Terroir & Responsible Tourism.

What makes a great responsible tourism product?

By Pia Muzaffar Dawson - 21 May 2009

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Terroir has no direct translation in English; most take it to mean something like a 'sense of place'. For French winemakers, the concept is central to understanding what gives each wine its individual character – the rain and sun on the vine, the specific conditions in which it is grown, the chemistry and geology of the soil, the yeasts indigenous to the area. It is the unique experience of each wine that makes it what it is.

According to some experts, great wine means that the natural terroir of the wine should be cultivated, expressed in full, even if this may not yield the greatest financial returns or prove most pleasing to the critics. This is about natural winemaking, not production on a commercial scale.

And what does any of this have to do with tourism?

Well it's precisely this concept of quality – quality based on respect for the unique characteristics of a place – that articulates the ethos underlying so much responsible travel.

Just as the natural winemaker may eschew the profits that come with mass production in order to achieve the most authentic reflection of the wine's terroir, the responsible tour operator or host is interested in providing tourists with the most authentic experience of the community they visit, rather than just reducing culture and history to their most marketable forms.

People often assume that travelling responsibly is akin to buying organic food; in other words, it is environmentally friendly and invariably more expensive. Whilst this is sometimes the case, responsible travel encompasses far more than the stereotypical image of staying in an eco-lodge would suggest.

It is better understood as a particular attitude, a willingness to learn and a desire to get to know a place and its people as they are – without requiring them to conform to certain expectations at the expense of their own cultural idiosyncrasies.

This means travelling in smaller groups and using local guides. It involves engaging with the locals and experiencing their cuisine, customs and way of life. And it will mean that rather than going from one famous sight to the next before checking them off on the list of 'must-sees', tourists actually take the time to explore the landscape and architecture of places further off the beaten track.

A wine expert could tell you the elements that go into a great wine. What do you think are the elements that make a great responsible tour operator, hotel or destination?

To discuss this concept on the Responsible Travel News forum please click here

This article is part of the #rtweek2009 online discussion

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