Tourism, humanitarian-style

A glass-blowing workshop, basket weaving, cheese tasting, watching the bees at work, bird watching on the Tisza lake for a day, meeting the alpacas at Őrség National Park, exploring a cave… the list of programs offered by Humtour is long. All of them are reasons good enough to go to the countryside.

Growing consciousness

The vegetarian and vegan lifestyle is an ever-growing trend, and companies are paying more and more attention to environmental aspects – no wonder that people are increasingly looking for more sustainable travel opportunities too. Eco-tourism relies on the principle of offering touristic attractions without affecting the locals in a negative way. Service providers such as Humtour want to raise consciousness about local- and environment-friendly travelling.

Humtour was founded six years ago as a small project of an organisation that wanted to enhance tourism in the countryside. There was a growing customer demand for this concept. Besides offers in Hungary, they organise trips to the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

This also corresponds to the fact that Humtour is working closely with the United Nations Environmental Program, or more specifically with the Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention. The aim of this organisation is to ensure sustainable development in the Carpathian Region.

Backpacker experience as a basis

Szabó-Diószeghy got the idea for Humtour from her own travel experiences, most importantly her backpacking. “We used to live with a family, helped them with the work around the farm and we enjoyed the local specialties,” she says. The name of her travel agency comes from an abbreviation of Humanitarian Tourism.

“Our ideal partners are farms that are able to offer workshops for producing agricultural products.” This can result in a win-win situation: while tourists are enjoying themselves they are able to try locally produced products, and the farm can sell more of its produce. The list of offers is constantly expanding. The Humtour farms receive professional support to prepare an appropriate presentation of their offers.

Teambuilding in a different way

Humtour’s offers are not only interesting for tourists, they can also be used as teambuilding events. Szabó-Diószeghy is always personally present at the activities. And she has no real favourites among the offer: “I always think that my favourite one is the one I am currently participating at.”