Selamat Datang Alice dan Ilona – Welcome to Indonesia Alice and Ilona!
A Liquid Future was created on the principles of sharing knowledge and ideas, believing that from this process innovative, relatable and impactful initiatives spring forth.
Having volunteers come and experience the joy of sharing who they are with local communities and likewise providing the opportunity for members of remote coastal communities to have the chance to meet people from quite a different background and reality is an important part of what A Liquid Future is and how we continue to evolve.
Currently we have two French university students, Alice Bray and Ilona Enjalbert, who are studying Sustainable Tourism at Excelia Group University La Rochelle. As part of their degree course they need to spend time working with a humanitarian cause. We are delighted to be able to provide this opportunity to them and welcome them on board with A Liquid Future.
Currently in Nias for the Asian Surfing Cooperative WQS Surf Competition, the first stage of their project involves carrying our empirical research looking into the impact surfing and surf tourism has had at three quite different locations across Indonesia. They have conducted interviews across a broad sector of the local population while also talking to visiting foreign surfers here for the competitions. Experiencing the reality of a place and its people first hand is giving great context to what they have studied at university, which, for the most part, is sustainable tourism models in high income countries where education standards are very good, governments informed and sustainability an understood concept. Not true of all locations across Indonesia. We, along with partner, the Asian Surfing Cooperative are using the results from their research to further engage with the local governments in these locations to steer the influence surfing and surf tourism has on the area along sustainable lines.
Their research in the first two locations they have visited, Krui and Nias, shows that local people want and support surf tourism as they are keen to meet people from other countries, see it as a way to improve their socio-economic reality and move away from a subsistence fishing / agrarian way of living. The concept of sustainability is not well understood. When you are trying to break free of the poverty cycle, rapid infrastructural development and large resorts are favoured by locals. Using what they have studied thus far during their degree combined with their on the ground experiences, Alice and Ilona are working on a priority list of recommendations. They have also been learning to surf with the locals! Ayo Alice dan Ilona!
We will update you on their progress with another article next week!