Travel2Community.com is a social networking site to let small tourism suppliers meet tourists online. Kind of a travel search engine for the little people that work in tourism. Ever notice when you search a country or city you get a bunch of middlemen who went to the web early and want to handle your arrangements. You seldom get hits for local people or small companies that are located in the destination as they get lost in the clutter or sorted to page 46 of the search engine. The World is full of culture and many small entrepreneurs that are tourism professionals avaialable to show you that World. We intend for this to be the place where tourists and local culture meet. An electronic marketplace where you can make arrangements for taxis, hotels, small local restaurants, attractions, tours, festivals and community celebrations.

As a travel agent, I am fond of saying there are Tourists and there are Travelers. In our business we cater to both. This site will cater to Travlers who want to explore the culture of the world and meet the people whether they travel on a budget or with some luxury. It is for people who want to taste the food, explore the cities and countryside, learn new cultural experiences, attend festivals, practice their favorite sport in a new place, get married on a Caribbean beach in barefeet or hop on a slow boat to China as my Grandfather was fond of saying.

Heading to Italy and want to meet small winemakers? Heading to Hawaii and want to learn to hula dance or Spain to Flamenco? Are you an Ornthologist and want to meet other birders? Heading to Vietnam and want to learn to cook? Need a local taxi driver or a boat to go diving in the Caribbean? Tired of big hotels and want to make contact with a local pensione/ b&b owner in your destination? Need a sherpa to help climb the Himalayas or always wanted to mush sled dogs in Alaska? Our site is for you!

This is a brand new idea, so bookmark us and check back often. We expect the community will grow quickly as we invite local tourism suppliers Worldwide to join the site. We define a small tourism supplier as a sole proprietor, family run business or entity with 25 or less employees. We define a small hotel as 50 rooms or less that is not part of a chain. We have also invited local attractions, restaurants, clubs and organizations, local festivals, sports clubs, community organizations, music clubs to join the community so we get an attractive offering of local activities for you on vacation.

During the registration process, we will ask each supplier to submit credentials (business license and other tourism credentials) but we take no responsibility for the accuracy of the submissions. These will be viewable from the site so you can carefully check out each supplier. We encourage you to correspond by email with the supplier and if you call, remember there may be a vast time difference. We will ask them to submit references but we will also invite other traveler community members to rate the suppliers after a vacation and give their feedback on the quality of service provided.

We have not chosen these suppliers, endorsed any particular merchant nor can we take responsibility for any type of self chosen or do it yourself travel plans. We make a particular notice that you are transacting business across the World and could have problems in isolated instances with individual merchants. You should carefully check out anyone that you are making an advance deposit to. We suggest you correspond with the supplier by email, check out the license information they post on this site along with their website. We have asked them to list any tourism organizations they belong to in their home country and you could verify membership as an additional check that you are doing business with someone real. If they do business by credit card, that is safer for deposits than a debit card, check or money order. You have to be careful to specify which currency you are doing business in when making a deal for services. I would be uncomfortable if the supplier requests full prepayment, but there are times when that happens with accommodations for a festival if rooms are at a premium or tickets to a performance or sporting event.

Small Tourism Suppliers
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Are you a small tourism supplier that is having trouble getting noticed in the marketplace? Do you run a small tour company, a taxi, a small hotel, a family run restaurant? Are you a community organization, community festival, music or sports club that has a participation program for tourists? Then you want to join this community. Do you have a great website outlining your activities and offering but nobody every finds it? Join Travel 2 Community and we'll help you get tourism customers that will be traveling to your town or country.

I am a travel agent in Tampa Florida with a strong web presence. I have been in the travel industry for over 20 years mostly as a Caribbean Tour Operator. I guess becuase we have a lot of travel websites, that are getting good search rankings, everyday I get requests to do business from across the World. As a travel agent, I can use very few of these suppliers, as we have preferred suppliers that sell most of the World in a conventional fashion. As my email filled up from all corners of the World with tourism entities looking for business, I got the idea for this social networking search engine for small tourism suppliers.

The first year registration is FREE. After that, we will be charging a small yearly renewal fee to cover the administration, hosting and maintenance of the site. You must complete the online registration and verify that you are a small tourism supplier according to our definition. This site is not for the "big boys" in travel that dominate the online world.

Once you sign up, refer a friend to this site from your City, Town or Country. The larger the collection of contacts from your area, the more hits you will get as people search for your area of the World.