The IHB is eager to incorporate ‘Voluntourism’ into its development of the tourism product. A visitor or welcome stamper can feed their sense of global responsibility while, at the same time, learning about the culture of the island by taking part in positive tourism experiences.
Barbados’ voluntourism efforts started recently, but the growth of this experiential living experience was hampered by the Covid-19 outbreak which has challenged, among many things, the island’s economy and restricted travel here. Now that things are slowly getting back to normal, The IHB, along with the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. , is pressing ahead with a few initiatives around the idea of voluntourism, including planting trees and reforestation.
Tree and general replanting of other plant species is crucial for the improved protection of the environment, as well as promotion of biodiversity. We are very aware that voluntourism can open many doors and insights. Participants on both sides learn many things, such as the ability to work with people from different backgrounds, teamwork and the enhancement of communication skills by talking to people of all ages. People generally gain more by sharing their experience and leading by example.
As a tourism destination and an island depending on tourism, we join our industry counterparts by appealing to all our visitors not to limit their vacation to the beaches. We support our partners in issuing an open invitation for them to lend their expertise and explore their interests by doing activities shoulder to shoulder with Barbadians.
The idea is to gather all the helping hands that we can so we can work together on tackling climate change and improving the ecosystem to stop flooding, erosion, illegal dumping and assist your chosen hotels as they forge forward on their paths to more sustainable operations.
