Dear friends,
From KOAN and from our sister organization Centro Español de Turismo Responsable we want to welcome you to the E-Week of Fair and Sustainable Tourism for All, convened by the International Social Tourism Organisation from May 28 to June 4, 2020.
We believe in social tourism and responsible tourism since our birth as a company more than twenty years ago. We were born with this objective in mind and we are happy to work together with ISTO and its Board of Directors for several years now.
Our values are the same as they were more than twenty years ago when we started in this privileged sector. Our values have always spoken of sustainability, of cooperation for development, of a shared passion for the local and the exotic, of a social and solidarity economy, of crossing borders.
Our values have never been other and will never be other; although it may seem a little strange to talk now about meetings and borders, in the midst of this immense isolation that has changed the world. We know that we share these values with all ISTO members and with all the networks that support them in so many countries. That is what makes us strong. That is why, because together we are so strong, we know that we will come out of this situation with more knowledge and more shared experiences. Technology has allowed us to stay together during this crisis; but soon we will get out of it, we will travel again and we will meet again.
From KOAN and Centro Español de Turismo Responsable we will do it calmly, with solidarity, with respect for diversity, with love for all languages and all cultures; simply as we have always done from our entities. We will celebrate the World Day of Responsible Tourism on June 2nd, as always; and then we will help to open again those borders that now we have all closed, only temporarily, to survive.
We are going to do it hand in hand, promoting what we like best: responsible tourism and proximity, the recovery of rural areas, local gastronomy, beautiful landscapes shaped by time and by people of all races and religions that we now miss so much.
We are going to do it by helping to revive the tourism businesses that have suffered so much from this crisis, near and far, small and large.
We will do it with a vision of the future so as not to repeat the mistakes and excesses of some forms of tourism; thinking of the people, nature and climate as one single living being.
We will celebrate together this week organized by ISTO as every year, but adapting ourselves to the circumstances of social distance that we live. We will be competitive and profitable again. We will work again for social and sustainable tourism. We will travel again.
