Article by Leidy FAJARDO, ATES GA
On 29 October 2021 in Cremona, Italy Grandir Aventure GA, a specialist in solidarity tourism for young people, was able to share its experience and its educational approach to raise awareness among young people about the issues of fair and solidarity tourism.
GA is a travel agency that creates and organises group solidarity trips for young people aged 14 to 25. Based on exchange, reciprocity and sharing of cultures, these solidarity trips are a strong human adventure that will accompany them throughout their construction as citizens of the world.
During this first day of meetings, Grandir Aventure insisted on the fact that the discussion time with the young people, before and after the fair tourism trips, is very important. The pedagogical approaches of popular education and the use of visual tools are good tools to organise these moments of sharing and discussion.
The intervention of the Grandir Aventure team also reminded us that tourism actors have an educational role and that they must question concepts and symbols that are sometimes considered difficult to approach:
- Does solidarity tourism take place exclusively in countries considered poor? Yes or no and why?
- Is fair tourism the same as responsible, social or fair tourism? What is the difference?
- Does tourism always have to make sense?
- Does fair tourism not exist as long as we travel by plane?
Finally, this day allowed the different actors of fair tourism to exchange, discuss and question the practices regarding the educational approach with young people and it opened the way to collective actions of the organisations present for the future.
