Testimonials

Jenny Mazi- Greece

2017-01-07T20:34:00+00:00

It was late in the evening, when a friend of mine texted to me about the application of Action Synergy, regardingthe Culty Project in Vietnam. Firstly, I said to myself there is no way for me to be selected, the chances are not in favor of me. In the end,actually, I got selected and I feel grateful about the unforgettable experience I lived in Vietnam.

Living in Athens, which is a city full of tourists during the whole year and tourism for the whole country is one of the most profitable sector of greek economy. Having worked in a community based cultural project, taking place in a special neighborhood of Athens, interacting with many foreigners during our events, I consider this project as the best opportunity of expanding my skills in alternative cultural tourism and learning more things about this type of tourism in a beautiful, full of culture, country as Vietnam. Except the fact that I would have characterised the whole experience as a life changing experience for my personal evolution, because it was the first time for me having travelled out of the european continent, at the same time I am really satisfied by the knowledge we shared in this particular field of tourism and the professionalism of the CSDS vietnamese team! My expectations were extremely fulfilled, as we travelled across the country and as we experienced two totally different models of tourism “ The Hai-Thai Village” and the more touristic destination of Ha Long Bay. Both of those places offered to us useful tips for the rest of our lives.

Furthermore, I should mention that our well organised trip was a good combination of balanced alternation between of learning and having fun. What I have learnt is about interacting with young people from different countries, exchanging successfully our cultural secrets and traditions, benefiting from each other differences and learning how to broaden the limits of our tolerance to the unknown and respect the different cutural background of every participant. And of course, I will never forget the food that I have tasted there and I must confess that vietnamese cuisine is one of the best for me. I would have liked to have more time to spend in the streets of the colourful city of Hanoi and to visit more museums, but our 5-day-long stay there was literally more than enough to acquire a full flavor of this amazing country.

The memories and the knowledge we took back to our countries will keep us connected and I hope we will meet each other again somehow, somewhere in the near future. Everyone's contribution wasunique and nothing would have been the same without the blend of your amazing special personalities. And, last but not least, as I always like saying to my friends from all over the world: “What we have in common is more than we have in difference, we are citizens of the world”

Daisy Nguyen

2017-01-02T22:52:08+00:00

One day, one of my teachers told me: “There is an interesting program held by CSDS Vietnam with participants from Greece, India, and Italy. It is related to cultural exchange. I see you meet all of their requirements. Why don’t you apply to join the program?”. That is why I participated in CulTY project in December 2016. Busy with exams as I was, I still felt so excited and had some expectations. In fact, I was over the moon that most of my expectations were met! This was undoubtedly a holiday in which all the chosen destinations were relaxing ones; the activities included were responsible tourism related. Acquiring and exchanging knowledge with all other 3 countries were successfully achieved with further profound understanding culture, tradition, and tourism activities. Connections among 4 countries were made. I am a bit down in the dumps when it came to an end of the 5-day program, yet it is certain that more and more significant projects will follow with the belief of strengthening relationships among 4 countries and contribution to substantial positive changes.

Thuy Nguyen- Vietnam

2017-01-02T22:43:48+00:00

Cultural Tourism for Youth Seminar is definitely one of the highlights of my 2016. It brought me to friendly, energetic, enthusiastic, talented and humorous people. I really treasure moments being with them, together joining all the activities in the seminar. Each of them brought to the Seminar sharing, ideas and initiatives for the development of tourism industry in their own nations generally and Vietnam particularly.

And one of the outstanding activities in the program was the Culture Exchange night. Thank to it, I had an opportunity to see how great and beautiful our cultural values are.

Obviously, the ending of the seminar will open up a new beginning our futher cooperation and exchange activities in the future. Hope to see you all soon some day, some where.

Loads of love.

Huyen Nguyen- Vietnam

2016-12-31T00:31:15+00:00

My expectation before this seminar is getting to know more about tourism in Vietnam and would like to know how foreigners evaluate tourism in Vietnam. I also want to know more friends from Italy, Greece and India. Each country has a different culture and really interesting. That’s why I registered this seminar to explore the new things for myself. During the seminar, I have learned more information about Vietnamese tourism through expert eyes what I’ve never heard before. Now, I have the people like you who always want to develop and protect tourism. Our actions are one of step to get closer than the aim of tourism which we are towards. Eco Village or Ha Long Bay. Only one day was in each place so we could see and discuss more about the situation there and have some comments to help its more development. Talk about our relationship among friends from India, Greece and Italy. I’m very glad to see you all and hosted you in Vietnam. I hope that you had a great time in Vietnam. Friends from Greece. All of you are very cute, enthusiastic, active and friendly. Especially, A Lực and Kana. With A Lực, you had a new mother in Vietnam and learned Vietnamese so fast. I hope you could remember all the words that we taught you. And Kana with your age at the moment, I never believe that you could be so cute and more active like that. You make me believe that no matter how old you are, no matter what you do, let’s live and do whatever you like and you want to do. Our friends from India. I like your dance, I like the way you welcomed all the people to the culture night and your food even though it’s a bit spicy to me. The last one of my friends from Italy. Your cheese and wine was so great. Finally, thank you to CSDS who gave me a great opportunity to meet all of you and join this seminar. I hope we can see together one day. I forgot all my friends, colleagues in CSDS, thank you so much for being and supporting me during the seminar. I believe that we are a good team ever.

Big loves and hugs from Vietnam!

Roopam Sharma- India

2016-12-31T00:17:56+00:00

Culty (cultural Tourism for Youth) as the name suggests is the blend of cultures, ideas and languages. All these things will leave an impression on your brain for life and you will feel , “Yes, we all live in the world which is very diverse yet unite”. When Dillip proposed me the entire concept of Culty , I was so excited as I am a person who has an inclination towards languages , cultures and knowing people. It gave me all of that at its best. ‘Vietnam' and ‘vietnamese' both are now a beautiful part of my life. The knowledge they shared about their life and culture has moved me . I will be following books and google to know more. The experience at ‘Halong bay' just made me feel alive . Gratitude to Mr. Dillip Pattnaik for this wonderful opportunity, care and rigid support. I met people , shared brilliant ideas and know various minute things about different languages. I will be learning some of them . At last , I am taking from here a bundle of memories, colorful moments and friends for life . Thankyou everyone ! For contributing to it in your own way ..

Francesco Luciano- Italy

2016-12-31T00:11:14+00:00

Dear friends,

I would like to thank you everybody specially all the members of CSDS for the organization of the seminar and other events of the week; furthermore I will never forget my birthday in the beautiful location of Ha Long Bay, both because it’s one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever seen and both because it was an opportunity to exchange different cultural visions and alternative point of view.

I would like to emphasize the great hospitality and helpfulness of all members of CSDS throughout the week and thank their good organization and professionalism it was possible to meet the expectations of each participants and work in the fulfillment of the objectives of the project.

I hope to see you soon, perhaps in India.

Lucia Puzziello- Italy

2016-12-31T00:02:32+00:00

When I’ve known that I would have had the chance to participated to the CULTY program in Hanoi I was quite excited, nervous and positive. It was the first time for me to participate to this kind of seminar in another continent and my hope was primarily to not disattend any expectations.

I’ve left Rome with a lot of energy, don’t knowing exactly what I was going to meet, but for sure with the intention to prove all my knowledge and capacities, my strenght and my good will.

Spend one week with all the international members of the project, from Vietnam, India and Greece, taught me to work in a multicultural context, to face and overcome personal insecurities, to learn from their passion, their joy, their professionality.

During that week I understood what respect is. It means be open to other use and tradition, try to let you being understood from each person., follow the rules that we have decided all together. It means think about what we are doing and how is our behaviour. Think about the others’ hard work.

In Vietnam I felt an adult, a woman. My thoughts, my words had a weight. I felt professional, capable, smart. Not because my ego was “flying high”, but because I felt that people i was appreciating were respecting me and above all were interested about my judgement, my opinion. I felt part of a system that was working in the right way.

I came back to Italy stronger, happier, a bit grown up (as only travel and meet new people can make you grow up), more confident and with a different prospective about people, cultures and differencies. Each experience of this kind we live add a dowel to ourselves and to our personalities, as to a huge mosaic.

We come back to our homes, our families and friends, our cities and our routines, but we have another light inside, another awareness. We are all living this world, we are connected, from our wishes, our hopes, form what we want to change and to improve in our world. We come back knowing that we can make the difference, all together.

Mentioning a Pink Floyd amazing song “Togehter we stand, divided we fall.”

Deirdre O Grady- Ireland

2016-12-30T23:53:10+00:00

From December 5-9^th, I learned about alternative cultural tourism with a wonderful group of people from four different countries. Twenty -eight participants represented youth groups from Vietnam, India, Greek and Italy and ensured a wide range of cultural perspectives and experience of tourism in their home countries.

The week-long conference was hosted by CSDS, a Vietnamese civic society organisation, who are committed to enabling young people to become leaders in their own community and take social action. At the time, I was working as a volunteer for CSDS and was given the chance to participate in the seminar.

I expected the seminar to be a mix of theory (talks and workshops) and practice (the field trips and culture nights). The mix of theory and practice was perfectly balanced. On the first day, we had an intensive introduction to alternative cultural tourism and community based tourism. On the second day we set out on the road to visit two tourism models; Thai Hai Eco Village and Halong Bay. These tourism models were very different in terms of scale, level of popularity and also, sustainability, For this reason, we were able to compare the two models and apply the knowledge learned from the talks and workshops. For example, the group suggested that rules against pollution in Halong Bay should be stricter in order to improve the quality of the water. On the other hand, the group commended the preservation of traditional lifestyle and culture in Thai Hai eco- village. They also recommended that the Thai Hai community increase the level of tourist information to make it more accessible to international visitors. I was really impressed by the observations made by the group and understood the value of having a meeting of culturally diverse minds.

From the beginning to the end, there was lively discussion, adventure and of course, cultural exchange. My personal highlight was the ‘Culture Night’ as each country presented an aspect of their culture. The Vietnamese hosts treated us to a live- action fairytale and traditional dances from North, Central and South Vietnam. We learned some Bollywood dance moves and the Greek circle dance. The Italian participants explained the history of some of their culinary delights; limencello and delicious cheese!

I feel so lucky that I was able to participate in this seminar. Together we learned about

one another, Vietnam and opportunities and challenges for alternative cultural tourism worldwide. Travel broadens your horizons and the opportunity to travel with a group of people from all corners of the world is totally unique. CULTY 2016 was a truly unforgettable experience!

Antonis Antoniadis- Greece

2016-08-25T19:44:09+00:00

My participation in the first meeting of the project CulTY in Castellammare di Stabia is an experience that I treasure dearly.
Being a tourism manager, I had the opportunity to broaden my perceptions and knowledge on alternative cultural tourism. On one had my participation in the project was the trigger to study in greater depth the alternative cultural tourism sector of my region (Meteora) and come in touch with the local professionals who are involved in it. On the other hand, attending the presentation of the other speakers gave me a wider scope on the subject. How alternative cultural tourism is perceived in other countries and what is its impact in those other communities.

Additionally, through the activities of the project I had the opportunity to participate in some very interesting workshops and in some engaging archaeological visits. Approaching the history of Castellammare di Stabia through the music and art workshops made me understand better the local culture and offered me a deep cultural involvement. Meanwhile visiting the sightseeing with our guide Mr. Gardelli was a fine example of how avoiding the tourist traps can be a fulfilling tourist activity.

In a personal level the CulTY project was a heart-warming experience. Us the participants, we got to know us better, to learn each other’s background and civilization and to build personal relationships. The international character of the project and the distance that separate our home countries (India, Vietnam, Italy and Greece) adds up to the uniqueness and value of the project.

Lastly, being a volunteer for Action Synergy, it was very important for me how professional and giving they were from their part. I felt that Kostas and Alexandros did their utmost regarding the materialisation of the project in general and the managing of our team.