Tourism Coordinator

Awamaki is seeking an adventurous, hardworking, flexible person to guide and facilitate service, volunteer and sustainable tourism experiences in the Sacred Valley of Peru.

Our ideal candidate can work fluidly alongside indigenous artisan women and foreign tourists to facilitate respectful and empowering exchanges. We hope for someone who is personable, friendly, and enjoys working with tourists, students or volunteers directly for most of their day! This person must also be able to spend day trips or multi-day trips in remote Andean indigenous communities helping artisan women host tourist and service groups. Calm, creative problem-solving skills are a must, as anything can come up!

Important: We are seeking someone who can start ASAP. Start dates after June 1 will not be considered.

About Awamaki

Awamaki is a non-profit social enterprise that partners with Quechua women to preserve traditional crafts through skills based education and connection to market access through sustainable tourism and ethically-sourced crafts. Awamaki is located in Ollantaytambo, a small town in the heart of the Sacred Valley, in Cusco, Peru. Ollantaytambo is one of the most beautiful places you will ever live or visit.

JOB DESCRIPTION

As an assistant/guide to the tourism team, you would be expected to:

• Lead community service groups to indigenous communities, facilitating risk management, light construction work, and artisan-led tourism
• Facilitate day and overnight tours in our rural partner communities, including translation (when necessary) and coordination of weaving demonstrations, supporting homestays, assisting with weaving lessons and accompanying hikes with local guides.
• Work directly with indigenous artisans to facilitate the tour experiences.
• Maintain cultural sensitivity and anti-colonialist language and perspective as you work with indigenous women and families.
• Provide excellent customer support and appropriately handle challenging situations such as passengers becoming ill on tours.
• Help coordinate tour logistics such as bookings, transportations, and payments.
• Learn basic Quechua phrases in order to better communicate with people in the communities.
• Assist in the business management side of the tourism business, including pricing, tour offerings, and marketing strategy.
• Staff at least two shifts a week in the Awamaki Fair Trade Store (required of all Awamaki staff and volunteers). 

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

An ideal candidate for this position would possess the following qualities:

• Calm, creative problem-solver
• Enjoys interaction with people as a large part of your workday
• Respectful and anti-colonialist perspective on tourism to indigenous communities; ability to facilitate tours in a way that lets artisans lead
• Previous experience in the tourism sector
• Be knowledgeable about Latin American cultures, especially in Peru
• Have experience traveling abroad, especially within the region
• Ability to work some evenings, overnights and weekends (with some weekdays off in recompense)
• Physical ability to spend long amounts of time at very high altitude, hike over uneven terrain, work light construction on service project sites, and carry reasonable loads.
• Bilingual Spanish-English required; Quechua a plus.
• Ability to work legally in Peru (DNI or carnet) strongly preferred

Paid training provided on site.