Green Holidays

Top Tips for Responsible Tourism

For my first article for Green Holidays and Adventures, I chose to kick off with 10 tips for responsible tourism.  This way I can show you the standards of my eco credentials, and so that you can make sure that you are on the right track when you are preparing to set out on your holidays.

All of us know the basics of a polite society and what is expected of us in certain situations, yet many people fail to apply them when holidaying abroad.   It is therefore important that the not-so responsible travelers amongst us need to remember is that they are only visiting beautiful or interesting destination around the world because we think they are better than a holiday close to where we already live.

So why would some people think it a good idea to overwhelm these destinations with our western ways and assume that a) they can cope with everything we throw at them, and b) that they will stay the same for the next time we visit!

I know it won’t be ’the end of the world’ if you throw that one piece of tissue down the toilet (even though you know that the local people there use a bin) and the hotel will not have to close down if you leave one or two empty plastic cosmetic bottles at the hotel, but multiply that by the 1000’s of visitors to that one resort every year, where everyone ’just’ does one little thing ‘un-green’. The sewerage there may well block up or spew metres of waste material into local rivers - along with that small town having 3000 empty plastic bottles to bury in their landfill (or just outside of town if they haven’t got a specific site for rubbish).

I don’t even want to frighten you with the math if every holiday resort in developing countries have this mess to clean up. It won’t leave the community much pleased either!

So, follow these simple steps to keep your destination eco friendly, green, clean and beautiful.  Ensuring that others can still visit in years to come and get the same experience as you - or better.

1) Research your destination in advance.
Be familiar with local customs and appropriate verbal and body language for your visit and wear appropriate dress when around town and in other people homes. Be aware of your presence in public places and during festivals, etc.

2) Learn the local language.
Even if you can only manage a basic grasp of their language, you will find that you will not only enjoy your travels more, but communication will be easier and you may well get a better holiday out of it. Even if the people you meet there can speak English but you are struggling to order your drink or food, they may still appreciate your efforts enough to break the ice.

3) Always respect people.
You cannot expect everyone you meet on your travels to like you or to offer you a requested service or even their time - they are not paid employees of their country. They are also not part of the landscape, so make sure you check if they want you to take their photo while they sit on a bench, or tend to their land before snapping away and asking them to do your bidding.

4) Use local services at all times.
Why book with a hotel chain when you could stay in an actual home with a family who know the destination you are visiting inside-out? Do you book accommodation with a company that sends your money straight back to the U.S or UK rather than re-investing it back into the community you visiting? Think of a local grocer back home losing his livelihood and store because everyone uses the nearby superstore.

5) Buy local produce from local people.
If you are going to the effort of visiting a certain town, you obviously like what it has to offer. So make sure you buy something from there. This way not only will you encourage better tourism from that community, you will actually be helping that community to stay on the map. Mingle with the locals and barter for a gift you know is keeping that town what it is.

6) Check credentials for tour operators and when booking trips.
If you are going to rely on someone to take you through the local environment, to a distant mountain or jungle, make sure that they are responsible too. This is not only in terms of limiting damage to flora and fauna, but also that they are well known in the area and can offer you safe, reliable and community friendly travel. And why have someone from a different country talk you through an environment, when someone who grew up there could make the whole experience so much more enjoyable.

7) Offer appropriate tips.
It is essential that if a guide, waiter or porter is offering you a better than average service and it is clear that they have made whatever you were trying to do effort free and worth that bit extra, make sure you tip them well. If you have a choice of people to buy a product from and one of them has bothered to learn your language - reward them individually for their thinking. Not only will it make their efforts worth while, but it will encourage this high service to all the travellers who follow you there!

Never knowingly encourage the killing of endangered animals or delicate environments.
If you plan to buy a delicate piece of coral or a highly carved piece of turtle shell or ivory - where do you think they are going to get more from? It doesn’t take a genius to work out that if the kill another animal, they can sell more. If noone buys a product, regardless of what it is, shops will eventually stop selling it. You don’t see stores selling half-eaten bagels, do you?

And, this is what makes it all the more sad to see these products readily available in tourist destinations - somebody out there is actually still buying them…….

9) Don’t litter. Ever.

10) Wash without waste.
When ever possible, use a shower instead of a bath to save precious water and the continued heating of it. In addition, try to travel with bio-degradable toiletries like your shampoo, suncream and soap powder. They all wash off us and our clothes into streams and rivers - so we need to make sure they don’t stay there too long. Supplies of these are readily available at many stores - and at a similar cost to regular products. Why not protect your own environment and use these at home too!

In fact all of these tips can help your own environment every day; tips for yourself should include using local services rather than chain stores, respect other people in your town or at work, use less water and don’t pollute that which you do use.

Another important things back home is - Why pay to be disappointed? Make sure you only pay for services that are safe, respect the environment where possible and offer a better than average service. If you don’t buy products or pay for services from companies that damage the environment, use cheap products, don’t complete their work on time and don’t benefit your living environment - they will eventually go bust or move away, hopefully to be replaced by a better one.

Remember, the choices you make at home and abroad do actually shape the environment you choose to live in or travel to. So make the right choice.