THE METAMORPHOSIS
By Ernie D. Delfin
CREATIVE WAYS TO INCREASE
TOURISM AT THE SAME TIME
SUPPORTING SOCIAL ENTERPRISES
AND NGO’S
My last column on
“Social Enterprises Can Stop the Widening Gap between the Haves and the
Havenots” got many interesting responses and feedbacks. Today’s column is a sort of an expansion of what we as concerned
humanitarians, can do, both as a
potential supporter for a social enterprise or any favorite NGO. The possibilities can be endless by just
changing how we do things when we travel and spend our precious dollars or
dinars or pesos.
As a businessman with several decades of active involvement in non-profit organizations, like Rotary
International, that has afforded me to
travel and visit other cities and countries
in the world, I have seen a lot, learned
much, especially when I wear my analytical cap as marketing person and
conversing with many people of diverse backgrounds and culture. Many of our travels resulted into closer friendships in
foreign countries in addition to the traditional cultural and educational benefits, especially
when we have availed of Rotary International’s “International Travel and Hosting Fellowship”
(www.ithf.org) where I
have been a member for many years. The
primary objectives of this RI fellowship
association is to foster camaraderie and friendships through tourism and
hosting privileges among its thousands of members. With common objectives, we as members can pre-arrange to be the home stay guests or hosts of fellow Rotarians at anytime, anywhere where those Rotarians reside. My wife and I have been guests in other
Rotarians’ homes in Japan, England, Mexico and in the Philippines. Likewise, we have also been the hosts of
several Rotarians in our Orange County, Southern California home near
the ‘Happiest Place on Earth, called Disneyland, the last couple of decades.
I have had memorable experiences
traveling this non-traditional route that fewer tourists do. For instance,
I have been a home stay guests by some Rotarians in a few countries,
where we were not obligated to pay the hosts.
However, as a token of our deep appreciation I have voluntarily leave
some money in an envelope with a brief letter of thanks, and suggestions that
the money is to support the local
Rotarians’ community or vocational projects. That money would have been spent,
anyway, in the hotel and local restaurants that exist mainly
to make profits for the owners and stockholders. I was
quite certain that although the donation
was not expected, it resulted into a
substantial source of cash to subsidize their Club’s community projects. Obvious benefits from this transaction or
gift included: a very
good and lasting friendship between the
guest and the host, possible “savings” for the guest and a financial
support to local Rotarian’s community or vocational projects,
at the expense of the commercial hotel that never received a penny from
this home stay and hosting program of Rotary.
******
With that personal
anecdote as a background, this writer and humanitarian-traveler has been
thinking more and more how we, as tourists,
can create and cause deeper or
lasting benefits to the communities of
both the tourist-guests and their hosts.
The results of my informal experiments during my travels led me to
believe that it might work with the influx of people who will participate,
with effective marketing that shows the potential benefits and recommended
protocols. It can happen one person, one
tourist, one host participating one at a time, in any one place, anywhere where
willing participants travel. Allow
me to elaborate:
Through the tools of 21st century social media, especially Face Book or
Twitter, a member of this group (for
our discussion purposes, tentatively called
World Wide Tourism for Social Purposes or WWT4SP) places his “wish list” in the WWT4SP website to visit and be hosted in another city or country at such a date and for how
long. With hundreds or thousand of
members (that are listed in the website’s restricted page
that can only be accessed with a members password) there is a great likelihood that a member or
members will be interested to respond to
get more informations that may lead to an informal “contract” as recommended in the WWT4SP’s Code of Conduct and Protocol (CCP).
The CCP may strongly recommend that the home stay
guests agree to pay at least half
of the “average” bed and breakfast costs or hotel charges (like Embassy Suites that provides
complimentary breakfast to their guests) in the region, to the WWT4SP Social Fund to be disbursed according to agreed
percentages later on. Let’s put some imaginary figures. Embassy Suites in a region in the United States, for
instance, charges $200 a night for a
double occupancy. The homestay guests
will then pay at least $100 for each bed and breakfast night in the hosts’ home or residence. Just
assuming that the guests (as previously arranged) will stay 5 days, the WWT4SP Social Fund will receive $500 (saving the
homestay guests $500 if he were to book his stay in the Embassy Suites). The Social Fund can then disburse 50% to the hosts to compensate for his time,
energy and related expenses (that MAY even include picking the guests from the
airport or train station and driving him around, although NOT required in this
proposed WWT4SP program) In this example,
$500 is received by the Social Fund, that will disburse half or $250
to the hosts to partially compensate for his time, energy and home
expenses for those five days. The other
half or $250, after allocating 10% to
20%, may be, for administration,
website, marketing and advertising to
expand the program, will be channeled to support, subsidize or finance
social enterprises in the hosts or guests countries, as approved by an
Executive Committee upon the suggestions
or recommendations from the hosts/guests who have participated in this WWT4SP program.
* * * *
Today as it is still free to
dream, I am dreaming that this outside-the-box
idea, can have hundreds if not thousand
of tourists ( in the future) to participate,
and if only 500 guests per year pay $500 (while saving $500, in our
example) that is a whopping $2,500,000
that will leave $ 1,250,000
million to the Social Fund “Community Fund”
that can be used to fund, subsidize some worthy social project in the
hosts’ and guests’ home country. In the
Philippines, that is a lot of pesos, that
is over 50 million pesos! that can start several livelihood projects, subsidizes or builds a few Gawad Kalinga housing project for the poor,
and help educate poor but deserving children to become useful citizens!
The possibilities are endless! The question or challenge NOW, is how many of the readers of this column will say,
“LET’S DO IT”!
As we are already doing it in a very
informal manner, I am dreaming that through this column and in Face Book and social
media, hundreds more will try it and
then participate regularly and thereby converting a millions of tourism dollars
to support, subsidize or fund some worthy social enterprises in our
communities.
Dear readers, please ponder and be excited about the possibilities… Comment and
feedback, please!
Mabuhay… (Cheers!)
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