Leap Local Community
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| About Leap Local |
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For those of you who know the Leap Local team, you will know that we have done our fair share of globetrotting. But a couple of things used to bug us, like wanting to hop on the back of a motorbike to be shown around by a local guide, but having no way of knowing whether it was safe apart from gut instinct. We have all also worried whether travelling was helping local communities, especially when in developing countries. So Nicky Dee and Louise Norton co-founded Leap Local and built a team to address the problem. Leap Local aims to enable more responsible tourism by helping tourists get in touch with recommended local guides and services. The local guides and services then gain credibility through a web presence, in addition to support we offer them. You can help us by using, recommending and reviewing local guides and services. Your first step is to become a member, and take advantage of the travel forum and how to go local guides.
Where did the idea come from?Through networking and our own interests in social enterprises, we had been impressed by schemes which had used the internet to empower local communities through connection to global markets and information. We’d seen this applied to agriculture, where farmers in Africa could get a fairer price for their product by having better access to the final consumer for their product. This reduced the administrative and bureaucratic costs which could be incurred through the variety of organisations which intervened between the producer and consumer. This resulted in a better price for the producer. We had also noticed the way in which sites such as eBay had empowered individuals to start new businesses because of the access it gave them to an immediate international market. This fusion of ideas resulted in Leap Local. We are an organisation which aims to alleviate poverty in Lesser Developed Countries through giving local communities access to tourism. We do this through training, and access to an international market through our web portal. We started testing the idea properly in Peru, the majority of activity in 2007. With Peru becoming increasingly popular with travellers, and a poverty rate of 49%, it is a natural choice for our activities. We are already heavily involved in a variety of tourism related activities in the region. We established ourselves as the organisation of choice when Imaginative Traveller wanted to engage more fully with local communities but lacked the capabilities with which to do this. With government enforced limits on guiding on the Inca Trail of Machu Picchu, tourists are seeking other activities. We are working with locals who offer a variety of alternative options, from guiding on other trails, to volunteering projects for tourists wishing to work in local communities, and educational retreats to learn Peruvian weaving. These programmes are the initiatives of local communities. Through us they become available to a global market. Add this page to your favourite Social Bookmarking websites:         |