This is interesting. A couple of guys have moved past the talking stage about creating a tribe and are going for it. They are forming a group to take over an island in Fiji with the goal of starting a tribal community. This is not to be another Club Med type project.
[Ben Keene, 26] and his friend Mark James, also 26, have decided to form a tribe to take over an island paradise in Fiji and they are looking for 5000 others to join them. Members are being sought from around the world, with a recruitment drive this month in Australia.
The price of membership is affordable for most at between $289 and $867.
Not only does Keene see commercial potential - but he believes there is social potential in the venture.
"The backpacking culture influences this more than anything else, combined with the online community. There are now a lot of people alienated from the community experience." He thinks the experiment will hit a gap in the market. "It's a gut feeling that people crave community. The growth in travel in the last decade has been eco travel - not just lying on a beach but bungy jumping, interacting with other cultures and being a nomad."
Membership includes meals and accommodation for seven, 14 or 21 nights.
James Arvanitakis, an academic in sociology at the University of Technology, Sydney, says: "The whole idea may sound a bit silly, but at the same time it's quite an impressive online community project. It's a cross-cultural experiment in a beautiful part of the world."
To join the tribe log on to www.tribewanted.com
Club Med. Nothing more.
Posted by: Eva | June 13, 2006 at 06:51 PM
A flawed business model means that this project will not get off the ground and all of the investors will be short-changed. Pity.
Posted by: Jengo | July 19, 2006 at 08:38 AM