The World's Best Geotourism Operators

You may have heard of the term geotourism but might not be sure exactly what it means and what its relationship to sustainable tourism is. Geotourism can be considered an arm of sustainable tourism that "sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place — its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and the well-being of its residents." National Geographic state that geotravellers are primarily interested in going local. "They patronise locally owned businesses and guides; they buy from local craftspeople and eat at restaurants serving regional cuisine; they seek out traditional music and dance; and, as a result, the money they spend helps local people earn a living and preserves the place's authenticity". In other words, geotourism has all the elements you would want from sustainable tourism but with a focus on "place," to emphasise the distinctiveness of different and unique places and communities around the world...as opposed to an individual eco-attraction or resort, for example.

National Geographic are strong supporters of geotourism and have helped form the Center for Sustainable Destinations to foster and promote geotourism. One of their high profile initiatives is to hold a yearly Geotourism summit and to award the most innovative and successful geotourism operators from around the world. This year there were three Geotourism Challenge winners — Nature Air (Costa Rica), PEPY (Cambodia), and Wikiloc Community Maps (Spain). National Geographic describes how these companies and the other seven finalists enhance geotourism:

• Nature Air, the 100 percent carbon-neutral airline in Costa Rica, offsets 100 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions to encourage reforestation of tropical forests in Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula.

• PEPY (“Protect the Earth, Protect Yourself”) is Cambodia’s Educational Volunteer Tourism Program, providing adventure bike tours and on-site volunteer projects, like building rainwater collection units.

• Wikiloc Community Maps, based in Girona, Spain, created by a software engineer with a passion for travel, is built on maps, photos and video submitted to offer honest impressions about numerous destinations.

• Ger to Ger Foundation, Mongolia, links visitors with genuine nomadic families.

• Evergreen Brick Works of Toronto, Canada, is an adaptive re-use of the heritage structures at the Don Valley Brick Works.

• Virgin Islands Youth Heritage Exchange Farm Excursions, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, focuses on food as the basis of youth identity and education.

• Context Travel, based in Philadelphia, offers walking seminars with Ph.D.s in major European cities, encouraging sustainable ways to visit urban destinations.

• RiverIndia.com’s Bamboo Eco-Lodge River Trips, Arunachal Pradesh, India, help protect India’s Siang River habitats through locally guided expeditions.

• Trout Point Lodge, Nova Scotia, a Five Green Key-designated nature retreat in Canada, has revitalized backwoods and Acadian French cultural tourism.

• Reality Tour Viagens e Turismo Ltda’s Route of Freedom, Rua Bom Jesus, Brazil, commemorates the African Diaspora in Brazil.

For more details about the innovative work of all 10 finalists, you can go to the Changemakers website.

Now that you've got a feel for what a successful geotourism operation is all about, why not then go to the fantastic Center for Sustainable Development impact map, which takes you around the world to show you where to find the Center's most highly rated sustainable destinations, many of which are considered valuable geotourism "places" as well.