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ECOCLUB, Issue 89
THE ECOCLUB INTERVIEW
JANE CROUCH
Responsible Travel Manager, Intrepid Travel
Jane Crouch is the Responsible Travel Manager (RTM) for Intrepid Travel,
passionate about travelling in a way that's positive and rewarding for all
those involved. Jane has been at Intrepid for 10 years – starting as a group
leader in Vietnam and Borneo in 1996. After about 65 trips and some
brilliant experiences, she hung up the backpack in early 2000 to take up the
position of RTM based in the company’s Melbourne office, responsible for
preparing RT guidelines, training staff and ensuring Intrepid Travel are
practicing what they preach. Last year Jane took a long service leave to
pursue a passion of hers, Timor-Leste as a volunteer through Australian
Volunteers International, to work on tourism development based at their
Government's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After instability, she was
evacuated and then later returned to Dili into a new role as personal
assistant to Timor-Leste’s First Lady and based at the Alola Foundation
which was established to help support women and their families.
The Interview follows:
ECOCLUB: As the Responsible Travel Manager of a most successful
responsible tour operator, what do you consider as irresponsible travel and is
there something you would like to do to it?
Jane Crouch: Irresponsible travel to me is where the focus is entirely on the
visitor, to the neglect and detriment of the host and their community. I would like governments to take a much stronger positive
stance in educating local and international operators as to what is acceptable and not acceptable in their country, and
introducing appropriate regulation where necessary.
ECOCLUB: You have had recent personal experience as a volunteer in a poor country. So what were the main lessons you
learned from this experience? Did you have to review your approach to volunteerism in the process? For example some accuse
volunteerism and voluntourism as forms of labour exploitation and a violation of labour laws. Others dismiss volunteerism just
as something harmless well-off people from the 'west' do at the beginning or the end of their career. Do these cynics have a
point?
Jane Crouch:
I'm generally not supportive of very short-term volunteer placements, unless the volunteers have very specific
skills that can be used in training. The most productive volunteering is where you are working in a close partnership that is
empowering local people to do it for themselves -
not creating a dependency. I certainly learnt that I had to listen very
carefully to my local colleagues as they had so much to teach me – particularly when it came to decisions as to what was the
most culturally suitable way to implement change.
ECOCLUB: From your experience working as a group leader and manager in South East Asia, can a private Tour
company, however benevolent and responsible, be strong enough to make a visible difference, if a government is indifferent in
terms of poverty reduction, education and people empowerment?
Jane Crouch:
It can be terribly frustrating when you are 'pushing against the tide', but sometimes you have to take the attitude
that if you can make a difference and change the attitude of a few by positive example, then this difference can grow. E.g. I
have climbed Mt. Kinabalu in Sabah many times in the last 20 years. It has been positive to watch the improved attitude of
National Parks staff in ensuring rubbish is taken off the mountain. I do think that many conversations had between Intrepid
group leaders and their friends the mountain guides and parks staff, along with actual practical clean-up initiatives and activities
like us funding the construction of toilets for the mountain guides, have helped reinforce that keeping the mountain clean will
help keep tourism there more sustainable for all concerned.
ECOCLUB: Your organisation has just added a prestigious international tourism award to its many other awards. So how
important for business are such tourism awards, compared for example with certification schemes? Do savvy, hardened,
independent responsible tourists (the cream of the cream) really pay attention to awards, or do they suspect that they are not
always so transparent?
