Decolonial Tourism Through the Exchange of Experiences Between Indigenous Students from Canada and Local Indigenous Guides in Costa Rica

Abstract

This article proposes decolonial educational tourism as a way to challenge traditional narratives of conventional tourism, promoting experiences that value Indigenous knowledge, worldviews, and self-determination. It explores how the exchange of experiences between Indigenous students from Canada and Indigenous guides in Talamanca, Costa Rica, can strengthen an alternative approach to tourism. Using an ethnographic approach, we analyze the exchange experiences between Indigenous students and Indigenous tour guides. The findings suggest that such exchanges promote a more equitable form of tourism, grounded in mutual respect and shared learning, thereby challenging the extractivist logic of traditional tourism. Additionally, it promotes the cultural and economic sovereignty of host Indigenous communities, reinforcing their role as key actors in their own tourism development. This article concludes that exchange initiatives with a pedagogical perspective rooted in critical pedagogy and Indigenous education can serve as a model for decolonial tourism, in which Indigenous knowledge is centred and tourism experiences become spaces for intercultural learning, cultural resurgence, and cultural resistance.