How does a special forces soldier become an outspoken proponent for and awarded practitioner of sincerely responsible tourism? In this “GT” Insight, Shane K Beary takes us back to his past before asking us to consider his vision for the future; a more equitable community-based travel & tourism industry. And it’s all about the supply chain.
It is refreshing to read the progressive views expressed in many recent articles on the COVID-19 problem, and its role as a catalyst driving a more equitable restructure of the tourism industry. The biggest obstacle to that restructure is the stranglehold that tourism’s commission-based supply chain system holds over the industry.
My journey to reach this conclusion — and my proposed solution [PDF] — has not followed a conventional path.
Self-reliance, self-discipline, and the value of teamwork
I was born in Ireland in the early 1950s but it was in Cape Town, South Africa where I spent my preschool days, dawn to dusk, on the beach or in the rock pools that lined the coast. To my father’s frustration I showed little appetite for study. I often jumped off the train to school to go out on the fishing boats based in Kalk Bay. I was, of course, caught.
A five-year interlude in England, including a few years at a Jesuit boarding school, was followed by my family’s return to Africa, arriving in what was then Rhodesia — now Zimbabwe — only weeks after the Declaration of Independence.
Those were turbulent times. I joined the army at the age of 16.
For the full "Good Tourism" Insight, visit https://goodtourismblog.com/2020/05/supply-lines-a-former-soldiers-take-on-tourisms-failure-to-win-hearts-minds/