| In response to increasing criticisms about the practices and impacts of mass tourism, alternative forms of tourism have emerged, which claim to be more socially responsible to the people and land where tourism takes place. One of these alternatives, activist tourism, seeks to create opportunities for education, cultural exchange with local people, cross-cultural dialog regarding justice issues, and stimulate meaningful activism among tour participants. This study emerges in response to the need for more research and analysis of alternatives to traditional tourism, which have grown largely from both the ecotourism movement and increasing involvement of nonprofit organizations employing a tour aspect to their mission.;This research will explore the community-based, activist tourism practiced by the Reality Tour Program sponsored by San Francisco-based Global Exchange, an international human rights organization, which promotes economic, social, political, and environmental justice. Focusing on the Global Exchange tour to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica on the theme of ecotourism and sustainability, this study seeks to use the touristic encounter between tour delegates, local guides and representatives of Costa Rican families and organizations as a space in which the conflicting experiences created by widespread ecotourism can be understood. Costa Rica, with its beautiful scenery, abundant resources, and diverse wildlife has made it an ecotourism mecca, which produces conflicting effects on the various communities in the country.;Using participatory interviews among the four constituencies of this tour (the Global Exchange organization, the tour delegates, the Costa Rican tour leader, and spokespeople from local families and organizations who presented their stories in the tour encounters) and reviews of archival materials from previous Costa Rica tours, this study provides an opportunity to foreground the stories of local Costa Ricans about their experiences with ecotourism and related issues and to better understand the motivations, experiences, and possible transformation of tour delegates toward enhancing reflective capacity and social learning among providers of alternative tourism. |
