Activity 3: Star Trekking?

Aims

To understand there can be a link between tourism and human rights abuse.

National Curriculum links

Pupils should be taught:

1(a) about the legal and human rights and responsibilities underpinning society and how they relate to citizens; (h) about the rights and responsibilities of consumers, employers and employees; (j) about the wider issues and challenges of global interdependence and responsibility, including sustainable development
2(a) to research a topical political, spiritual, moral, social or cultural issue, problem or event by analysing information from different sources, including ICT-based sources, showing an awareness of the use and abuse of statistics

Resources

• Activity Sheet 3.1
• Rucksack weighing 70kg
• Access to the Internet

Activity

• Students to load a rucksack until it weighs 70kg to experience the sort of weight porters are expected to carry.
• As a class group, students to create a set of guidelines for employing porters to be used by tour companies and foreign trekkers. They should address:
  • clothing and equipment
  • wages and working conditions
  • healthcare and insurance.

The websites on the Activity Sheet may help to give further ideas.

Discussion points

• Would it be better to leave the porters to fight their own battles?
• What is the responsibility of foreign tour companies, and trekkers using their services, in this matter?

Differentiation

Students could create an interactive display illustrating suitable mountain clothing and what porters sometimes wear and have to carry. Local outdoor equipment suppliers may be able to help with pictures, if not loan of equipment. 

Extension

• Contact three trekking companies and find out if they have any policies already in operation.
• Look on the Tourism Concern website and find out about other forms of human rights abuse that occur in the industry.
• Students to produce a pamphlet suitable to be given out to potential trekkers, offering hints that will ensure a responsible use of porters