Community tourism operators are offering trips that channel tourist spending directly to local economies while supporting social enterprises and traditional ways of life.
Eternal Landscapes runs five-day trips to Mongolia's Middle Gobi region staying with herding families, priced from $1,045 per person in groups of six. The operator employs only female trip assistants and visits overlooked towns. Amba Yaalu, opened in January in Sri Lanka on a mango plantation by the Kandalama Reservoir, became the country's first hotel fully managed and staffed by women, with rooms from $120 B&B.
Intrepid Travel's 11-day South Morocco Discovery includes stays at family-run mountain gites and visits to women's cooperatives producing argan oil, from £662. G Adventures offers 12-day Serengeti and Zanzibar trips from £2,649 per person that include visits to the Masai Clean Cookstoves project, where an all-female engineering team has installed 4,000 modern stoves across 60 villages to replace traditional ones causing household air pollution.
Wild Frontiers' 13-day Georgia itinerary costs from £3,090 and includes stays in the Tusheti region and visits to the Nukriani Workshops preserving traditional crafts. The Rukha Ayllu project in the Peruvian Andes village of Huilloc welcomes 25 families into tourism through Valencia Travel Cusco's 14-day Colours of Peru trip starting at $2,607. Village Ways operates nine-night trips to Indian forest communities from £889 per person, while the Astungkara Way hiking route across Bali offers four-day treks for around £276 that support regenerative farming villages.