One of the most beautiful regions in the world is located where the nations Uganda, Rwanda and Congo come together. The Virunga Mountains stand high above this region, and the wildlife that lives there has drawn the attention of travelers from all over the world. In the Washington Post, Henry Wismayer stated her calling a new article. Along the way, he was engaged in an ambitious project combining online membership programs with physical travel

“[D]Eep freshwater lakes, which have been shaped by millennia of tectonic shifts in the western branch of the Great Rift Valley, are a green lowland, ”Wismayer wrote. “And the approximately 1,000 remaining mountain gorillas live on the volcanic slopes, which are densely overgrown with afromontane forest, which is probably the most popular encounter with wild animals on earth.”

Much has been written about it Virunga National Park, located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is home to around a third of the world’s population of mountain gorillas. But that’s only part of the region. What Wismayer described in his article is an initiative to empower local businesses across the region, both virtually and via travelers, when international travel has become a regular occurrence again.

The project is called Gorilla Highlands expertsIt’s a membership program that includes monthly interviews and courses from experts from a variety of disciplines, covering everything from local history to cuisine. Members can also book trips through the company. Its founder, Miha Logar, emphasized that this approach is intended to allow greater immersion in the region.

“We like to travel slowly, stay in the community, go overland,” he told the Post. “That way, it’s far more likely that the financial contribution will reach the local people.” It’s an interesting way to combine online membership programs and classes with physical travel, and it’s easy to see the appeal from different angles. And if it benefits local businesses that have been hard hit by the pandemic, that’s even better.

For more travel information, tips and inspiration, Log In for InsideHook’s weekly travel newsletter, The Journey.