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Community-based Tourism in Ecuador

| Introduction to Community Tourism |
| More on Community Tourism in Ecuador |
| Examples of Community Tourism in Ecuador |

Community Tourism

It's a new and totally different way of making tourism. Small indigenous communities share their homes with tourists and let them know about their ancestral ways of living, their cultures and to experience a daily adventure sharing their knowledge

Some communities have seen in tourism a good source of resources so they have opened their doors to show the attractions of their regions from a unique angle.

This form of tourism let the tourist to have better contact with the people, having an inside view of their cultures and their traditions. People from the community become guides and the money earned from tourism is invested again in communitary projects which is also a good reason to give it a try.

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I want to know more about community tourism

It's not the same to learn history from a town if it's told from a native's perspective rather than the one of a tourist guide. Nevertheless, in a tipical tour is hard to find the time and space to know the people and its costumes in depth.

The idea of comunitary tourism is that the tourist can experiment how is life inside an ancestral indigenous community, to be en contact with the people from the community, to share their daily activities or learn their traditions in a direct way.

People from the communities have to learn also how to treat the tourist and how to generate atractive activities for them.

At that point begins the teamwork...some become guides, some others start to prepare delicious tipical meals, the craftsmen begin to sell their work and someone else transform its house into an hotel.
With the comunitary tourism, everybody wins. The tourist live a unique experience that no travel agency can superate, while the community uses the profit made by this activity for the bennefit of all.

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Examples of community tourism

In the Amazon there are close to 40 community projects dedicated to eco-tourism. In the Napo Province there is the Ricancie Project that brings together 10 traditional settlements that host tourists. Travelers can participate in different activities such as the preparation of traditional foods alongside native guides and the Quichua inhabitants of the region. Another location is Aacllac, also just a few minutes from Tena.

The community is home to a complex of traditional cabins. Cotococha also offers similar lodging to tourists. Tours organized by local operators include long walks through the jungle or traveling by boat on the Napo and Curaray Rivers. Further on, located in Pastaza, is the Atacapi-Papangu Project. Puyo also possesses sites like the Fatima Reserve, a zoo that is home to various animal species of the Amazon forests.

Close by are the Omaere Ethno-botanicical Park and the Hola Vida Reserve. The two areas offer opportunities to see the flora and fauna of the region, as well as experience the customs of the indigenous communities in the area. The majority of such destinations house tourists in cabins or as guests in the homes of the indigenous inhabitants. The best way to arrive to such areas is to pre-arrange a tour with one of the travel agencies of Tena or Quito.

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| Introduction to Community Tourism |
| More on Community Tourism in Ecuador |
| Examples of Community Tourism in Ecuador |

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