WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL?
Sustainable travel is about tourism that can be maintained long-term without harming natural and cultural environments. The sustainable travel movement is therefore about valuing the environment and looking after our natural resources, local communities, native cultures and wildlife; it should minimise the negative impacts of tourism and ideally be beneficial to the area in which it takes place.
The World Tourism Organization defines sustainable tourism as: “development [which] meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future. It is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social, and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity, and life support systems.”
HOW CAN YOU BE A SUSTAINABLE TRAVELLER?
There are many terms used to define sustainable travel, and there is crossover in definitions that also embody responsible travel, eco-tourism and green travel, however all these terms encompass the idea of being more conscious of how we travel.
In order to be more sustainable as a traveller, we need to try to improve the damage we have already done to the planet and our eco-system, through reducing air and water pollution; it’s also about choosing to stay in environments that work at finding ways to reuse and recycle in order to produce minimal waste, use alternatives to toxic chemicals that pollute and poison and use green or natural or organic materials for their products and buildings. Sustainable travel is also about finding ways to improve the lives of people in a positive way and choosing companies that use sustainable business approaches.
A GUIDE TO TRAVELLING SUSTAINABLY
Environmental
- Minimise your carbon footprint, especially from air travel – choose flights with less CO2 emissions or consider off setting CO2 flight emissions with donations to sustainable projects.
- Fly economy class. Flying in business class or first class means you have more space per passenger and results in a larger carbon-footprint.
- Take direct flights where possible. Look for the shortest flight path to your destination, as take offs and landings cause most of a plane’s carbon emissions.
- Decrease your carbon footprint by packing less. Heavy luggage requires more fuel.
- Decrease your carbon footprint by taking a train instead of a plane.
- If you drive a gas-powered car for travelling, consider alternatives with lower emissions if they are available to you.
- Consider walking, riding a bike, taking public transportation or carpooling, where possible.
- Become part of the emerging “slow travel” trend by going to fewer places and spending more time in each.
- Minimise your packaging and plastic waste and carry your own reusables. Bring your own shopping bags and drink from reusable water bottles. Pack your own shampoo, toothpaste, etc., so that you don’t need to use the ones provided. Consider calling the hotel ahead of time and asking them not to put those products in your room at all; however, if they do, consider donating them to a homeless shelter, since some hotels throw away single-use products and even almost-empty toilet paper when servicing a hotel room each day and after you check out, whether or not they’ve been used.
- If you can, book an eco-friendly hotel, as they save massive amounts of energy on everything from lighting to laundry.
- Minimise your water usage by opting out of having your room serviced every day. Housekeepers typically replace towels, sheets and robes, so by doing this you could save significant water resources. Laundry accounts for 16% of an average hotel’s water usage.
- Save energy by switching off lights and air conditioning when you are not using your hotel room.
- Look for hotels and restaurants which are built from sustainable materials and are protecting cultural and natural heritage.
- Research wildlife tourism to seek out responsible tour operators that are saving or protecting endangered species and do not disturb local wildlife.a
Social & Economic
- Use your money to positively contribute to the local economy by supporting businesses that are providing tangible social and economic benefits for local communities – this could include using local tour guides, community tourism projects, social enterprises and charities that support indigenous peoples and support fair wages for employees.
- Choose locally run hotels and restaurants that are run by local people, ensuring that staff are paid a fair wage and that the working environment is safe.
- Consider staying in an Airbnb rather than a hotel complex – you can ask the owner if they have amenities that make your stay more sustainable, such as composting and recycling, or kitchen access, so you can prepare meals and reduce waste from eating out, etc.
- Consider non-traditional holiday alternatives such as house sitting or volunteering opportunities. Volunteering on a farm, for example, is a great option for a few week’s stay, and is often compensated with full room and board, and may not require any previous experience. Organisations such as WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) allows you to choose your own organic farm, stay duration, and volunteer work type through each country’s individual website, or HelpX, which provides online listings of farms, ranches, small lodges, and hostels that offer food and stay in exchange for voluntary work.
- Home exchanging, or house-swapping is an economical, comfortable, and interesting way to experience new places without paying for hotels, restaurants, or, in many cases, transportation, as the use of the family car is included in many home exchanges. There are three types of home exchange; in a traditional exchange, you and your exchange partner travel at the same time and stay in each other’s primary residences. There are “non-simultaneous exchanges,” when home-swapping partners own more than one home and there is no need to worry about coordinating travel dates and a third type of exchange, known as a hospitality exchange, which involves you and your trading partner taking turns staying as guests in each other’s primary homes. For more information go to: HomeExchange.com or IVHE.com
- If you are on a limited budget, Couchsurfing is a service that connects members to a global community of travellers. Couchsurfing works through the spirit of generosity, as travellers don’t pay to stay in someone’s home, instead guests can show their appreciation with interaction and potential friendship, or by bringing a host a gift such as a memento from your home country or bottle of wine, or if turning up empty handed, offering to cook a meal or pay for the groceries to cook at home. Hosts are often locals interested in meeting people from other countries and the advantage is that the experience can offer the opportunity to make friends, foster cultural exchange and receive local advice that can’t be found in a guidebook.
WHAT IS SLOW TRAVEL?
Slow travel is a mindset; it’s a conscious decision to travel at a slower pace. It has been described as a philosophy, an ideology, and a lifestyle choice, and centres around unhurried, low-impact, community-focused travel.
Rather than attempting to squeeze in all the tourist sights, or visit as many locations as possible on a trip, the slow traveller chooses slower forms of transportation that have less impact on the environment and takes time to explore each destination thoroughly, focusing on a deeper travel experience that’s about understanding the local culture and lifestyle.
The slow traveller takes time to connect with the local community and their culture, and expects a trip to educate them about local habits and customs, learning some of the local language and seeing a place through the eyes of the people who live there in order to experience and appreciate a different way of life.
The slow travel movement is an offshoot of the “slow food” movement, which began in Italy as a protest against the opening of a McDonald’s in Rome, in 1986. The slow food movement championed slow food over fast food and aimed to counteract the rise of fast life and preserve regional cuisine, communal meals, traditional cooking methods, and support local farming by promoting the benefits of using regionally-sourced ingredients and stimulating local economies.
Since its beginnings, “the movement has evolved to embrace a comprehensive approach to food that recognizes the strong connections between plate, planet, people, politics and culture”. https://www.slowfood.com/about-us/our-history/
This cultural initiative has since flourished into a more mindful way of life known as the “slow movement”, which advocates a cultural shift towards slowing down life’s pace and emphasizes connections; connection to food, connection to families, and connection to people and culture; slow travel essentially works off the same principles.