Case Studies
What tourism industry collaboration can make possible
Community Tourism is built on collaboration. That’s why Planeterra partners with communities, travel companies, organizations, destination management organizations and other tourism industry stakeholders to create the conditions for Community Tourism to grow.
This can mean strengthening an existing enterprise, connecting communities with tourism markets, improving infrastructure, building skills or creating new experiences that reflect local culture and priorities.
Explore stories of what can happen when communities, travel partners and Planeterra work together.
What Collaboration Can
Help Unlock
Market access:
Connecting community enterprises with travellers and tourism markets.
Skills & capacity:
Strengthening business, hosting, storytelling and operational skills.
Infrastructure:
Addressing practical barriers to welcoming visitors safely and comfortably.
Experience development:
Building tourism experiences around community knowledge, culture and priorities.
Long-term resilience:
Creating skills, relationships and systems that continue beyond a single project.
Continuity:
Building knowledge, relationships and systems that communities can continue to use beyond an individual project or partnership.
Featured partnership: G Adventures
Our long-term partnership with G Adventures has connected travellers with Community Tourism enterprises across destinations and created opportunities for communities to strengthen their businesses, build skills and invest tourism revenue locally.
These stories show different ways that partnership can contribute to lasting community value.
Nepal
Sharing
Seeds
Each visitor’s contribution helps fund a community kitchen, giving the women of Sharing Seeds a shared space to cook, host, and teach Nepali cooking classes.
Peru
Tinkuy Turismo
Comunitario
After years of renting space, Tinkuy’s twelve member families built a permanent home for their community tourism activities, with room to grow.
Morocco
Achbarou
Women’s Cooperative
Amazigh women artisans are building income from traditional weaving while reaching more responsible tourism markets.
New Zealand
Kohutapu Lodge &
Tribal Tours
The Māori-owned enterprise is turning cultural tourism into local jobs and reinvestment in youth development and cultural preservation.
Zimbabwe
Lusumpuko
Women’s Cooperative
Traditional culinary experiences are creating income for women and supporting education and health care across the wider community.
Spain
Mescladís
Hospitality training and cultural exchange are opening employment pathways for migrants and young people in Barcelona.
Panama
URARI
Indigenous Ngäbe families are sharing culture, cacao, and traditional knowledge through a community-owned, regenerative tourism model.
Other Travel Partnerships
See the impact we’re creating with our Travel Partners, including Evaneos, Iberostar Foundation, G Touring, and our former partnership with the DERTOUR Foundation.
These stories show different ways that partnership can contribute to lasting community value.
Vietnam
STREETS
International
Trainees who’ve faced barriers to education gain real hospitality experience hosting travellers, with revenue reinvested into future students.
Albania
Visit
Gjirokastra
Families in Lazarat are turning everyday traditions, cheese-making, wool processing, food, and music, into a growing community tourism offer.
Spain
La Jaira
de Ana
A family-run farm in Gran Canaria invites travellers into artisanal cheese-making and rural life.
Mexico
Bejil-Ha
Young guides are protecting cenotes and building responsible tourism infrastructure in Chemuyil, one improvement at a time.
Place-based Initiatives
Some Community Tourism work happens at the enterprise level. Other projects bring together communities, local organizations, institutions and tourism stakeholders across an entire destination.
These projects explore how tourism can contribute to stronger local economies, community participation and more resilient destinations.
United States
The Maine
Model
Five towns turned their own histories, cultures, and assets into market-ready tourism experiences, without starting from a product.
Peru and Vietnam
Sustainable Tourism and Protected Areas
Communities in and around protected areas built tourism capacity that supports both people and conservation.
Let’s build what’s possible together
When communities have the opportunity to shape tourism and travel partners help connect that work to the market, tourism can become a stronger force for local livelihoods, cultural continuity and resilient communities. Planeterra works with travel companies, tourism organizations, destinations and funders to turn that potential into practical action.
Explore partnership opportunities