MET20: Responsible tourism projects

The definition of responsible tourism can be found on the internet and it’s very accurate. For us, responsible cultural tourism is part of our practical concept of implementing the “independent village”, which aims to improve the quality of life of community members.

Responsible cultural tourism helps the inhabitants of a village to highlight the cultural, material and intangible heritage existing in their locality.

It is very important that rural tourism is not the only path chosen to revitalize a community.

We believe that responsible cultural tourism can be developed in a community if the following premises can be found there:

• community members are aware of the value of the built heritage and they utilize it in a sustainable way – for us it means that we keep the authentic ensemble of a locality, we keep the balance of the existing cultural landscape that has been developing for many years.
• community members also have an interest and opportunity to practice small-scale or, why not, large-scale agriculture
• community members also practice traditional crafts and they produce traditional goods, adapted to new needs.
• community members preserve the environment: they take care of the forests and meadows around the village and they make sure to keep them clean and waste free.

The most important thing however is for each member of the community to contribute, but also to benefit, from the development of the local economy in his locality.

When the money that enters the locality through the services offered through responsible cultural tourism remains and circulates in the locality to each producer, then we all contribute to the well-being of our community.

In conclusion, responsible cultural tourism is an important area of our activity, therefore, in 2015, we created an LLC, www.experiencetransylvania.ro, to manage and promote this type of tourism in “our” villages, in order to motivate other communities as well.