Travel Responsibly: How To Make Your Travel Options Greener

Louise is concerned about the changes she has noticed in her travels over the past decades. She has been a traveler since she finished college and joined the backpacking circuit of Europe. As she built her career, her travels shortened, but she still found time to travel around the world, watching sunrises in Goa and tasting samosas in Zanzibar. Louise’s interests have changed a bit since she first laced up her hiking boots. She is more inclined to listen to the sounds of birds than rock bands, but she has noticed that it is more difficult to find a place that seems different from the one she left behind. The locals aren’t as eager to meet the tourists, and in some places they seem to be conspicuous by their absence. The wildlife that she used to take for granted doesn’t seem to be as common or shows up in someone’s flowerbed instead of in the woods. And some destinations look a bit frayed around the edges, showing obvious signs of wear and tear with erosion, litter, and noise pollution common problems.(

If you are like Louise, you may have wondered about the impact of your travels on the places you visit, and whether you are leaving communities worse off with your presence. With Al Gore winning an Oscar for his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”, more and more of us are debating climate change and our contribution to the situation. Maybe it’s time we all stopped and reassessed our travel habits. If you’re like Louise, you’re probably a dedicated traveler and the thought of staying at home makes you nervous. Alternatively, we can make an effort to ensure that we travel responsibly, and choosing ecotourism tours or facilities can be one way to do this. (for a definition of ecotourism visit the website of the International Ecotourism Society)

If you’re wondering if your travel habits are adding to environmental problems, take the traveler self-assessment below. There are no right or wrong answers, but the questions point to some of the potential problems. Travelers are becoming more demanding, wanting a variety of activities in their travel time that often coincides with the hectic schedules they left behind. This requires greater financial investment by ecotourism providers to provide equipment and support staff, and to create new itineraries more frequently. Bill Cacciolfi of New World Expeditions says that for tour providers like him, his biggest challenge is “finding new ways and new twists on old ways to make travel interesting.” While he feels responsibility and risk management have been top concerns in recent years, “now it’s financial stability. Companies are struggling.” And the environment suffers and more people want to explore more wilderness.

Travelers self-assessment

• Do you want to do a dozen different activities when you arrive at your vacation destination? Do you think about the cost of providing equipment, personnel, or facilities for these activities?

• Do you have reasonable expectations about getting up close to wildlife? If you want to get close enough to fill the viewfinder with a picture of that cute deer you’ve seen, you’re probably too close.
• Do you base your travel decision primarily on price?
• Are you happy to be part of a large group, or are you willing to pay a little more for an experience that promises individual attention?
• Do you consider the size of your hotel or tour operator company when selecting a vacation?
• Do you ask how you can support conservation in the places you have visited?
• Are you informed about proper behavior and precautions in the wilderness? If you count on your guide to take care of everything, you just might get more than you bargained for.
• Looking for evidence of ecotourism accreditation when selecting a tour company?

While offering a trip to a small number of tourists creates an intimate experience that can have a lower environmental impact and a level of customer service that most people enjoy, it often translates to a higher cost per person. Contributing to conservation efforts is also an important part of an ecotourism product, but again, it will mean a slightly higher cost. If you are like many consumers, you sometimes overlook these features when selecting a tourism product, basing your purchase decision on price or flashy marketing images. Many ecotour operators say that travelers say they want an eco-friendly travel experience, but are reluctant to pay even a few dollars more to get that kind of trip. Bill Cacciolifi sums it up like this: “Customers are much more sophisticated, demanding more amenities for less money.”

When you travel, you probably pride yourself on coming prepared and expecting to learn new skills or knowledge on your journey. Many tour operators see this in their clients. Garth Thompson, founder of Natureways and a leader in African ecotourism, says of his clients: “Most are well-informed thanks to the brilliant and educational documentaries we have available on our screens every day. They read about their destination, more novels than fact. however, that is, Wilbur Smith or Doris Lessing”. But curiously, while many people take the time to read up on their fate, they seem to know less about the safe and proper way to act outdoors. Warren Clinton of Castle Mountain Lodge in Estes Park, Colorado, has been active in wildlife-based tourism for many years and sees some worrying trends in his clients. He states that, “We have found that people are even less knowledgeable now than 20 years ago about the etiquette of observable wildlife. It is an ongoing challenge to teach people what is appropriate behavior, they go after wildlife. People are not accustomed to operating in a wild environment. surroundings.”

With all this interest in nature and cultural experiences, there are many tourism companies that are targeting potential ecotourists by adding an ecolabel or theme to their marketing. This added competition and growing interest in ecotourism from all walks of life has meant that ecotourism businesses must market on a scale never seen before. The added cost of mounting large-scale marketing programs makes it difficult for midsize companies to survive. Some companies have chosen to work with other like-minded organizations in marketing partnerships such as The Adventure Collection, a group of several adventure companies that operate independently but share a website and marketing activities. As Bill Bryan of Off the Beaten Path, a member of The Adventure Collection, observes: “It’s harder to do business now. How can we make our business a little bigger in a way that still works with a cross-section of people?”

For ecotourism to survive, it is up to us, as responsible travelers, to look beyond the marketing jargon and the cheapest price, to find the true ecotourism trip. Some organizations are making this easier for consumers by adopting accreditation processes in which ecotourism businesses must meet certain standards before they can be labeled as quality ecotourism providers. As Mountain Quest’s Trent Schumann, a longtime tourism professional, points out, “As governments become aware of the increasing demand for nature-based tourism and the varying levels of sustainable tourism practices by operators , there is a greater push for industry regulation.” Many tour operators seek some form of accreditation to certify their environmental practices, but where no accreditation program exists to identify quality ecotourism products, develop your own assessment by asking the following questions before booking with a tour operator:

• What is your environmental policy? Can I read it on your website?
• How do you support environmental or conservation organizations in the area where you operate?
• Do you buy your food products locally?
• Are you staying at locally owned and operated lodging facilities?
• What steps have you taken to minimize energy and water use?
• What kind of interpretation do you provide to clients about the local nature and culture?
• Do you hire local people and guides?
• Do you provide training for these guides?
• What is your group size for the tours? How do you determine this number?
• How do you monitor your impact on the local environment and local community?

In the end, it’s up to you to decide what kind of tour you want and whether you’re willing to pay more for a smaller, greener tour. If you plan to visit a destination more than once or hope that your children will enjoy the same opportunity as you do to snorkel among coral reefs or listen to the night cry of a gray wolf, choose a tour company that shares your values ​​and vision for the future of the earth. Choose ecotourism.