It’s a technological crisis! My computer has been freezing up more and more often over the past weeks and my camera has left this world…Now more than ever I need good quality, operational equipment to document my visits to hotels as well as their sustainable practices, which are collected for Hopineo. It is for this reason that I am launching myself into a crowdfunding campaign. Further details are in the following video and in the text below. Here is the link to give your support: www.ulule.com/hoptour-florie. Thank you!
1. Trekking down from Mexico to Argentina, promoting and emphasizing responsible tourism as I go!
On July 1, 2014, I boarded a plane going from Europe to Latin America. My plan was to travel for a whole year (more or less), stopping at various eco-hotels, exchanging my marketing skills for room and board. The Hospitality Tour was on its way!
Through another travel blog, I ‘met’ Justine and Mahery, and their Hopineo Project just before leaving. Their aim is to encourage tourism professionals to share best practices among themselves with the help of travelers, and were preparing to leave on a Tour de France, before trying their hand on other continents. Completely won over by their ideas, I decided then and there that my Hospitality Tour would become a Hopineo Tour (or ‘HopTour” for short)!
Now here I am in Colombia, 1 backpack, 9 countries, 7 months, and just about 30 hotels later, with 500 Facebook followers and counting, and after innumerable hard-to-believe encounters and emotional incidents. My project has taken an unexpected turn: meetings with institutions promoting ethical tourism (Rainforest Alliance, CST…), interventions in universities, drafting of articles on various dedicated websites, and I even have the honour of having been invited to attend the great eco-tourism event organized by GSTC in Quito on April 27 avril. Thanks to our joint efforts, in France and here in Latin America, we are doing everything we can to maximize the impact made by my trip so as to support and promote ethical tourism. And what’s more, it is working!
- Follow my adventure on www.hopineo.org/en/hospitality-tour
- See a video on Hopineo’s approach: www.hopineo.org/en/documentary-hopineo
2. Why do I need your helping hand ?
Everything was going to plan up until the beginning of this rather strange week … All this travelling as well as the tropical atmospheric conditions affected my hardware and video equipment. Lately, my comp was sort of hobbling along, at least trying to, but my camera finally gave up the ghost a few days ago, and left me stranded: I am definitely up the creek !
There is no doubt this project is providing me with the experience of a lifetime, but over and above this fantastic gift, its worth rests on my photos and video clip reporting on structures and solutions that I am putting together (HopSolutions)—with the help of my little brothers who are doing the video editing, and many volunteers who are pitching in with the English and Spanish translations from French, such as Hélène, Holly, Fernando, and Romina, just to name a few!. Being part of the Hopineo.org site is what makes it possible for me to show to those establishments that put me up the solutions I am collecting all along my trek, as well as to put them in contact with their counterparts to enable the exchange and sharing of experience for the creation of a more responsible tourism, a vehicle for a positive impact on humanity, community and environment.
- See my latest HopSolution videos: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8xs87YSqSZG3fyT1sTfbcDOW5B-vaKYT
Hopineo being a non-profit organization with limited funds, and my own financial situation itself not being very bright, we need your contribution if this second part of my HopTour in Latin America is to be a success.
What is at stake: our being able to support, albeit in a small way, responsible and ethical tourism in this side of the world where we are introducing a new way of participative travelling called HopTrips in which you too will soon be able to take part !
3. How will I use your financial help?
I will take advantage of being in Bogota to try to find some second-hand equipment so as to make a smaller investment (which I certainly did not plan on when I left!). How well this campaign will succeed will depend on my equipment: the better my gear, the better the videos I can produce.
- Second-hand video camera (e.g. Nikon D5200): 500€ new
- Sound mike (type Zoom H1): 100€ new
- Laptop: 800€ brand new
On top of this, I am presently taking on-line courses given by a small audiovisual company, a Hopineo partner: FrapaDoc Productions. This training will make it possible for me to take better shots and therefore make better professional travel reports on my HopTrips, which uploaded regularly throughout my travels.
It is Hopineo that will finance the cost of my reports’ post-production and, if we can cover the cost, that of a documentary on my whole adventure, end 2015 or early 2016.
I am leaving Bogota at the end of February, and we therefore have about two weeks to pull all of this together!
Sending a huge THANK YOU your way! Your help is invaluable!
Link to the crowdfunding campaign:
www.ulule.com/hoptour-florie
Translated by my friend Hélène Masson