About Travel Storyteller

We work at the grassroots level to encourage Community Storytelling as a form of Ethical Marketing

About Elisa

Passionate about traveling and people.

Amazed by the richness of cultures and beauty that our world still retains, I am a profound believer that Tourism can be a crucial tool for positive change in the world.

Supporting and promoting Community-Based Tourism and respectful and sustainable tourism around the world is my fundamental mission.

Through my professional services as a community storyteller, sustainability consultant, and independent travel advisor, I intend to contribute to building a really Sustainable Tourism both by working towards making changes in this industry from within and by supporting Community-Based Tourism experiences at the grassroots level.

I hold a robust academic background in Sociology, Anthropology, and Production Engineering, which has been the result of my thirst for learning and my determination to make a positive impact with my presence in the world, personally and professionally. And I have never stopped learning new skills while improving my acquired ones.

My passions are photography and storytelling.

Elisa’s Capstone Project

Link: https://www.facebook.com/aTravellerStoryteller

Description: Our Operators are crucial actors in the tourism industry, connecting different cultures and creating potentially life-changing experiences.

The opportunity to create positive impacts at the destination level and transformation experiences for the tourists relies on the quality of their connections at the grassroots level.

Depending on their experience and depth of knowledge, they might don’t know how to interact with local communities to maximize the positive impacts of their operations, and minimizing their negative impacts, but, above all, they might don’t have the skills to create more inclusive and transformative experiences for all the actors involved.

We know that each community is unique, and each context is different, however, we believe that there are guidelines that can facilitate the establishment of productive and enriching professional encounters with the local communities.

We want to create a package made of a series of tools - based on the principles acquired during the course – that will be able to guide Tour Operators in the building of open and trustworthy relationships with local communities and Community-Based Tourism projects.

Amongst the tools will be questionnaires and self-evaluation sheets – designed both for CBT and TO. Also, we imagine that the CBT Lighthouse will become one of these tools as well, facilitating first communications in a safe and supportive environment.

How to manage travelers’ expectations and their different levels of “readiness”? How to transform the inevitable cultural shock into an opportunity for growth and personal transformation? How to balance the community’s needs, priorities, and their expectations in relation to tourism with the need for cultural authenticity, while respecting the needs of the local communities and enhancing the opportunities for local sustainable development, providing respectful tourism experiences.

The tool will help TOs find the answers to all these questions while preparing themselves to work with communities and support communities to get ready for the visitors