Photograph by Bob Krist

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When a TRAVELER writer/photog-
rapher team visited Papua New Guinea on a guided tour last year, they found that their fellow tourists ranged from those careful to respect local etiquette to those with a relentlessly North American perspective. From the Papuans’ point of view, foreigners paid much-needed cash for crafts and for dance performances, at the cost of occasionally boorish behavior.

Elsewhere in the world, similar cross-cultural contacts with indigenous peoples also produce mixed results. Our tourist dollars can do lots of often unrecognized good—not only by helping financially, but by placing public value on local crafts, arts, dance, music, and heritage. That’s important; it supports cultural diversity that might otherwise disappear as developing countries rush to emulate the industrialized world. But outsiders bring in a host of problems too: conspicuous wealth that raises local hopes to unrealistic levels; clothing and behavior that locals may find shocking; unhealthy eating habits; intrusive behavior; and in the worst cases, trash and pollution, condescension and racism, even sexual exploitation.

This month the Tourism Forum asks: What are the best ways to ensure that indigenous tourism does the most good and the least harm? What good and bad examples have you seen?

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