May 3, 2006 Feel and Touch

I have read the article from TAT news. There's a new tourism project of TAT, quite interesting.....It's a bit like what we do in the university as a volunteer. But this is more officially and more open into public.

"Meaningful tourism"
..We are picking rocks up off a streambed in hilly Thailand. Try to help a village from water scarcity problem by building six mini dams.

Discovering different ideas and experiences are part of the evolving educational tourism sector. As individuals travelling to help others, they are part of what is being called “voluntourism”, travellers who want to expand their horizons and perspectives, to have a life-changing experience.

There are also academic-led trips that engage with an ethnic group or offer instruction from local experts, such as cooking with spices and herbs, studying a different religion, conversing with artists and architects, or sitting in a forest with flora and fauna specialists as they catalogue the immediate environment. There are meditation retreats. And there are homestay experiences, to experience the lifestyle of a particular group of people.