Blog Post #2 : Empathy and Ecotourism

I found a strong connection between empathy and ecotourism when RECR 379 (Foundation of Ecotourism) had guest speakers from a community-based tourism company, Crooked Trail (http://crookedtrails.org/). The purpose of Community-based Tourism is to improve welfare of the local community. The Crooked Trails is “an educational non-profit organization helping people broaden their understanding of the impact of travel on the world’s cultures and ecosystems through educational outreach and sustainable travel programs” (the Crooke Trail, n.d.). I was fascinated by the mission statements, and what they do for the local communities. Without empathy, I do not think anyone can be an ecotourist because ecotourism may not benefit the travelers, but only the local community. It is possible that the travelers sacrifice for the local people to help the environment, economy, and their welfare.

According to Bolton in People Skills, there are three components of empathy.

    1.     Sensitive and accurate understanding of feelings

    2.     Understanding situation that contributed or triggered those feelings

    3.     Communicating so feel understood & accepted

In addition, according to the International Ecotourism Society, ecotourism has to meet those principles.

In order to follow those principles, it is necessary to meet the three components of empathy for the organization. Groch et al (2012) believe that successful ecotourism companies have social empathy that require understanding of a community’s entire local situation, from geological factors to political history to the language and customs of the local people (p. 155). This idea directly ties to two of the component of empathy; sensitive and accurate understanding of feeling, and understanding situation that contributed or triggered those feeling. Without understanding and caring, there may not think of making an ecotourism organization. The guest speakers said that they wanted to make the organization because they met locals when they traveled there for another reason. When they met locals, they decided to start their community-based tourism business because of their "empathy". Understanding the local community is the first step to PLAN on making an ecotourism organization. In addition, good long-term relationships with locals are the key for ecotourism. In fact, the Crooked Trail meets a third of the components of empathy —communicating understood & accepted—by letting the locals have power with decision-making. They said that the locals have the absolute power of decision-making; it would be cancelled if the schedule does not work for the local community.

Groch et al (2012) also discuss how empathy plays role on ecotourism. They say that what they called “social empahty” is important, which stresses contextual understanding and social responsibility, and built on a foundation of individual empathy. Groch et al state that in order to maintain long-term relationships between locals, social empathy is essential with deep listening and abundant communication and continuously adjusting to better accommodate local cultural needs, instead of imposing aid on local people. Failing of empathy would threaten the existence of the ecotourism organization.

Personally, I have passion about cross-cultural experience and traveling, ,and that is how I got into ecotourism. I am fascinated by the idea of ecotourism. However, empathy is the hardest ones in Carl Rogers’ three essentials for me; understanding closest friends is hard, but understanding a community that I do not really know is even harder. Now, I am trying to get an ecotourism internship in Fiji because I would like to challenge myself and see what ecotourism is like in real life. I believe that I will improve on empathy, even if I ended up getting overwhelmed by everything about ecotourism.

In conclusion, ecotourism or ecotourism related organizations are all about empathy. It cannot be called “ecotourism organization”, if they do not truly follow the principals of ecotourism with empathy. Similarly, if the Crooked Trail does not have any components of empathy, it would not be “ecotourism”, but just tourism.

References

Crooked Trails | Travel With A Purpose. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2015, from http://crookedtrails.org/

Kate Groch , Karen E. Gerdes , Elizabeth A. Segal & Maureen Groch (2012) The

Grassroots Londolozi Model of African Development: Social Empathy in Action, Journal of Community Practice, 20:1-2, 154-177, DOI: 10.1080/10705422.2012.644207

The International Ecotourism Society (n.d.) Retrieved February 7, 2015, from http://www.ecotourism.org/