It was time spent in Tibet that inspired entrepreneur Rocío Vázquez Landeta to return home to Mexico City and upgrade Eat Like a Local, the culinary tourism business she established in 2015. Her days with the Tibetan people taught her how to become a compassionate warrior. “This is when the social component of my company was born,” she says, “and I became the boss I would like to have in this world.”
Starting with her local community—an approach Landeta sees as essential to sustainable enterprise—she has worked to right many food tourism wrongs. To start, she provides her all-female staff with health benefits, gym memberships, and flexible work schedules. She also pays suppliers, like market stall owners, not only for their products, but also for the time they spend with tourists.
Though her tours may be more expensive than other options, they provide an opportunity for travelers to make responsible choices. “People start to understand why it’s worth paying more,” she says, “and we end up with money that can be directly invested to make the community better.”
Certified by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, Eat Like a Local reduces plastics by supplying reusable spoons and cups, offsets its carbon footprint via a reforestation program, and gives food to the homeless. Landeta is also a social activist, supporting the children of vendors at Mexico City’s La Merced Market to learn English and providing business mentoring to women. “I don’t measure success in numbers,” she says. “It’s enough that I have had a meaningful impact on a single mom who wants a better life for herself and her daughter.”
This article originally appeared in HD’s March/April 2020 issue.
