If the crisis in tourism triggered by Covid-19 has taught us any lessons, it is the need to change how we think about tourism and travel and the effect that it has on the communities and environment that we send tourists to. Below are our thoughts on Social Responsibility
Did you know that in Africa alone, 25 million people are employed through the tourism & hospitality industry? We in the UK have been devastated about our trips being cancelled and holidays postponed, but the knock-on effect of this for some is far more detrimental than just disappointment.
During the global tourism melt down of 2020 three things have become apparent to us as a business:
- The compassion we as a tourism community have shown towards one another and towards the people and communities that we work with.
- The sense of community that we have generated through supporting each other and our business environment
- The fragility of conservation initiatives when tourism and funding derived from it dries up.
As a business Talking Stick Global has always worked with partners with excellent corporate social responsibility programmes. We have been highlighting the work done by our partners on our website and across our digital and social media.
We are also giving back and will be offering our skills on a pro bono basis to selected partner communities and conservation organisations that need help with promotion and marketing their initiatives. If you have a project you think we might be able to help with please contact us to talk
Familiarisation trips are imbedded in the tourism DNA. What better way to educate our travel partners on our products, services, facilities and countries than showing them what we do and how we do it. As a business over the years we have been guilty of trying to spoil our partners and show them as much as possible. As part of all future travel trade trips we have decided to slow things down, and spend part of our time visiting projects that we support. We hope that in doing this it will allowing participants to experience CSR on the ground and hopefully encourage them to include an element of CSR in client trips.
Talking Stick Global familiarisation trips from 2021 will continue to be fun, and educational but will follow the ethos of Compassion, Community and Conservation.
To find out more about some of our partner’s CSR initiatives, or to get involved, please contact us or find more information below:
Legacy Pride – Partnering with Nutriwell, Legacy Pride helps contribute to the alleviation of poverty in underprivileged communities, by distributing food in the most cost effective way possible. You can now donate via bank transfer or credit card payment
How Many Elephants – A powerful design-led campaign, inspiring and educating a global audience about the devastating impacts of the African Elephant ivory trade. How Many Elephants use design to bridge the gap between scientific data and human connection in a non-gory way.
Chinotimba Home for the Aged in Victoria Falls – We help support the running of this home for Aged in Zimbabwe