Travelers' Philanthropy Handbook - Center for Responsible Travel

Calabash Tours & Calabash TrustBy Paul MiedemaDirector, Calabash Tours and Founder, Calabash TrustCalabash Tours (www.calabashtours.co.za) is a micro enterprise that was established in 1997,and is based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The company is a commercial entity with a strongsocial agenda. The core business is informative social history tours that include daylong visits todisadvantaged townships in Port Elizabeth. The purpose of the tours is to offer tourists insightinto some of the developmental and socialissues affecting urban Africans. We showcasesome of the challenges of the Apartheid past,and the triumphs of our new Democracy. Theareas we visit are home to close to half amillion people, of whom approximately 35% areunemployed, and 20% HIV positive.The tours are run from a Responsible Tourismperspective, creating economic opportunitiesfor poor communities while addressing thepotential negative impacts of tourism withinpoor communities. The tour products havebeen accredited by the certification program,Playing soccer, Port Elizabeth Township, South Africa.Credit: Calabash ToursFair Trade in Tourism South Africa. Calabash handled approximately 4000 tourists in 2009, andthe primary source of visitors comes through large Inbound operators. Calabash Tours also runsvoluntourism programs, with minimum placement duration of 1 month. The areas of focus forVoluntourism are education, and work with people afflicted with HIV/AIDS. Calabash Tours hadapproximately 75 volunteers in 2009. Lastly, Calabash Tours has several clients with whom werun ’Charity Challenge’” type visits, where infrastructure – such as sports facilities -- isdeveloped in under-resourced township schools. We facilitated two such events in 2009.• VisionWhen the company was started in 1997, wehad two purposes. First we wanted to providevisitors with a balanced, well-researchedinsight into an urban city undergoing atransformation to democracy with the demise ofApartheid. Calabash Tours wanted to ensuretourists saw more than the wonderful sceneryand wildlife that South Africa offers, but alsounderstood the value of our human heritageand history. Townships have been perceivedas dangerous and inaccessible, and yet theyare home to the majority of urban Africans.In front of health clinic on township tour, South Africa.Credit: Calabash ToursOmitting Urban Black History from the tourist itinerary appeared to us to be a perpetuation of theApartheid past which we felt our company could help to correct. Secondly, we recognized that if62