Leaving a Legacy of Peace: A Former Government Employee’s Vision for Sustainable Travel

Tracey Ford is the Founder of Local Insights, a social enterprise dedicated to connecting locals with tourists, offering them authentic personal encounters that go well beyond the typical guidebook experience. Previously, Tracey held a government role working with the armed services, where she specialized in coordinating logistics for events with a focus on cultural considerations among attendees.

In this conversation with host Amy Hager, Tracey Ford shares her journey and the unique path that led her to her current role. During this discussion, Amy and Tracey dive into the impact of The RISE Travel Institute's Flagship Certificate Program. This program has played a pivotal role in enhancing Tracey’s comprehension of responsible tourism, cultural sensitivity, and inclusivity. 

Tracey’s goal is to create a positive impact on the world through tourism, making it a better place one friendship at a time. She aims to leave behind a legacy of promoting world peace by connecting people from diverse backgrounds.

Host: Amy Hager - Social Media Manager at The RISE Travel Institute
Video and Audio Editing: Kate Mulvihill - Video and Podcast Producer at The RISE Travel Institute
Graphic Design: Shirley Wong - Freelance Art Director
Music: "On My Way" Kevin MacLeod (License) 

Transcript

Intro     
Hello and welcome. Wherever you are in the world today, thank you for joining us for The RISE Traveler, unpacking conversations of sustainable travel. We are here to talk to eco minded and socially conscious travelers, diversity and inclusion specialists, wildlife conservationists, environmental activists, and anyone using travel as a way to uplift and inspire. Together, we will go a step beyond the Instagram-ready world of travel, and take a look at how travel can be a source of growth and development for all people in all communities.
This podcast is an extension of the RISE Travel Institute, a 501c3 nonprofit committed to empowering young travelers through educational programs, research, study tours and scholarships. Visit risetravelinstitute.org to learn more. And now, here's your host, Amy Hager.

Amy Hager     
Hello, hello, wherever you are in the world today. Thank you for joining us on The RISE Traveler, unpacking conversations of sustainable travel. We're here to really talk about how travel can be uplifting and inspiring and going a step beyond that Instagram-ready world that we kind of see and know of travel and really take a look at how travel can be a source of growth and development for all people in all communities. Here at the RISE Travel Institute we're committed to empowering travelers through education programs, research, study tours and scholarships. So learn more by visiting risetravelinstitute.org. I'm your host, Amy Hager, welcome.
And today, I am really excited to have Tracey Ford visiting from Washington State. And we're going to dive in a little bit more. But Tracey actually is an alumni of our program. And so we're going to talk about her experience there. But she also has this really, really awesome business that I want to talk about as well. So Tracey, thank you for joining me today.

Tracey Ford     
Thank you so much for having me. It's been a real pleasure to chat with you. And I'm looking forward to our talk today.

Amy Hager     
Yeah. So go ahead and share. I think what is really interesting is like your background, and you were just talking about being employee versus entrepreneur and things along those lines. So take us through a little bit about your background, because I think it's very unique and a different story than what we've told before.

Tracey Ford     
Yeah, sure. So I was a government employee, I worked for the military for my entire career, basically. I was always coordinating meetings and events and conferences. And my last little stint before I started my venture was as a protocol officer for the military. So protocol officers generally help coordinate meetings and events and keeping in mind the cultural considerations that two different people may have. So if you have an American visiting with a Japanese or Korean visiting with an American, how do you manage those cultural differences and bridge those divides, so that the substance of the meeting can become the focus and not the maybe the cultural sensitivities that may get a little bit in the way. So it's been a really great career, I've enjoyed it. But I've decided to switch into entrepreneurship. And here we are now. So it's quite a change.

Amy Hager     
Well, so talk to me a little bit about your business. It's called Local insights, correct?

Tracey Ford     
It is. It's called Local insights. And it really became a vision of mine, in the last two or three years. My husband's in the military, and we moved overseas. And because of the working situation, and visas and such, I decided to go back to school and get my master's degree. And part of that was, it's a master's in social entrepreneurship through Pepperdine University. And it's a really great program. It's sort of like a business program that helps create businesses that do social good. And part of that program, I focused on tourism, and how do I create a tourism entity or product or business that helps do social good along the way? I love to travel, I love to be in new places, but how do I spend my money in a way that's really effective and helpful to the places that I'm going. So I created Local Insights, which is supposed to help connect travelers with locals in a way that is deeper than a guide book. It's not, it's not a tour guide. And it's not a tour. And you're not doing just like you know, the standard guide book kind of things, but being able to sit down and have a conversation with somebody about things that you don't necessarily find in a guidebook or find online. Or, you know, you see the Instagram posts, but there's something behind there, right? There's something else that's going on? And how do you get that, that back and that deeper story and connect with somebody on a more personal level?

Amy Hager     
And so then why is actual connecting local every day normal people, I guess, is what I'm going to call them, right? And travelers, why is this so important?

Tracey Ford     
Well I think as travelers, you go places, and you really get a good superficial view of a new location. Whether that's, you know, the next town over from where you are, or it's a completely different country, or a completely different culture, you're really just seeing, you know, the top 1% of an environment. And when you can talk to people that live there, you really get a much better understanding of the world. And I think when you do that, you become friends. The world becomes a little bit smaller place. You understand what life is like in different places. You can understand cultures and make connections. And I think once you've made those connections, and you've come to appreciate a new place, you may work a little harder to preserve it. You may work a little harder to protect that environment or protect that people. When you see a news story and or conflict happening somewhere, you think, “Hey, I've been there. I know people that live there? And how can I help in a way that is sustainable and helpful using my tourism dollars?”

Amy Hager     
And so how has knowing someone locally really helped you? Because I know you've moved a lot and traveled a lot within your military, family career? How has it actually impacted your life?

Tracey Ford     
Yeah, so we moved to the Washington area from the Middle East. And, you know, that's a culture shock for an American, no matter what way you slice it. And I really just wanted to get a better feel for the culture and, and being able to sit down and have sort of a conversation with the girlfriend. You know, why are you wearing a head covering? What is it like to go to a mosque? I didn't grow up in an area that had any Muslims. And so being in like, immersed into this place, and not knowing how to operate myself, you know, what do I wear? What do I say? What do I do? And so finding some of these people that I could actually have a genuine conversation with really helped me to assimilate and be more respectful of the place. And had I had I not made those like personal connections with people.

Amy Hager     
So then making those personal connections… And I think one thing too, is it's not just at random posting online saying, “Hey, I'm going to Bahrain or hey, I'm going to Bremerton, Washington.” There's some deliberance behind it, right. And you want to also make sure that you're connecting people from under utilized individuals in? So why is that important?

Tracey Ford    
Well, again, I mean, it goes back to tourism dollars, right how much money you have to spend when you go on vacation. And if you can go to a place and support a local economy, or a group of people from an overlooked community or marginalized community. You know, say there's a group of senior citizens and, you know, you're you're traveling with your partner, and you have this interest in, I don't know, 18th century architecture, and you can meet, you know, a retired architecture professor, when you're in, you know, this Piazza and this little town in Rome. What better way to learn about this place? You know, so now you've learned something, you've spent your tourism dollars in a way that is sustainable for the people that are there, and the locals then earn a little bit of money, you know, senior citizens are historically lonely, they get a little isolated, as they as they retire and come out of the workforce. So all of a sudden, now they're having this social life, they can meet with people for coffee, once a week, twice a week, whatever their schedule allows. Or maybe it's a you know, a different kind of marginalized community that that is overlooked or needs, you know, a little bit more flexible schedule. Maybe you're a family traveling with with kids, and you want to meet with, you know, the local soccer football group, that's where you're going and you want to have a playdate with another family that's there. I think that's a really great way to experience a culture that's deeper.

Amy Hager    
And I think one thing too, at RISE like this really parallels with our beliefs is having that deep, immersive experience, looking at through the lens of impacting positively on the place that you're visiting, and the people that you're visiting with and honoring the lifestyle of those citizens and the culture. And so knowing that we have a lot of the same parallels and missions, I'm curious, why did you take the RISE Flagship Certificate Program?

Tracey Ford     
Well, part of my master's program was my focus in tourism. And I knew that I was a tourist and I knew how to be your traditional tourist, but I didn't know how to be a good tourist. And so really, it came from a bit of a drive to be personally responsible for what I was doing. But also I wanted to gather the information from the RISE course, so that I could then in turn, share it with the locals that I will be recruiting for my business. So as a local, you'll come and work for Local Insights. But I want the locals to have that same base level of knowledge to be good hosts for their countries. But then also the tourists, they need to have a base understanding of a culture they go to, they need to understand what it's like to have, you know, a culture that is maybe not theirs, or, you know, how do you as say, an American going into, you know, a different country, you know, how do you approach that that spectrum of power? How do you approach in a way that is, it's not just sustainability and you know, greenwashing of things, but, you know, are you taking photos of children? Are the children happy for you to take photos of them? You know, are you riding an elephant in a place that is just bad for the elephant? So the information from the RISE course really is helping me shape my business and how I communicate those principles to the tourists that I will be engaging with and the locals that I'll be working with. Yeah.

Amy Hager     
And so was there one thing from your travels, and even learning what you've learned from the Flagship Certificate Program, that has really impacted you personally?

Tracey Ford     
You know, part of my part of my master's program was doing a, you know, an internship if you will. And I was able to travel to Rwanda for about a month, and I was coordinating with a local tour company there. Red Rocks, if you haven't been, it's fantastic, a little plug for them. But I was walking around Rwanda. I was in the main capital city, Kigali, and then I was in a smaller village. And it really, really struck me that I had never been the “other” in a culture, I had never been the one who looked different from everybody else. And really, reflecting now upon that, I can remember walking down the street for three or four days in a row, and I was the only white person that was there. And it became very overwhelming to manage that. And so, you know, coming back from Rwanda and understanding, you know, some of that coursework that we had about decolonizing and inclusivity, and having to understand where I fit in the larger world and a larger scheme. Gosh, I can't imagine a more, impactful moment that I had. And then also being able to sort of reflect that back to the people that I see that are the other, whether it's, you know, other gender, other, you know, race, other culture, whatever that is, yeah, it's just, it's very disorienting.

Amy Hager    
And so then, kind of tying all of this together with your business, the flow of getting your master's and going through the program, having this experience in your internship and knowing that, you know, you're going to be able to really help people connect differently at that local level. Why, why is this work so important to you? What's the “why” behind all of this?

Tracey Ford     
Oh, gosh, why do I do this? I really think I said this to somebody once and they thought it was just a pipe dream. And so silly. I really think that if we travel and we become friends, that we can generate world peace, right? It sounds like you know, the Miss America, the Miss America pledge, like I would, I would like world peace. But honestly, if you can learn something about another person, you connect with them. And you are more likely to be nice to them, to be grateful for them, to advocate for them, to you know, be a partner with them to help when you need. And one person can do this, 20 People, a million people, an entire country, right? Like if we can just expand this, you know, one on one friendship in a way that just ripples out to the world, you know, the world's a better place.

Amy Hager     
And so is that the legacy that you're looking to leave behind in this world?

Tracey Ford     
Oh, you know, legacy that's such it's such a loaded term. But I really would like to be remembered for making the world a better place. And I don't know how exactly I'm going to do that. But tourism is the avenue that I'm going to be taking. So I hope that my project succeeds. And if it doesn't, at the very least, I'll be a good tourist along the way.

Amy Hager     
Well, I am sending you and I know all of our listeners are sending you all of the best luck. And I think you do have a beautiful vision that can be really utilized. And so you know, I think you've learned what you needed to learn along the way from your different studies. And we're always learning, right? There's never a stop to that. So thank you so much for including us on a part of your journey.

Tracey Ford     
I thank you so much. And RISE has been really a great resource for me as a business owner and as a tourist. And I really would encourage anybody even as just an individual person to just check out some of the offerings and the resources they have because it'll just make your experiences so much better.

Amy Hager     
Thank you so much for sharing that and just kind of summarizing it for us and bringing us to the end of our journey today, Tracey. So if you’ve liked what Tracey has said about the RISE Travel Institute Program, be sure to check out our website and if you want to hear more inspiring stories like Tracey's, please subscribe, like or comment. You can follow us at RISE Travel Institute on Facebook or Instagram. We're also on Twitter @bearisetraveler. And remember here at the RISE Travel Institute, we believe travel is a powerful tool for positive transformative change. So, if you're planning to study abroad, if you're thinking about maybe a gap year because you're in college, or really if you're just anyone who's wanting to travel the world in a sustainable way, we do encourage you to head on over to risetravelinstitute.org for more information on our educational courses and our upcoming Certificate Program. We will be back soon again with another episode but until then, keep roaming, keep learning and continue to be a RISE T raveler. Bye bye!

Close     
This podcast is an extension of The RISE Travel Institute, a 501c3 nonprofit committed to empowering young travelers through educational programs, research, study tours, and scholarships. Visit risetravelinstitute.org to learn more.