Welcome to The Cultural Angle

 

I have set up The Cultural Angle as a boutique consultancy to encourage greater critical mindfulness and responsible travel and tourism practices by all stakeholders. At the core of these aspirations lies my belief that we are all travellers and visitors on Mother Earth, able to be role models for a culture of peace while travelling to distant lands and also while at home.

 

This is not a new idea and is something that I contemplated already in 2002 when I presented a paper at the First Pacific-Rim Conference on Leisure Education in Hawaii, proposing informal and non-formal means of learning avenues to inspire mindful and caring tourists and travellers.

(copy of the paper on academia.edu and researchgate.com)

  

We all live in a world of relentless mobility and multicultural societies where travel and tourism are ever more part of the constant dynamics of change in our global life system. No matter the reasons for our travels, all of us are travellers throughout life, co-creating our own life experiences and those of others. We all have an impact on each other and our environment, potentially of positive and negative nature.

 

While travel and tourism are regarded as the catalyst for enjoyable and enriching experiences, economic benefits and greater mutual understanding, travel and tourism can also have negative impacts. Travel and tourism can also create cultural anxiety and disconnections between tourists and host communities, among all kinds of travellers, and societies at large. After all, travel is, and always has been very much a cultural practice of its time and place, with the diversification of tourism products and service offerings a reflection of the dynamics at the local and global level.

  

Governmental organisations, NGOs and private industry representatives have been actively engaged in promoting and implementing the concepts of sustainable tourism and peaceful travel since the 1980s.

 

However, there is still the need to directly target the tourists and travellers (we are all travellers on our journey through life) as active participants and contributors through campaigns and programs in the overall aspiration of mindful and responsible travel and tourism in support of peace-oriented travel and peaceful co-existence.

 

Travel has been recognised as part of individuals’ social worlds and for its therapeutic and cathartic potential. It provides a motivating context as a transformative learning avenue for greater sensitivity and appreciation of our established ways of seeing, doing, and being.

 

Along with many other like-minded and like-hearted individuals and organisations, I believe that we all can be champions and ambassadors for more harmonious relationships, and a more connected and caring world where:

 

The Joy of Travel

is as much about

The Art of Travel

as it is about

The Art of Living Together

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© The Cultural Angle - July 2016