Despite its beauty, the sanctuary has been mostly forgotten, as is too often the case with many of the small communities in this area.

Baa baa black sheep, now we have your wool! So say travellers in Slovenia who have had the pleasure of an exclusive Alpine Melody tour with Spin Travel. Billed as a day-long excursion that “takes you back to the times of our grandfathers,” Alpine Melody was also shortlisted in early December 2009 for the Sejalac (Sower) award, given every year since 2003 to the most promising tour providers in Slovenia by the Slovenian Tourist Board.