Daniel, glad you found this article interesting and I completely agree that it would be great to see other travel companies apply this or a similar score to measure the amount of money that stays local from a tour. Sounds like you are already traveling in a way that focuses on buying, eating and staying local. Once one becomes more aware of economic leakages it’s good to reevaluate decisions and spending to and minimize those leakages and maximize the money spent locally.

I always try to stay locally, eat at local restaurants (no matter what’s on the menu – for better or worse haha), and buy my clothes/souvenirs etc from locals too. I had no idea how much of a difference that makes, and didn’t realise how much I’ve accidentally contributed to the leakage too. The $5 stat really is horrifying

Great to hear that you already focus on buying local and trying to keep your travel money in the community! Although it may seem like common sense, sometimes it is easy to lose sight of this and be conscious about choosing tours and experiences where the benefit stays local.