Navigate the World with Confidence and Heart: Cultural Intelligence for International Travelers
We always like to say that travel can change the world, but just because someone travels to another country doesn’t mean their worldview changes.
A person can fly everywhere and return home with their same assumptions and beliefs. We are not changed with good itineraries and hotel reservations. We are changed by each other. We are changed by relationships. We are changed by expanding our understanding of how life can be wonderful, even if it’s fundamentally strange compared what we have always known.
Cultural awareness and cultural competence has been left out of the tourism conversation for far too long. If we truly want the tourism industry to be as powerful as it says it can be, we need to prepare travelers in new ways.
Beyond Tourism can teach you how to leave behind harmful cultural programming, gain a new perspective on the world, be a competent traveler, and make genuine connections across cultures.
Beyond Tourism believes that tourism should be more. Are you ready to go beyond the resort? Beyond the cruise ship? Beyond the bus tour?
We can book culturally intelligent travel for you, or provide training for travel that is already planned.
“International travel is consistently listed as being among the top three to five transformative experiences in the lives of adults. Experiencing the jarring nature of being removed from our familiar surrounding, when combined with these other practices, is one of the most powerful ways to look below the tip of the iceberg. Those of us with opportunities to travel abroad are entrusted with an amazing resource for deepening our interpretive CQ.”
— David Livermore in
Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage With Our Multicultural World
Cultural intelligence will help you stay open to receive the lessons your international travel is trying to teach you. It will provide you with a deeper, more transformative experience and will change how you understand the world.
Beyond Tourism recommends their Cultural Preparation Course or Individual Intercultural Training.
Tell me a little bit about where you want to go and what your cultural competence goals are.
Don’t forget you can watch a free 20 minute video explaining cultural intelligence and the services
of Beyond Tourism at this link.
Hi! I’m Renae and I own and operate Beyond Tourism. I have a passion for talking about, thinking about, and teaching about cultural intelligence. It’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve discovered in life, and has allowed me to hear the stories some of the most remarkable people on the planet. I also love helping people find the perfect travel experience to expand their understanding of the world and themselves.
I lived abroad in South Korea for a year in my 20s teaching English to kids. That’s when I first started to understand the significance culture has on a person. It was a challenging and growth-filled year for me, not to mention when I came back and struggled to find the words to describe cultural differences and what had happened to me.
I have spent many years of my career working and volunteering with refugees and immigrants, so while I have lived abroad, I also know a lot about building cultural intelligence from home. You can read more of my story here, including about my passion for music from around the world and radio show I have every week. I am certified by the Cultural Intelligence Center and you can see my credentials below. I can’t wait to help you grow your cultural intelligence through travel!
