When I talk to my parents about my travels and explain to them that I’ve been able to visit over 20 countries in 2 years, I always hear the same thing: “when I was younger, it was impossible to travel to this many places within an entire lifetime, let alone a year.” Why? Because travel was expensive! So those of you who think travel is expensive today, take a look at what prices use to be in comparison to workers wages.
Now that travel has become more affordable and less of a luxury option, more and more people are jet-setting off to their dream destinations. That’s awesome. What isn’t awesome is that the more we travel the more we bring destruction and increased carbon emissions to our globe and to all the countries we’re visiting. Unless, we engage in responsible tourism.
A couple weeks ago I attended the World Travel Market London conference and learned a whole ton about responsible tourism that I wanted to share with you. Here are just a couple of their findings:
1. “60% of the trade says the importance of responsible tourism will increase over the next 3 years” — WTM 2014 Industry Report
2. “Almost 9 in 10 say responsible tourism is important to their businesses” — WTM 2014 Industry Report
So how can we be responsible travellers? Here are just a few suggestions:
- If you’re volunteering, volunteer sustainable. Many travellers only visit countries to work with the children and them leave them while feeling a sense of gratification for themselves. This does nothing for the children, but lets you walk away feeling like you’ve made a difference. Hard reality here – you didn’t. If you want to volunteer while abroad, make sure your supporting in a way that is sustainable.- Build a school (if they need one, not just because everyone else does)
– Use your talents (I like to build their social media pages to get international exposure)
– Provide them training
– …and for goodness sake, please provide them with things they actually NEED, don’t assume you know best - If you’re taking flight after flight without reducing your carbon footprint in any way, this is not sustainable tourism. I am a culprit every once in a while, I have to be honest. Some airlines offer you to pay a ‘green fee’ which isn’t a substantial amount of money and allows you to offset your carbon footprint for that flight. Some flights don’t offer this which is a shame, but as responsible tourism becomes more popular among businesses, this is sure to be the future of tomorrow.
- Natural Conservation is something that tourists often seem to forget about. Of course, many of us would rather explore ‘off the beaten paths,’ but to what extent? If it is harming the biodiversity in that region, would you do it? Make sure you are well educated on the nature reserves around the area and ensure that while visiting you are helping to preserve and not diminish.
There are a TON of other ways to be sustainable and responsible travellers, I could write an entire book about it. What are your suggestions? Ways to travel responsibly?
Lovely post, we totally agree with you! I am a bit jealous as I wish I could have attended the sustainable travel seminars at the WTM, but I am sure we will have other opportunities. Great job! And hope to see you soon somewhere in the world and share some more thoughts about sustainable travel! All the best from the Slow Spirit team.
Awwwhh you guys are the best! I love reading your updates!
Keep being YOU! <3