People tend to be pretty lazy and stick to places close to airports and easy to get to, so if you have to add on a ferry trip or train ride chances are the destination will be less touristy. The old advice to spend locally still stands, so as much money as possible goes into the local economy.
In places like the Caribbean , an average only 20 cents of each dollar visitors spend actually stays in the country. Resources are much scarcer in some countries though, especially water, which makes it even more important to minimise usage. Apparently a guest in a luxury hotel uses litres of water per night versus litres for the average person in the UK.
Flights are a major contributor to climate change. Travel by public transport rather than renting a car if possible. World Animal Protection has a list of the ones we should definitely avoid. Everyone has horror stories of seeing semi-dressed women in Muslim countries or drunken stag dos in Eastern Europe. The local culture is a big part of why people love to travel — try the weird-sounding dish on the menu, learn a few words of the language, eat dinner at the same time as the locals.
Being respectful of the culture also mean you get treated with more respect. Dress appropriately, cover up when not on the beach, ask before taking photos and support charities over giving money to beggars.
But take the marketing spin with a pinch of salt and make sure you check out how sustainable tourism businesses really are. Especially for trips like cruises which have a particularly big impact on the places they visit. Ask what their environmental policies are, do they recycle and conserve water, is food and drink locally sourced, how do they treat their staff, do they invest in the local community?
Hopefully one day sustainability will be built into every tourism business, but until then we need to help make it important to them. Read more sustainable tourism posts. A weekend in Cambridge: A hour itinerary. Are there any companies worth mentioning that are doing a great job at the moment to be leaders in this space? Also, is it always better to drive locally near your home in terms of greenhouse gases compared with taking a flight?
Is there a metric ex. Driving a car that gets 24 MPG miles is the equivalency to a 1 hour flight? There are a few recent start ups like Byway which are focusing on flight free travel as well as Responsible Traveller who've got a range of trips.
Thank you for writing this Lucy. But I have a question about buying local. Tourists are in many cases much wealthier than the native people, especially in developing countries. I recently read another post about how the local shop owners in popular tourist destinations will push their prices up as they know the foreigners will be able to spend more on their goods.
However, this means that it is harder for other locals to buy from these shops as they often have lower income. I do think buying local is better though, as money won't just go to the big companies but will be more evenly spread. Its a hard issue to solve though, but I think if we all try and make tourism more sustainable we will have the situation more under control. Yes there is definitely some complexity around local purchases — though I think if you are buying locally produced items it isn't as bad but rather imported goods prices can get pushed up more, and often there are particular things that aren't really bought so much by locals, such as art and crafts, where your money can really help.
Hi Lucy Enjoyed reading your post. I've been reading about the impact of air travel as a factor of climate change recently. As well as thinking about our impact on the destination, I think we need to think about impact as we make our way to the destination.
Part of me just wants to stop flying due to the environmental impact of flight, as much as I love seeing new places. It aims to minimize the negative impacts and maximize the positive ones. Negative impacts to a destination include economic leakage, damage to the natural environment and overcrowding to name a few. Positive impacts to a destination include job creation, cultural heritage preservation and interpretation, wildlife preservation landscape restoration, and more.
Ecotourism is a niche segment of tourism in natural areas. The term emerged in the late s. Ecotourism: An Introduction. Responsible Travel refers to the behavior of individual travelers aspiring to make choices according to sustainable tourism practices.
The behaviors usually align with minimizing the negative impacts and maximizing positive ones when one visits a tourism destination. Travelers that want to learn more about how to be a responsible traveler can visit the section on the GSTC website For Travelers.
Sustainable Tourism does not refer to a specific type of tourism, rather it is an aspiration for the impacts of all forms of tourism to be sustainable for generations to come. Responsible Travel is a term referring to the behavior and style of individual travelers. The behaviors align with making a positive impact to the destination rather than negative ones.
A video that explains the basics of sustainable tourism and why it is necessary. We undertook groundbreaking research in Cyprus to measure and monetise the impacts of tourism. The business case for sustainable tourism. This video explains how the Travel Foundation goes about sustainable tourism projects. Wikipedia Some generic description and explanation of sustainable tourism. Travindy Transforming tourism news.
Responsible Travel The case for responsible travel. World Economic Forum The travel and tourism competitiveness report.
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