PEPY TOURS 2011 A YEAR OF THINKING DIFFERENTLY

As with PEPY NGO, 2011 has been a year of great self-reflection and transition for PEPY Tours. We have developed new educational and informational

resources, changed organizational structure and leadership, but most importantly we’ve taken a deeper look at what makes PEPY Tours unique, how we can do what we do better, and what impact we want our small organization to have on the world.

PEPY Tours is a social enterprise with the vision that travel should be educational, adventurous, and fun, but also benefit local communities. We offer adventure trips through Cambodia that emphasize social action and accountability, while also raising awareness and funding for youth empowerment and education programs.

Tour participants

120

past participants in total

680

tours in 2011

10

articles on the PEPY Tours reader

150+

* Fundraising from participants as part of the tours led in 2011. Even after their tour is over many participants continue to support PEPY NGO. In fact, majority of the PEPY NGO donors are past PEPY Tours participants (fundraising amounts contributed after the tour are not includ-ed in above figures.

Reader

In 2010 we began to shift our

focus towards working with school

and university groups. In early 2011

we have been largely concerned

with improving the experience of

the student and teacher participants

that travel with us. We have received

positive feedback on the educational

component of our tours in the past,

but teaching ambitious, bright

students has pushed us to further

improve our educational offerings.

We want to give our participants

an opportunity to think, question,

and debate the meaning of being a

global citizen over the course of their

short stay here, identify and realize

their own potential for creating the

positive changes they want to see in

their own lives and communities, and

give them the motivation and tools

needed to help them make these

changes upon their return home. We

have collaborated with development

education professionals to formalize

our curriculum, provide facilitator

training, and compile comprehensive

educational toolkits to equip our

tour instructors with the necessary

knowledge and tools to facilitate

critical thinking and kindle enthusiasm

in our participants.

Another strong focus of this past

year has been strengthening our

communication strategy and global

advocacy. We wanted to share

more information and resources

with the world on the topics of

responsible travel, accountable

giving, and personal growth. PEPY

Tours gained its own voice in

2011 through personalized social

media, development of informational

resources, and other visual media.

of 2011 participants are students

63%

Total 2011 fundraising*

$ 41,884

staff

6

bike tour in 2011**1

We also became involved in the

efforts to decrease orphanage tourism

in Cambodia and were able to help

test out the “Children are not tourist

attractions” campaign spearheaded

by ChildSafe.

One of the projects we are most excited

to be working on is a set of guidelines for

effective “learning service” offerings.

Due to our 2008 work in creating

Voluntourism101 guidelines, we were

invited to be a part of a global effort

to create voluntourism standards. The

term “learning service” is a spin-off

on the “service learning” commonly

used in North America to describe

volunteering vacations. Learning service

is meant to put emphasis on the need

to learn before serving. We believe

that there are opportunities to use

travel as a development education

tool that can inspire improvements

in the way we “serve” and we want

to collaborate with others to spread

these ideas around the world. We also

understand that although PEPY Tours

has moved away from volunteering, the

volunteer travel trend is still growing

and we’d love to help those people

and companies moving into this space

to make more educated decisions. Our

initial guideline will equip readers with

a set of critical steps to analyzing their

impact before they make important

choices regarding their service

opportunities. The final version of

this guide will be released in 2012.

We hope to share this resource with

both travelers and service learning

providers in an effort to promote travel

that is educational, inspiring, local

community-driven, and emphasizes

social action and accountability.

**Yep, you got it! Most of the PEPY Tours’ trips are not bike tours. The majority are development education tours for students or adults, custom tours for adventure and learning travel groups, and experimentation development training trips for educators. Reach out to us if you want to learn more!

This year we spent a lot

of time looking into the

future and realized that we

had no shortage of ideas

for paths to achieving our

mission of inspiring people

to improve the way they live,

travel, and give. We have

decided that a combination

of providing experiential

development education trips

as well as advocating for

greater responsibility and

accountability for the travel

industry are the best ways to

achieve our mission. One way

we are looking to share our

message more effectively in

the future is by improving

how we continue to engage

all of the wonderful people

that have traveled with us, and offer them a chance to stay involved, stay

connected, and be empowered to make the changes they want to see in the

world long after they leave us. If you want to be involved or share your ideas

for how PEPY Tours can continue to grow, please reach out to us!

PEPY TOURS’ VISION

TOURS

UNIVERSITY TOURS

EDUCATOR TOURS

SCHOOL TOURS

CYCLING TOURS

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL ADVOCACY

NETWORK

NETWORK OF PAST PARTICIPANTS

NETWORK OF RESPONSIBLE ORGANIZATIONS

to connect with us

www.pepytours.com