Putting Communities at the Heart of Tourism
Community tourism enterprises need and want technical assistance and training opportunities to supplement their income, improve their product offering and create jobs. They also need donor development assistance and support in establishing partnerships with tourism operators to access markets. However, many vulnerable communities are currently unable to fully access the travel industry and its benefits.
Planeterra works with Tourism Authorities to support community-owned, non-profit and social enterprises that offer tourism experiences in order to ensure that tourism maximizes resident, visitor and environmental well-being. There are multiple ways for Tourism Authorities to benefit from our programs:
1. Support the Global Community Tourism Network
The growing Global Community Tourism Network consists of 500+ community tourism enterprises representing 80 countries who are focused on improving their livelihoods and generating an economic ripple effect. The Network represents Planeterra’s efforts to make social enterprise development best practices and trainings available to communities worldwide.
Invite community tourism enterprises throughout your destination to join the Global Community Tourism Network. Participating destinations and enterprises can benefit immediately from the resources and global community we manage on your behalf.
Planeterra will:
- Invite community tourism enterprises in your destination into the Global Community Tourism Network, where they will receive access to the Planeterra Learning Hub and related online programming such as webinars from subject matter experts, peer-to-peer exchange, and networking events
You will:
- Work with Planeterra to identify communities in your destination that would benefit from the Global Community Tourism Network
- Receive logo recognition on the communitytourism.org and promotion of the partnership through our media and social networks
Contribution to Planeterra: US$1,500
2. Join the Community Tourism Booster Program
Bring together a connected community of impactful community tourism enterprises, and ensure that communities throughout your destination are able to take full advantage of the benefits of the Global Community Tourism Network. Activities include the following:
Planeterra will:
- Map out community tourism enterprises, networks, and other key stakeholders in your region / country
- Onboard those enterprises into the Global Community Tourism Network
- Identify and prioritize needs of those enterprises
- Engage with local, national and international tourism companies to build market linkages with community tourism enterprises within the Destination through a targeted approach
- Collaboratively market the Community Tourism Booster Program in your destination via social media, a joint press release, and logo inclusion on communitytourism.org
You will:
- Collaboratively market the Community Tourism Booster Program via social media, a joint press release, and logo inclusion on your website
Contribution to Planeterra: US$7,500
3. Partner with Us to take Community Tourism to Scale
Interested in investing even more for community tourism enterprises in your destination? Work with Planeterra to create a bespoke partnership to increase your impact.
Work with Planeterra to create a bespoke partnership to increase your impact.
- Onboarding Enterprises: Across your destination into the Global Community Tourism Network
- Fostering Peer-to-peer Exchange: Via the most relevant tech platform for networking and information sharing and/or through the establishment of national or regional community tourism networks
- Content Customization: Through the regionalization of Learning Hub content to meet local needs, and, if needed, translation of Learning Hub content into local languages
- Capacity Building: Through contextualizing and delivering training content via virtual workshops and train-the-trainer programs
- Providing Market Access: By fostering partnerships between inbound and outbound travel companies, and global and regional online travel agencies and experience platforms
- Marketing and Impact Reporting: Through Planeterra’s marketing and media outlets and annual data collection on the impact resulting from our partnership with you
- Matching Funding: Securing matching funding from governmental agencies, development assistance agencies, and donors and in-kind support from national NGOs, Planeterra and communities
Why Work With Planeterra?
- We have supported the development of 100+ community tourism enterprises in 56 countries with a 100% success rate. Of these enterprises, 58% are led by women and Indigenous communities with 20 being led by Indigenous women.
- Collectively, these enterprises have hosted more than 700,000 travelers as a direct result of Planeterra’s support.
- Our partnerships impacted the lives of more than 65,000 people in 2019 alone, including jobs created for 2,123 women, 612 youth, and 3,376 community members.
- With four Travel Partners, over $10million was spent in communities from 2015-2019 as a direct result of Planeterra’s work
- Through community development funds, our partners are directly reinvesting in their businesses, environment, education, infrastructure, and more.