Who we are?
We have the great pleasure to invite you to join our young lively (and lovely?) Hospitality Network that has been established by the non-governmental organization (NGO) “Sustainable Sighisoara” in Transylvania. Since Hospitality is a part of every day’s life we have estabilished this non-profit project aiming tp strengthen up and preserve hospitality as a cultural value (mainly in Eastern and Southeastern Europe). For this purpose the network tries to interlink a broad range of commercial and noncommercial stakeholders in the field of ecological, cultural, industrial and alternative tourism like small hostels, B&Bs, organic food producers, craftsmen, fair trade shops ,private persons and NGOs active in sustainable tourism, ecology, heritage preservation, social issues etc.
What make us different?
We look to the visitor of a place/region/country not as a simple “tourist” (with a certain travel budget to be exploited by the locals) but as a GUEST
Locals are not just ‘aboriginees’ or tourist personnel to satisfy the tourists wishes and desires, but an important part of the local culture that should be respected as such.
Carpathia tries to put make Locals and Visitors are Partners work together to get the maximum comfort of this collaboration.(see other principles here)
Who is Carpathia?
We are about 40 members (tour operators, B&Bs, NGOs, organic farmers etc.) coming from different background in Eastern European countries; However, many of us come from Transylvania in Romania. Since Carpathia is a network, it is led by Hans Hedrich (the founder), who is also a volunteer in the NGO Sustainable Sighisoara (Sighisoara Durabila). We are having a very inclusivist approach to management, by making the network and the management to be participatory, democratic and open – HOSPITABLE.
How does Carpathia work?
Carpathia is a tool to ‘produce’ real hospitality by promoting (your) accommodation facilities, places to discover, organic food products and tourism services, as well as (your) nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
We ‘produce’ interlinking, information, understanding, networking between network members and external users for the overall aim of preserving and strengthening hospitality in our countries and regions.
Whom are we looking for?
We want Carpathia also to be functional, efficient and sustainable (lasting)! Therefore we welcome people who know to combine all this to actively participate in the networks development – make it yours by keeping it ours… Soon after some new members will have joined us, we’ll post a complete list of network participants on our mailing list (for mailing list see below).
