Forge, do not follow.

Instagram and the influencer culture have made it the default mode just to follow.

Yes, there are reasons why the masses keep going back to specific instafamous locations - they are usually really beautiful. But this leads to overtourism. We learned at the Sustainable Tourism Asia Conference in 2019 that “the top 50 travel destinations globally account for 50% of tourism” and “94 of 100 top travel destinations stayed the same in the last four years (2016-2019).”

Jin, co-founder of Chickenfeet Travels, has scoured most corners of South East Asia and she will tell you 110 other spots that are better than the insta-famous ones. They are made more special by the sense of discovery and the lack of tourists. What we are saying is… join us in forging a new path.

But going off the same old beaten path can take time: time in the location itself waiting for fortunate moments meeting the right people who will take you to the best spots or time beforehand researching everything about a destination. But if you don’t know what you don’t know, if you don’t know what to put into the search engine, how do you find the better option?

There is a balance between travel costs; you pay with your time, money, or grit. You can spend time backpacking around looking for the best places, sometimes having to put up with the hardship when you don’t find the good ones (the “grit”). Or you can bypass that by spending money on exclusive, luxury options.

Chickenfeet Travels’ adventures find themselves in the middle. We go to epic locations, we prioritise culture and connection with local homestays and guesthouses and we design affordable trips from three days to forever. Everywhere our travellers go, Jin and/or Simon have been. We consider all of the guides we work with as friends and family. Jin is a backpacker at heart, she continues to visit everyone we work with as often as possible. And as the world opens back up, there are still places she plans to forge a path to in 2022 and beyond.

Together, by forging new paths, we can achieve our conservation vision.

For the planet and for the people

On the receiving end of tourism, the local communities in the far offbeat locations benefit in unimaginable ways when we decide to use our money as a force for good. The pandemic was a stark wake-up call to the world that 1 in 10 people benefit from tourism. Jin has personally seen the benefit of responsible and respectful tourism. She has seen communities transform in inspiring ways. When we wander where the wifi is weak, we indirectly and inevitably pay for the further education of the children in these communities and we save lives by providing extra income for what we deem “everyday” sicknesses (common cold, diarrhea, mosquito bites) that take lives unnecessarily due to a lack of access to healthcare.

If you asked Jin to describe the goal of Chickenfeet Travels in one word, the word is: conservation. When you travel better, you contribute to: the conservation of endangered animals on land and underwater; the conservation of our shared heritage through the culture and knowledge of Indigenous people globally; and the conservation of our future existence on Earth. This is the vision of Chickenfeet Travels.