Because the Chamamé music started on stage, supporting Mauricio Kusanovic of Las Torres Patagonia as he made his closing remarks on the Journey Journey World Summit in Puerto Natales, Chile, I felt a sudden wave of emotion.
I informed myself, “Lisa, preserve it collectively, be skilled”, however trying across the room, one crammed with trade leaders, media, and tourism operators, everybody was up on their ft, smiling, hugging and dancing. The emotion was shared, the sort that’s created from an immersive expertise all of us knew had been so particular. It was my first time attending a summit, and whereas my feelings caught me off guard, it’s clear that bringing collectively a like-minded group of delegates on this manner fuels connections, development, and empowers change in an trade identified for its skill to create experiences and positively affect communities far and extensive.
Two weeks prior, I had arrived in Chile anticipating inspiration from the landscapes and nature. I’d visited the peaks of Torres del Paine Nationwide Park beforehand, and knew I used to be in for a deal with when it got here to exploring extra of the nation’s environmental variety in Parque Futangue, for my pre-summit journey. As somebody who lingers on the introverted facet of life, what I didn’t anticipate was how deeply I’d be moved by the individuals, these I met throughout conferences on the summit, hosts and welcoming operators throughout the Los Rios area and Chilean Patagonia, and fellow delegates I had the pleasure of travelling with from Jordan, the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, and past.
The Journey Journey World Summit (ATWS) wasn’t simply an trade occasion; it was a gathering of travellers from all corners of the world, a reminder that journey is strongest when it’s rooted in neighborhood.
In the course of the journey, I used to be scribbling down notes when a thought popped into my thoughts and needed to piece them collectively right here to debate the idea of neighborhood and its significance throughout inventive pursuits, skilled endeavours, and in forging sustainable tourism practices.
The Energy of Collaboration
Behind each conservation initiative, new itinerary, or sustainable enterprise is a community of individuals working along with shared goal, to guard the locations we love and create experiences that encourage others to do the identical. Occasions just like the Journey Journey World Summit deliver this spirit to life, gathering guides, operators, storytellers, and conservationists who see collaboration not as a alternative, however as important to progress.
In Puerto Natales, the environment was electrical. Conversations flowed from rewilding tasks to community-based tourism and the function of storytelling in accountable journey. Every dialogue, whether or not between massive organisations or small native operators, mirrored a way of collective ambition, a perception that the trade could be each progressive and deeply respectful of the individuals and environments it is determined by.
In accordance with the Journey Journey Commerce Affiliation (ATTA), the journey tourism sector is powered largely by small companies in rural and wilderness areas, every taking part in a significant function of their native economies. For each $100,000 USD in tourism income, journey tourism generates 2.6 native jobs, in comparison with 1.5 in mass tourism, highlighting that sustainability isn’t an added worth; it’s a part of the trade’s DNA, balancing financial development with environmental stewardship and cultural respect.
The ATTA’s 2025 Journey Journey Traits & Insights Report additionally painted a transparent image of an trade shifting ahead collectively. Seventy-three per cent of tour operators reported income development from 2023, and 66% anticipate greater earnings in 2025, a lot of it pushed by new prospects, innovation, and collaboration. Maybe most telling, 76% of traveller spending, round $2,280 USD on an eight-night itinerary, stays inside native economies. Every proportion level in that statistic represents a community of guides, artisans, and small companies benefiting immediately from significant journey.
Travellers too are adjusting their adventures, with cooler, climate-conscious locations resembling North-East Asia, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, and Antarctica are trending, whereas motivations like getting off the crushed path and travelling like an area stay central. For a lot of, it’s not about ticking off areas or standing at a viewpoint amongst a crowd of vacationers, however about connecting with place, experiencing locations by way of the individuals who name them house and having extra immersive adventures.
From a inventive perspective, this shift mirrors what we attempt to seize by way of pictures and storytelling: authenticity, connection, and goal. Reaffirming that the journey journey neighborhood is greater than an trade, it’s a motion constructed on collaboration and shared accountability. When these values information our work, each story, {photograph}, and undertaking contributes to a collective affect far higher than the sum of its elements.
Neighborhood, Tradition, and Conservation
Neighborhood-led tourism in Chile rests on robust foundations of collaboration, connection, and respect for place. Throughout the nation, tasks of various scale show how journey can maintain each the setting and the individuals who take care of it, mixing conservation with cultural identification and native enterprise.
In Patagonia, the connection between nature and neighborhood is embodied by La Ruta de los Parques de la Patagonia, a 2,800-kilometre route linking 17 nationwide parks and defending greater than 28 million acres of wilderness. Envisioned by Tompkins Conservation Chile, based by the late Douglas Tompkins and his spouse Kristine Tompkins, and launched publicly on the 2015 Journey Journey World Summit in Chile’s Lakes District, the initiative proposed a growth technique for Chilean Patagonia constructed round conservation.
Right now, the Route connects over 60 communities from Puerto Montt to Cape Horn, strengthening native economies by way of conservation-based tourism and environmental schooling. Past its financial and cultural attain, the initiative safeguards essential wildlife corridors, offering refuge for species such because the huemul deer, puma, Andean condor, and Darwin’s rhea. By linking protected areas throughout the size of Patagonia, La Ruta de los Parques ensures that each biodiversity and native livelihoods can flourish facet by facet, illustrating how conservation, neighborhood, and tourism can coexist in steadiness.
In Chile’s Los Ríos Area, the identical rules take form by way of smaller neighborhood tasks that intertwine tradition and nature. Parque Futangue affords a Cultural Tour for company visiting native artisans and family-owned companies. At Karülafken, a Mapuche-led expertise close to Lago Ranco, guests are invited to see the panorama as a residing entity. Standing beside the lake, surrounded by temperate rainforest, our host Cristian shared the Mapuche perception that each factor of nature, from water and wind to mountains and timber, holds its personal spirit. The out of doors portion of the expertise concludes not with an exercise, however with a pause: arms wrapped round a Canelo tree, sacred in Mapuche tradition, whereas the calls of the Rayadito birds echo by way of the forest cover.
Close by, locally of Maqueo, Gladys Lefin Huenulef and Claudia Manquepillán Lefin are reworking native elements into sustainable merchandise by way of Maqueo Sabores Étnicos. Their vary of café de maqui, jams, and natural infusions is created utilizing native forest fruits harvested by native ladies. What started as family-scale manufacturing has grown into knowledgeable enterprise with a small café and tasting area close to Lago Maihue, the place travellers can pattern the flavours of the forest and find out how the enterprise helps environmental stewardship and cultural preservation.
Collectively, initiatives like La Ruta de los Parques, Karülafken, and Maqueo Sabores Étnicos show the facility of collaboration between conservation and neighborhood. Every operates at a unique scale, but all share the identical intent: to make sure that journey in Chile celebrates the land, honours its individuals, and contributes to a future the place nature and tradition thrive facet by facet.
Creativity and Connection
As a photographer, creativity usually begins in solitude. I want quiet moments to discover, to wander with my digicam, to attend for the sunshine, or just watch how a panorama shifts and breathes. These moments alone are the place I discover particulars, the place concepts type and tales start. But creativity doesn’t exist in isolation. Whereas the quiet focus of solo work fuels my course of, I’ve realized that motivation usually comes by way of connection, by way of conversations with fellow photographers, discussions about locations, and the shared pleasure of planning future journeys. Even a easy chat about gear or a dream location can spark an concept that shapes a whole undertaking.
Discovering that steadiness between quiet remark and inventive change led me to begin The Journey Pictures Membership in 2024. I needed to create an area the place photographers may share the identical sense of curiosity and surprise that fuels my very own work, a spot to be taught, join, and develop collectively on-line and in-person on excursions and photograph walks, by way of the act of exploring the world with intention. What started as a small thought has advanced right into a inventive neighborhood spanning greater than 20 international locations that continues to shock and encourage me. The membership now publishes a month-to-month journal devoted to the artwork and experiences of photographing the world, hosts a library of eBooks and assets, and connects photographers throughout continents who encourage each other to develop and discover. Seeing members share their progress, replace the neighborhood on their journey plans, and rejoice one another’s successes is proof that neighborhood is usually a catalyst for inventive development and confidence behind the digicam.
Through the years, I’ve additionally been fortunate to attach with readers of The Wandering Lens who write to share their very own pictures adventures and experiences. Their tales, from climbing trails in Iceland to photographing temples in Japan, all the time remind me how common the inventive journey is. Whether or not you journey with a gaggle or head out solo, pictures connects individuals in a manner few different artwork kinds can. It bridges language and distance, encouraging us to see the world not simply by way of our personal lens, however by way of the shared experiences of others.
In the course of the ATTA occasion, I met so many passionate photographers, each professionals and those that doc their travels alongside different roles in tourism. Chatting about gear (particularly when OM SYSTEM customers spot my digicam!), lenses, and previous journeys, and seeing how others interpret a vacation spot is all a part of the enjoyment of pictures for me, not simply the top outcome or last picture. Visible storytelling has develop into such an integral a part of the journey expertise, from video and comfortable snaps to fastidiously composed shoots or fleeting, serendipitous moments. As I work by way of the folder of photos I captured in Chile, I can’t assist however sit up for the following journey and the inventive connections that await.
Whats up! I’m the founder and photographer behind The Wandering Lens.
With 19+yrs expertise as knowledgeable journey and panorama photographer, all recommendation discovered on this website is from my private expertise, or that of contributors, on the highway. I hope it’s helpful on your personal travels and would love to listen to within the feedback about your journeys and experiences world wide.
