Located south of Mexico City, one of the most populous and urbanized cities, lies Xochimilco. It is an area surrounded by nature, where the recurring image is that of diners and mariachis gathering on trajineras (traditional boats), navigating through a network of water canals and chinampas (floating gardens). Contrastingly, beyond the initial and frequently visited docks, various groups, such as Abejas de Barrio, exchange scientific, local, and ancestral knowledge about the environment. They demonstrate how a renewed and responsible approach to tourism, combined with the utilization of digital technologies, enables the extension of its benefits, the reduction of its negative impacts, the promotion of dignified practices for the territory, natural resources, and the culture of the visited communities. It also leads to actions for food security and the revaluation of agricultural work.
Slightly more than 1 km away from Xochimilco's most frequented trajinera docks lies the canal area of the Santísima Trinidad Chililico neighborhood. In this area, trajineras are both manufactured and repaired, and various activities, including the harvesting of vegetables and flowers, take place. There, Abejas de Barrio has been conducting activities since 2016, such as apitourism, scientific dissemination about bees and apiculture, and the sale of local beehive products, to promote the conservation of one of the most under threat pollinator species due to human activity and one of the most important to strengthen global food security. Almost 90% of flowering plants, two-thirds of global food crops, and 35% of agricultural land depend on bees.
Sandra Corales, the collective's founder, explained that her motivation was to foster questioning and a deeper understanding of our dietary choices, alongside recognizing the value of agricultural work. She had to exchange knowledge about biodiversity and sustainable agricultural practices to achieve her goal. For her, identifying the most natural foods helps improve people's health and respect their decision-making power regarding something as daily and seemingly simple as eating.
The most radical action nowadays is to become the eating to an act of self-sovereignty, and for you to know where it comes from instead of consuming something about which you have no idea
Abejas de Barrio frequently invites both children and adults to attend lectures and to observe closely the beekeeping work they perform on a chinampa, a Mesoamerican model of floating cultivation and territorial expansion that endures due to its residents Their journey has brought them into collaboration with other producers and students, ranging from elementary to higher education levels, hailing from not only Mexico City but also other states such as Oaxaca and Hidalgo. They carry out their awareness activities through trade, but they have identified responsible tourism as an option to sustain their mission.
"The countryside is real, tangible, touchable, watchable, and tours or tourism experiences lead visitors into these processes in a pedagogical and friendly manner," says Sandra. Therefore, she invites people to become beekeepers for a day and enjoy honey tasting and technical talks to confront and demystify prejudices about bees and agricultural work, especially for urban inhabitants whose countryside seems so far away.
When people have the opportunity, and the approach is deep enough, you reach another level, which is the most profound and incredible aspect of tourism, which is not romanticised
Abejas de Barrio has collaborated with producers from Xochimilco and nearby areas since its beginning. However, by creating their website, they expanded their exposure and increased visits from other states in Mexico, engaging in exchanges of viewpoints and best practices. They also identified a way to accelerate awareness through digital platforms, so they transitioned to other platforms to benefit the community more and attract an audience already interested in tourism.
The tourism sector ranks among the top employers worldwide, with one in ten people, particularly women and young individuals. However, opportunities are usually concentrated in the hotel industry and prevailing attractions. Therefore, Airbnb and UNESCO Mexico implemented a training project to promote a new model of responsible, cultural, and creative tourism developed in collaboration with local entrepreneurs and their communities, aiming to create and improve tours, also named "experiences" by Airbnb.
It's a new window into tourism that people are looking for. If people don't have experiences, they only have a biased view of reality. If you meet local artisans and see their workshops and labour, it changes your understanding
Sandra shared that she had already experimented with the Airbnb platform and initially had low expectations of the training series. However, she now considers sharing her learnings with other beekeepers by identifying sustainable practices that reduce negative impacts, promote a circular local economy, and encourage responsible and respectful behaviour from visitors to the heritage, cultural diversity and nature kept by inhabitants. After participating in the workshops by UNESCO and Airbnb for a month, Abejas de Barrio doubled the visits to their Experience called "Beekeeper for a Day."
I loved it. I had already been around bees before, but I had never taken a breath to meditate on the importance of every detail. It was an enriching experience that, beyond leaving a sweet taste in my mouth (literally, honey), taught me the significance of these little beings in the world
UNESCO's project promoted skills enhancement of communities' expertise they already had. Sandra believed that more people per tour would increase apitourism income to continue the collective's environmental and productive activities. However, they didn't want it to be too massive to preserve a balance and proper care of the community, natural resources and bees. Nevertheless, they identified alternatives during the workshops to continue working with small groups and maintain responsible practices, a statement which can be challenging to reconcile.
The honey producer mentioned that her collaboration with UNESCO and Airbnb was primarily related to heritage, not only to World Heritage areas of Xochimilco. Abejas de Barrio's tour starts at the Santísima Trinidad de Chililico Chapel. It has a significant historical, cultural, and social value but is little known. Scenes from the 1944 movie "Maria Candelaria," directed by Emilio "El Indio" Fernández and starring the iconic actress Dolores del Río, were filmed there. Besides, workers depart from there to sell and distribute flowers throughout Mexico City, in shopping malls, streets and public green spaces.
Xochimilco was also the birthplace of the tlacuilo (or scribe) Juan Badiano, who, along with Martín de la Cruz, born in Tlatelolco, is credited with the "Libellus de medicinalibus indorum herbis" (Book on the medicinal herbs of indigenous peoples), better known as the Codex of the Cruz-Badiano. It is one of the oldest records of Mesoamerican herbal medicine, written during the colonial era and translated from Nahuatl to Spanish. "We should have it printed at the entrance of the neighbourhood. That's my madness. So people know how valuable it is, explore that document, see it, get to know it, know what it says," said Sandra.
Sometimes you think you're born in a needy neighbourhood, where you think there's no option, but, on the contrary, it's full of prosperity. It's us locals who should take advantage of it
Abejas de Barrio's involvement on the Airbnb platform enables them to host international visitors, reinforcing a circular economy within the Santísima Trinidad neighborhood, and broadening opportunities to connect with beekeeping enthusiasts and producers from around the globe. It helps improve local processes in Xochimilco and fortify the role of the inhabitants as guardians of heritage and cultural diversity.
Catalogue of cultural, creative and community tourism in Mexico City
A catalogue of cultural, creative, and community tourism for Mexico City was created as part of the project. It shows more than 20 local and decentralized proposals in the city. Thanks to this, Sandra and her team have received new visits recently, including academic ones, such as a student group from the Business Administration undergraduate programme of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, to learn about sustainable tourism development.
