Myco-tourism: A Mushrooming Opportunity
Ezequiel Cruz of Fungaria leading a mushroom foray for a visiting group in Chiapas, Mexico
Mushroom tourism is popping off like Pioppinos. A growing number of outfitters around the world are offering bespoke travel experiences centered around mushroom foraging and ID workshops, citizen science, wild mushroom culinary adventures, and tripping - sometimes all rolled into one bundle.
Jamaica has emerged as a myco-tourism hotspot thanks to the legal industry propping up psilocybin mushrooms in the tropical island paradise. Dozens of retreat centers offer guided psilocybin mushroom experiences on the island, with price tags that run from $360 for a single session on the low-end to all-inclusive luxury retreats costing in excess of $12,000 a week on the high end.
Facilitating the flow of tourism dollars from the Global North to the Global South is a noble objective for a number of reasons; in many parts of the world, tourism is the main economic opportunity for communities. If done well, the communities are able to embrace sustainable economic development opportunities that incentivize them to preserve their heritage and protect the native ecosystem as a tourism draw rather than bulldozing land for raising livestock or ceding territories to mining concessions and monoculture such as palm oil or pineapple plantations folded into the portfolios of multinational corporations.
Mushroom tourism provides economic value to resource-strapped communities as well; In a podcast I did with Justin Townsend, CEO of leading magic mushroom retreat provider MycoMeditations in Treasure Beach, Jamaica, he estimated that the retreat center had directed over $1 million in direct value to the local community in which they operate.
Similarly, myco-tourism organizers working in Mexico have contracted local vendors to provide mushroom identification and guiding expertise in addition to other essential services, paying them ‘very well’ according to Mexican nationals I’ve recently spoken with about the trips. In regions where tourism is the main economic opportunity, the rising profile of mushroom tourism is a largely untapped opportunity. Consider that the global Birdwatching Tourism Industry was valued at over $62 billion in 2023 and is projected to break $100 billion by 2031.
Despite the rising profile of mycotourism in recent years, there exist numerous largely untapped opportunities in this vein. For example Nepal is a mushroom rich country which also offers a splendid array of travel delights such as the alpine Annapurna Circuit and Everest Base Camp treks. Nepal is also one of the world’s countries where psilocybin mushrooms are legal; it’s a surprise that someone hasn’t jumped on the opportunity to offer a magic mushroom adventure to the Himalayan country yet. In Bardia National Park, wild psilocybe species grow in rhino and elephant dung while the animals themselves traipse through the area alongside Royal Bengal Tigers, preening peacocks, colorful Kingfisher birds, and even river dolphins. If tripping on fresh cubensis sourced from a steaming pile of wild rhinoceros poo while tiger spotting under the guidance of a trained professional (wildlife spotter, not tripsitter) doesn’t sound like a grand adventure to you, we are not on the same page.
The types of myco-tourism experiences available are multiplying at a fantastic rate, and some operators have already gone multinational.
Beckley Retreats offers guided psilocybin experiences in Jamaica and The Netherlands, both countries with a legal industry built around these experiences. The company is a member of the expansive Beckley ecosystem, a portfolio of companies backed by over 25 years of scientific research into psychedelics that extends to clinical trial phase drug development, policy reform, and media among other enterprises.
Entheome Foundation has taken multiple groups to DNA barcode various wild mushrooms in the Southern Mexican states of Vera Cruz and Oaxaca with immersive trips built around citizen science. Mexico is an ideal breeding ground for Myco-Tourism initiatives for a number of reasons; the Funga (Flora, Fauna, Funga) of the region are among the most biodiverse and bountiful of anywhere on the planet - with intact ethnomycological traditions to boot - and it’s proximity to the U.S. with three hour direct flights from many major cities offer a turnkey pipeline to well-heeled travelers searching for mushroom tourism experience.
Hamilton’s Mushrooms has hosted mushroom tourism experiences in the French Alps and Colorado in recent years; their reputation as purveyors of premium quality mushroom extracts and producers of internationally acclaimed mushroom documentary films provided an excellent scaffolding for a foray into mycotourism, which I very much hope to see continue for them and their growing community.
Retreat Microdose offers luxury psilocybin mushroom retreats for women, having hosted intimate events in Mexico, Jamaica, and Colorado over the last year with more on the way.
Hamilton and Ash Ritter of Blake Sage Botanicals talking shop at the Oklahoma Mushroom Festival
In addition to the various travel outfitters regions of the world referenced so far, mushroom tourism opportunities exist across virtually every other part of the planet. India has a rich heritage of indigenous mushroom traditions and an expansive Funga which remains largely unheralded due to mycophobia in contemporary Indian society. Organizations like Nuvedo are actively challenging this stigma, and organizing mushroom ID walks in proximity to major cities as well as the first mushroom festival in India. I was fortunate enough to attend the first edition of Shroom Sabha in October of 2023, and the combination of ecotourism and mycology was a remarkable fit for the region and the many homegrown mushroom enthusiasts who traveled from across India - as well as from places like Dubai and the United States - for this unique mycotourism experience.
There are a virtual infinite number of opportunities to ‘niche down’ in the developing mycotourism space; whether it’s foraging and cooking you’re into, exploring the interior universe, ethnomycological traditions (read: use of mushrooms in indigenous cultures), ecosystem conservation or usually a hodgepodge of all of the above, mycotourism is able to accommodate your unique interests and those of your community.
