HAKI Expeditions announces the beginning of a community based sustainable tourism program in Mexico

PR Log (Press Release) – Oct 16, 2008 – HAKI Cultural Expeditions is a local tour operator in Mexico specialized in arranging cultural tours in the country. Next year, the company will start a community based sustainable tourism programme that will invove visits to local rural indigenous communities who have built their own community based programs where the visitor has a chance to interact more closely with the local cultures. There are a number of community travel projects across the country which are run by ethnic minorities in each region.

HAKI will operate next year 6 different routes in the country that will visit communities like the Maya, Purépecha, and Tarahumara in Mexico. These programs are described in the following paragraphs.

1. Olmec and Mayan Jungles: This is a two week program that will start in Mexico City and finish in the Riviera Maya. Besides visiting the main cultural and archaeological attractions in the region like the pyramids of Teotohuacan and the cities of Puebla and San Cristóbal de las casas, the program will also visit 2 rural communities in the jungle of Los Tuxtlas a Maya community Yucatan.

2. The Mayas of the Yucatan: This 1 week program will include visits to 2 different Maya communities of the Yucatan Peninsula, besides other cultural attractions like the pyramids of Chichen Itza and Calakmul and the Colonial Cities of Mérida and Yucatan.

3. The Mayas of the Yucatan and Guatemala: A two week programme that will visit locations and comunities in the Yucatan Peninsula and Guatemala where the traveler will have a chance to see the different manifestations of the current Maya Culture, and how it differs from Guatemala to Mexico.

4. Oaxaca's Zapotec: A 1 week program that will start in Mexico city and finish in the beach coast of Oaxaca. The program will include visits to a local zapotec community and hiking excursions across the central mountain valleys of the region guided by the local indians.

5. Colonial and Purepecha clash: A 10 day program that will start and finish in Mexico city by visiting the main colonial cities like San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato and Morelia and also a local community visit to the purépecha indians.

6. Copper Canyon with the Rarámuri: A 1 week program across the copper canyon, where the traveler will have a chance to interact with the Rarámuri indians and enjoy  hiking expeditions guided by the local community.  

The traveler who visits these communities gains a valuable cultural understanding through a personal cultural exchange with local culture, an experience which he can never get by staying at the traditional places where the average traveler goes to. Some of these communities are located at remote rural areas of difficult access to the traveler, and public transportation usually doesn’t go to these places, so it is important to plan in advance and to make all of the proper arrangements before trying to visit these communities.

The benefits sustainable tourism are not only reflected economically by directly helping the local communities, but also environmentally. Many of these local communities are located in remote jungles or forests, and before finding a living from the tourism industry, they were involved in activities such as illegal logging, deforestation, and traffic of endangered species.  Some of these communities have found out that conservation can actually be of more long-term benefit than the exploitation of their natural surroundings.

For further information about Community based Sustainable tourism and general travel in Mexico, please contact HAKI at http://www.mexicoculturaltours.com