The Local Travel Movement clearly express why we should travel local. However how do you get your connection with the locals and how do you know that there is a benefit for both?

This is a question that comes up every time when I am planning my trip. However in Ecuador these questions are not necessary any longer. This due to a new interesting initiative that I launched in Ecuador to support community based tourism, named Go Local!. The locations and activities of the trips are small-scale and mostly run by the community. Travelers can explorer another Ecuador against a fair price. Moreover they support development projects by these special tours and travelers may visit the development projects during their journey.

The idea originated after contact with development organizations in Ecuador with a legitimate plan but without money for implementation. As well as the visits of local communities that had set up a nice tourism activity but no visitors. Knowing that in Ecuador there are still no affordable travels that make use of local initiatives, a liaison was made.

The locations for the trip are screened on accessibility (public transport), safety, comfort and price. This last point seemed to be an important one. Many local tourism activities were initiated after an ‘expat’ neighbor had set up an ‘Eco lodge’ where tourists can stay for a huge amount of money. This seemed to be an attractive business for the local neighbors as well. However to set up a tourism activity is not that easy. It also seems that the expensive neighbor has different connections than the locals. The high price charged by the neighbor is the cause that the price setting of the local project can also be far out of the reality. All this will not be a boost for the business and it runs down again.

The local initiatives need support from outside to get their business working. Platforms as local travel movement is a perfect start. However their access and knowledge to these platform cannot be seen as the same as the tourist. Go Local! is trying to give the community based tourism another platform to work as partners and to sell the product on their website. Involving local tourism is not seen as an unique concept to charge high prices but as the logic standard. Another benefit is that people can connect all the locations and create in this way a full organized holiday. The partners of Go Local! has been reviewed on price and quality and get support on improvement.

The most important chance of success for a local project is continuity and that is the aim for Go Local!. In this way they are able to give the tourist the service that is needed and soon the project can run more and more on its own. Go Local! has written a special guidebook to make sure that the traveler can easily reach the local project. Because at the end you are on a holiday as well.