Hi Reader,
I hope your week has been as amazing as mine here in Croatia!
I have been here for just over a week, first in Dubrovnik and then sailing the coast on a luxury yacht that we plan to charter next year for our first Croatia sailing trip.
We have visited many islands, coves, beaches and beautiful swim spots and I can't get enough of the many shades of blue.
Plus, the food!
I love summertime for the fresh and juicy tomatoes, the ripe fruit, the salads, the cheese and the wine...
Don't miss out on the announcement when the trip goes live. Join the waitlist and go follow me on Instagram where I am sharing the behind the scenes as usual.
Have you listened to this week's episode of the podcast?
Meg and Anastasia talk about how to take photos of yourself. Anastasia is one of our professional photographers who accompany guests on tour and capture magical moments and she will share all her tips in this interview style chat with Meg. Don't miss it!
This week's travel tip is linked to last week's podcast. I have been wanting to talk about this for a long time and today is the day: Tourism leakage, or the percentage of tourism spent that does not enter the local economy but stays overseas.
Tourism leakage, or why your vacation money doesn't benefit the local economy
Tourism is a huge engine of growth.
In some cases such as for Croatia, Mexico, Bhutan, the Philippines, Greece, Panama, Portugal or Fiji, tourism represents over 8% of the country's GDP.
It is also estimated to employ 1 in every 9 workers globally.
It is a massive sector, employing more people than any other and generating economic progress for many with trickling effect for many families and extended communities.
However, this economic impact does not always stay in the local communities that are at the core of it, but with foreign-owned international corporations (hotels, airlines, tour operators, travel agencies, etc.), booking engines, financial institutions, etc. who repatriated their profits back home.
The part that does not flow into the local economy but stays overseas is called Tourism leakage.
What kids of trips generate the most tourism leakage
Not all trips and kinds of vacations are made equal, some are more beneficial to the local communities than other.
Safaris, cruises or all inclusive vacations, generate the most leakage, with as much as 90% of the trip cost staying outside the country.
Margins and commissions added by international tour companies can amount to 100% of the cost of a safari or even more. I have seen this multiple times.
That is, adding up the cost of hotels, guides, foods, transportation, park fees, flights, etc. only 10% is invested in local labor, businesses and materials such as food and rinks, the rest is captured by the international tour company who organized the trip, the expat management at the hotels, the international hotel chain or foreign-owned lodge, the imported drinks and ingredients, etc. The 10% are the salaries of the local staff and guide, the cost of locally sourced food, the taxes paid to access the parks and the tips given.
In an all-inclusive resort, the profits are all repatriated or distributed among shareholders. Food and drinks can sometimes be part of a global supply chain agreement with international corporations, the management could be foreigner, the tours and activities you book are heavily marked up and the local staff / guides receive very little payment. You essentially live in a bubble that could be anywhere and leave a very small economic footprint in the host country.
A cruise is the same as an all-inclusive with extra negative externalities on the local communities who often do not benefit at all from the cruise visits. You eat onboard, book your excursions through the cruise company, the staff is international, the ship is owned by a large, often publicly-listed, international company and you barely spend anything locally. Sometimes, travelers don't even need any local currency because all they spend happens onboard.
The traditional definition of luxury demanded imported Western goods, the best the world has to offer, and this causes the most tourism leakage as local alternatives aren't even considered.
Where tourism leakage is worst
Here are the places where most tourism income is lost to foreign ownership
- Small island-nations in the Caribbean or the Pacific like The Bahamas, Fiji or Jamaica are heavily dependent on tourism and experience the worst tourism leakage. Foreign investment built the roads and the resorts and locals don't even have access to their own beachfront. Because they are small, very little of what tourists consume is produced on the island, so it all has to be imported, benefit foreign-owned businesses. Furniture at hotels, food, drinks, equipment for any kind of activity, etc. all needs to be imported. Additionally, most hotels are owned by international chains and bookings come through global booking agents.
- Safari destinations in Africa where foreign investors built the lodges and provide all inclusive packages with stays, food, drinks, guides and flights the profit of which is funnelled back to the international headquarters. The vast majority of the luxury lodges in Tanzania, Kenya or Uganda are owned by international investors of companies.
- Ultra-luxury trips in the global south, where the cost of a hotel or a trip is disproportionate when compared to the local cost of living. For example, you stay at a 1,500 EUR per night hotel in Thailand, where the annual GDP per person is just over 7,000 EUR. To provide this perception and reality of luxury, businesses important materials, staff, food and drinks, with most of the money leaked back to the countries these items come from.
- Volunteer trips where you pay a global / international company lots of money to help a local community. These large marketing agencies are the ones keeping most of your vacation money, while the local NGO receives little, not to mention you may be taking the job a local would have otherwise done.
In general, these are the percentages that each player in the travel chain takes:
- Booking engines / tour operators / travel agencies: 20-30% of the booking value
- Financial platforms: 5%
- Intenational hotel chains: 20-30%
- International airlines: 20-30%
- Local businesses: 5-35%
How to minimise tourism leakage
The best way to minimise how much is lost in translation is to book local and with ethical international companies that charge reasonable prices for the services they offer and reinvest in the host communities.
- Stay at hotels that are owned by locals instead of Marriotts, Hiltons, Sheratons, or all inclusive resorts and those that pay fair wages and treat employees well.
- Book local experiences and activities directly with the businesses that provide them instead of via global marketplaces like Viator, TripAdvisor, GetYourGuide, Klook, etc. or the cruise company you are with. You can easily find the company providing the experience and go book with them on their website, their Instagram account, etc. Prioritise booking excursions on ports directly with local companies
- Book guides directly. Get recommendations from friends and family, online communities, blogs, etc. and reach out to them to book their services rather then through the hotel you are staying at.
- Choose travel agencies and tour companies that support local projects, reinvest and care about these things. Refuse excessive commissions. Ultra-luxury safaris have HUGE leakage. The majority of the money you spent stays outside, locals see very little of what you spend on your vacation, and the majority is taken by the international organization putting together your trip. Focus on agencies that support locally-owned businesses, pay their staff fairly and promote lodges and hotels built with local materials.
- Choose local food, local drinks (local beer instead of imported, drink what locals drink instead of imported wine, try the local sodas, have freshly made juices instead of packaged, eat dishes that feature local ingredients, etc.)
I know this sounds all fine and dandy but is hard in real life.
Finding the right companies to support and getting recommendations is hard and global companies have strong brands and guarantees that local companies can't provide.
Trust has a cost, and I get that, I have also resolved to internationally recognised brands in many occasions because I needed to make sure the place was as expected, the guide was reliable or the excursion would run smoothly, and I had no personal recommendations from anyone.
In my opinion, it's better to try and consider tourism leakage where possible, even if you can do little about it in the end.
And lastly, promoting a destination or experience and making it known worldwide is the source of income to the host country because this marketing spent is done overseas.
This is to say that tourism leakage can never be fully eliminated, but the more a destination relies on foreign-owned investment to success in travel, the higher the chance tourism money stays abroad too.
Do you normally think about tourism leakage when traveling? Have you found strategies to minimise it? Reply to this email and let me know, I would love to hear how others handle this. |
2026 / 2027 Full calendar of tours
See the full list of our future trips below.
✅ = Trip is confirmed ☑️ = SOLD OUT 💃 = I or Meg will co-host these trips
2026 trips
- 🚗 Cuba: 29 Dec 2026 to 4 Jan, 2027 (New Year's Eve) >> Book here
- 🧘♀️ Bali: ✅ 3 to 11 Oct [1 SPOT LEFT] >> Book here
- 🌮 Oaxaca: 11 to 17 Oct || ✅ 29 Dec 2026 to 4 Jan 2027 >> Book here
- ⛩️ Japan: ✅ 13 to 23 Oct [1 SPOT LEFT] >> Book here
- 🐑 Iceland: ☑️ 11 to 18 Oct || ☑️ 25 Oct to 1 Nov >> Book here
- 🍷 Georgia: ☑️ 5 to 13 Sep >> Book here
- 🇦🇲 Armenia: 💃 ✅ 13 to 19 Sep [1 SPOT LEFT] >> Book here
- 🏰 Scotland: ☑️ 10 to 18 Oct >> Book here
- 🦘 Australia: 💃 ✅ 11 to 22 Oct [1 SPOT LEFT] >> Book here [Meg will host this trip]
- 🎄 Xmas markets: ✅ 21 to 29 Nov || ✅ 5 to 13 Dec >> Book here
- 🐪 Morocco: ✅ 2 to 12 Oct [Photographer onboard, 2 SPOTS LEFT] || ☑️ 6 to 16 Nov >> Book here
- 🍝 Tuscany: ☑️ 5 to 12 Sep >> Book here
- 🦁 Tanzania Value safari + Zanzibar: ☑️ 11 to 21 Sep (Great Migration) || 23 Dec to 2 Jan, 2027 (Xmas + NYE) >> Book here
- 🇪🇬 Egypt: ☑️ 30 Oct to 8 Nov >> Book here
- 🇹🇿 Tanzania Luxe safari + Zanzibar: ☑️ 25 Sep to 5 Oct (Great Migration) || ✅ 1 to 10 Nov [1 SPOT LEFT] >> Book here
- 🦭 Galapagos sailing: ☑️ 5 to 12 Dec [Photographer onboard] >> Email us to be added to the waitlist
- 🇦🇶 Antarctica: 💃 ☑️ 13 to 27 Dec >> Email us to be added to the waitlist
New 2027 trips are being announced every week
- 🌴 Caribbean island hopping: 💃 💃 ✅ 13 to 20 Feb, 2027 [Photographers onboard, both Meg and I will host this trip] >> Book here
- 🏔️ Kilimanjaro: ✅ 12 to 22 June 2027 >> Book here
- 🧘♀️ Bali: 4 to 12 Sep [Photographer onboard] || 2 to 10 Oct >> Book here
- ❄️ Swedish Arctic: ✅ 20 to 26 Mar [1 SPOT LEFT] >> Book here
- 🐬 Ecuador & The Galapagos: ✅ 13 to 25 May [3 SPOTS LEFT] >> Book here
- 🇪🇬 Egypt: ✅ 2 to 11 Apr [2 SPOTS LEFT] || 5 to 14 Nov >> Book here
- 🍝 Tuscany: 13 to 20 Jun || 5 to 12 Sep >> Book here
- 🦁 Tanzania Value safari + Zanzibar: 27 Aug to 6 Sep (Great Migration) || ✅ 24 Sep to 4 Oct (Great Migration) [2 SPOTS LEFT] >> Book here
- 🇹🇿 Tanzania Luxe safari + Zanzibar: ✅ 10 to 20 Sep (Great Migration) [2 SPOTS LEFT] || 1 to 10 Nov >> Book here
- 🐪 Morocco: 1 to 11 Oct || 12 to 22 Nov >> Book here
- 🦘 Australia: 💃 11 to 21 Oct >> Book here [Meg will host this trip]
- ⛩️ Japan: 8 to 17 May || ✅ 4 to 13 Nov >> Book here
- 🦭 Galapagos sailing: ✅ 25 Nov to 2 Dec [3 SPOTS LEFT] || ☑️ 9 to 16 Dec >> Book here
- 🐒 Madagascar: ☑️ 💃 20 Sep to 3 Oct, 2027 >> Email us to be added to the waitlist
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Have a wonderful rest of the week.
CO-FOUNDERS, SOLO FEMALE TRAVELERS
