What is Edu-tourism

Travel for the purpose of formal or informal education and life long learning in unique natural, historical & multi-cultural environments.  It refers to any tourism programme or product offering in which participants travel to a location with the primary purpose of engaging in a learning experience directly related to the location

Edu-tourism comprises a variety of activities:

·     International exchange-student programmes
·     sabbatical and staff exchanges
·     educational tours
·     school trips
·     study tours
·     short courses
·     language courses
·     special interest tours
·     conferences
·     academic colloquiums
·     ongoing adult education programmes
·     summer and winter schools
·     international voluntary and gap- year programmes
·     development practice training,
·     internships
·     sports coaching seminars
·     cultural history tours

Edu-tourism encompasses and overlaps with a variety of existing tourism product offerings.  It creates demand for adventure, eco - based, environmental, cultural, historical, heritage, pro-poor, community based, volunteering, gap- year and backpacker tourism products

Benefits of edu-tourism

·     Creates demand for existing tourism industry
·     Support for local hospitality and retail outlets
·     Stimulates investment in infrastructure
·     Job creation and support  for informal sector
·     Broadens skills base (SETA’ s) Hospitality etc
·     Low environmental and social impacts
·     Multiplier effect - cash re-spent in local economy
·     Capital inflows retained within the region
·     Potential for  pro - poor tourism opportunities

The pro-poor tourism approach aims to tilt the potential benefits of tourism to those who need it most.  It is explicitly geared at harnessing benefits and opportunities while overcoming the negative repercussions of tourism development on livelihoods of the poor

In what way is Edu-tourism pro-poor?

·     Diverse market with broad scope for participation
·     Promotes indigenous culture as asset of historical value
·     Resurrects disappearing knowledge and skills bases
·     Promotes community development based activities

and most importantly, it

·     offers considerable opportunities for linkage e.g. selling curios
·     stimulates micro- industries and diversifies  livelihoods
·     offers support for informal sector and emerging SMME ‘s
·     provides job creation and income generation opportunities

Volunteers bring foreign currency into the local economy, they also offer and provide much needed skills, support and capacity for local community development projects