14 Dec Mapo Tapo: responsible tourism
Mapo Tapo, an Italian startup that organizes group trips for climbers with an eye to sustainability, did not stop working when the second lockdown definitively compromised the possibility of traveling.
The Mapo Tapo team has in fact launched a crowdfunding campaign through Indiegogo to create The Climbing Travel Guide, a 200-page illustrated guide to give visibility to destinations off the beaten track and raise funds for the NGO Maewan, strongly committed to the development of practices of eco-tourism and environmental education related to outdoor sports.
«Climbing is becoming more and more popular – comments Daniele Calvo Pollino, CEO and co-founder of Mapo Tapo – and some of the most famous areas are affected by too high tourist flows. At the same time, there are thousands of equally beautiful areas that have almost no visibility. And responsible tourism promotion of these places could make a difference for local communities. Once the pandemic ends, we want to inspire climbers to try this way of traveling by going to different places, exploring, and connecting with local communities. This is precisely the purpose of “The Climbing Travel Guide”».
The initiative was shared on social media by athletes of the caliber of Nina Caprez, Klemen Bečan and Emma Twyford, photographers such as Lena Drapella, Giacomo Tonoli, Francesco Guerra, journalists and writers such as Alistair Humphrey and Andrew Bisharat and local climbing communities such as the very Italian Brocchi sui Blocchi and Truce Climbing.
The book proposes 50 destinations all over the world, such as Thailand, the Makatea atoll (French Polynesia), Palestine, but also our Sicily and other places still little known by international climbers here in Italy. For each area, Mapo Tapo provides an overview of the best climbing areas, with an emphasis on off-the-beaten-track areas, working side-by-side with local climbers. A photographic book with 50 destinations, more than 1000 crags and stories of local climbers, the contact points of the area. Daniele Calvo Pollino and the entire Mapo Tapo team hope to inspire the outdoor community to travel off the beaten track, connect with local climbers and pioneer a
This Indiegogo campaign is also a way to raise money for an NGO. All profits will be donated to Maewan, an NGO that supports the development of ecotourism based on outdoor sports in remote areas of the world. An example of this is the initiative regarding bolting in Makatea (French Polynesia) which involved Charlotte Durif, Jonathan Siegrist and many other professional athletes and climbers.
