Intrepid Travel’s day-tour brand, Urban Adventures, has
added social enterprise tours to its portfolio of city and day tours around the
world.
Urban Adventures has linked up with local
non-governmental and nonprofit organizations to develop an "In Focus"
series of tours, which are being offered in Nepal, Australia, India, Taiwan and
Romania.
The tours aim to offer insight into local issues and the
efforts underway to resolve them. Travelers will have the chance to see how a
particular issue is being addressed and will have the opportunity to meet the
people who are both running and benefiting from the initiatives.
“Some of these
social enterprise projects take place far from the usual tourist route. The
benefits of tourism don’t reach these people — and that is part of the current
problem but also the opportunity,” said Tony Carne, general manager of Urban
Adventures.
Some examples of "In Focus" tours include:
• A Kolkata Solar Slum Tour, which takes travelers behind
the scenes of Pollinate Energy, a social enterprise bringing solar light to
India’s urban poor and reducing indoor air pollution caused by kerosene lamps
and wood stoves.
• Outcast Bucharest, which in partnership with the Parada
Foundation, runs an organization that provides employment to homeless people,
giving travelers insight into what life is like on the Romanian capital’s
streets.
• The Taipei Sweet Potato Mama Project, which introduces
travelers to single mothers who earn their living selling potatoes as street
snacks as part of an initiative by Taiwan’s Genesis Social Welfare Foundation.
• A cooking class or craft class in Kathmandu, presented in partnership
with Seven Women, a social enterprise that empowers disadvantaged women in Nepal
through literacy classes, skills training and income-generation programs.
Travelers will also be given the opportunity and
information needed to remain in contact with the project after their visit and
become a supporter, advocate or donor.