“GT” Insight Bites: On empowerment, promotion, and the power of expression

Write no more than 300 words on a travel & tour­ism top­ic that is import­ant to you.

This is an open invit­a­tion to travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers to con­trib­ute a “GT” Insight Bite.

Thanks to these good people who con­trib­uted to this instal­ment of “GT” Insight Bites: 

• Leonard, who demon­strated his artist­ic tal­ents in real time at the Red Rocks Cul­tur­al Fest­iv­al in Rwanda, and with whom I shared a late even­ing meal in Musanze.
• Roger, who shared with me his love of birds as we walked through his beau­ti­ful village.

Their responses appear in the order received. 

Click/touch a name to go to their “GT” Insight Bite:

‘My goal is to empower young people’

Nyungura ‘Leonard’ Bapfakwita, artist, Rwanda

Greg Bak­un­zi, founder of Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment, has been a friend to the people of the lower and middle classes in Africa. 

I vividly remem­ber when he found me. It was July 14, 2008. A Monday. I was teach­ing chil­dren from my vil­lage how to paint and draw. (Teach­ing was enjoy­able, but I had­n’t real­ised my own poten­tial at that time.)

Greg observed what I was doing and asked me dir­ectly: “Who are you, and what is your goal?” 

I replied: “I’m an artist, and my goal is to empower young people for the future, so they don’t end up beg­ging on the streets. 

“They have a lot of poten­tial, includ­ing skills like han­di­crafts. And, with the Vir­unga Mas­sif in our region attract­ing tour­ists, they can have a future.”’

Greg was intrigued and asked: “How can I assist you?” 

I explained that I needed tech­nic­al and fin­an­cial assist­ance to help these youth. 

Greg offered his sup­port and sug­ges­ted gath­er­ing around 20 people to estab­lish an arts com­munity and cul­tur­al centre in Nyak­i­n­ama vil­lage. Greg gen­er­ously sup­por­ted us without expect­ing any­thing in return.

Once we formed the com­munity, we divided into groups based on genres, such as hand­crafts, ‘rock-rock’ art, pot­tery, embroid­ery, and more. 

We have reached a good level of pro­fi­ciency, allow­ing us to sell our products to a wider audi­ence. While main­tain­ing high stand­ards, we con­tin­ue to seek region­al and inter­na­tion­al mar­kets to expand our activ­it­ies, pos­sibly extend­ing our reach through online learn­ing and oth­er means.

We are deeply grate­ful for the sup­port we’ve received, par­tic­u­larly from Greg Bak­un­zi, who has con­trib­uted with­in his eco­nom­ic capacity. 

We also extend our thanks to Dav­id Gill­banks for his sup­port through this website.

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‘I get the chance to promote culture and conservation’

Roger Irakoze, tour guide and wildlife filmmaker, Rwanda

I am a tour guide and wild­life film­maker at the Red Rocks Cul­tur­al Cen­ter. My daily work is all about com­munity-based tour­ism, the con­ser­va­tion of moun­tain gor­il­las, and sup­port­ing the loc­al com­munity who live around the Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park. 

Here at Red Rocks, the com­munity comes first. We make sure that the com­munity bene­fits from tour­ism activ­it­ies, such as through our women’s guid­ing asso­ci­ation, and our art for con­ser­va­tion pro­gram from which 100% of pro­ceeds from sales of arts and crafts goes back to the women and youth who cre­ate them. 

I got to know Red Rocks as an intern dur­ing the com­ple­tion of my bachelor’s degree in travel & tour­ism man­age­ment in 2019. Red Rocks offered me the chance to work as a guide and volun­teer in com­munity tour­ism and nature conservation. 

Our wild­life film­mak­ing pro­gram star­ted in August 2022 in cooper­a­tion with Ravens­wood Media, a com­pany based in Chica­go, USA. The program’s mis­sion is to pro­mote the con­ser­va­tion of wild­life, nature, and com­munity by teach­ing the basic skills of film­mak­ing to tour guides, rangers, and oth­ers. I atten­ded the first class and now work with the pro­gram as a film dir­ect­or and editor. 

I am par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in birds and am a cer­ti­fied Kivu Belt bird guide. (I have also com­pleted the inspir­ing man­agers pro­gram by the Afric­an Man­age­ment Insti­tute and Mas­ter­card Found­a­tion. And I have advanced skills in IT.)

Tour guid­ing offers a lot of bene­fits. In addi­tion to the income, guid­ing is the best way to inter­act with people from dif­fer­ent coun­tries. And I get the chance to pro­mote the cul­ture and beauty of my coun­try, as well as the import­ance of conservation. 

There is a lot more to say about com­munity-based tour­ism and tour guid­ing but it is a really nice job, and I enjoy it!

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What do you think? 

In a com­ment below share your own thoughts about what’s import­ant in travel & tour­ism. (After sign­ing in you will need to refresh the page to see the com­ments section.) 

Or write a “GT” Insight or “GT” Insight Bite of your own. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

This is an open invit­a­tion to travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers from any back­ground to share their thoughts in plain Eng­lish with a glob­al industry audience.

“GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” publishes.

“GT” is where free thought travels.

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Featured image (top of post)

Nyun­gura ‘Leonard’ Bap­fak­wita expresses him­self in real time at the 2023 Red Rocks Cul­tur­al Fest­iv­al in Rwanda. Pic­ture by Dav­id Gillbanks.

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Previous “GT” Insight Bites

• On enrich­ment, repat­ri­ation, the double-edged blade, and war
• On tour­ism tech­no­logy, pro­gress, and loc­al benefit-sharing
• Hey, travel & tour­ism, are you ‘neo­co­lo­ni­al­ist’?
• Who’s the new boss? Asia Pacific tour­ism industry asso­ci­ation seeks leader
• ‘The hos­pit­al­ity industry offers a great career.’ Really?
• Cruise ships: Bless­ing or blight?
• Tour­ist vs trav­el­ler: What’s the difference?
• The heads of fin­ance, oper­a­tions, and PR walk into their boss’s office … 
• Yes, Tour­ism Minister
• What are tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years?
• ‘Tour­ism is built on the back­bone of white suprem­acy’. What do you think?
• Really, what’s the dif­fer­ence? ‘Sus­tain­able tour­ism’ vs ‘regen­er­at­ive tourism’
• Want a career in tour­ism? Import­ant things you should know
• Diverse per­spect­ives on travel & tour­ism and a fairer world
• Diverse per­spect­ives on eco­nom­ic degrowth and tourism
• Diverse per­spect­ives on vis­it­or dispersion

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