Think of the local community when you travel next.
Purchase the 2009 edition of their publication, The Ethical Travel Guide, available in Australia at Collins Booksellers’ shops or online (www.collinsbooks.com.au). It contains ethical travel tips for countries around the world, including website links to accommodation and tours. Grab a copy for a farewell gift to globe trotting friends.
Support Tourism Concern (www.tourismconcern.org.uk) in their campaign to make tourism a positive rather than a negative impact on developing countries.
Join the Rebellious Tourist Manifesto!
Share your ethical tourism experiences.
Add your story and go in the draw to win a copy of The Ethical Travel Guide (see Action 1).
The Issue
Your next holiday has the power to either exacerbate or reduce poverty. The way we travel has serious impacts on local people and the environment. Ethical tourism is where it’s at and our resident ethical tourism advocate, Rhonda Sutton has put down a few tips for your next trip…
As it says on the website of responsible travel.com: ‘If you like to travel for relaxation, fulfilment, discovery, adventure and to learn – rather than just ticking off “places and things”, then responsible travel is for you.’
Support Community Based Tourism Initiatives. Instead of bronzing yourself alongside 682 others by a resort pool; stay at locally owned accommodation, where the money you spend remains in the community.
Grab a phrase book and try the lingo at the market. It will break the ice, show some effort and make people laugh. Buy some local food and handcrafts. Make sure any bargaining leaves you both smiling. Don’t sweat over losing 50 cents to someone trying to feed a family on $10 a week.
Fly less and stay longer. You’ll have more time to understand the local culture and emit less carbon – winner!
Leave unsolicited photographs to the paparazzi. Show respect to the photogenic fisherman toiling to earn a monthly wage less than the cost of your lens cap. Offer to show your subjects the image on your camera. You’ll attract a group of new friends the size of a footy team. Don’t promise to send a photo unless you really mean it. Just like at home don’t make promises you can’t keep.
Stuff a sarong in with your sandals. Place over dodgy pillows, as a towel or to cover your head or legs when you enter temples. Just seeing tourists wear clothes that are inappropriate to the local culture can make local people feel marginalised. Save displays of affection for private places…in some places kissing on the street is considered almost like having sex in public.
Talking about things normally done in private, when trekking don’t let your poops pollute. Dig a hole at least 100 metres from a water course and cover it with dirt.
In developing countries water is often a precious commodity. More than 2 billion people lack access to clean water and sanitation and 80 per cent of all deaths in the developing world are water related.’The UN claims, ‘the average tourist uses as much water in 24 hours as a third world villager could use to produce rice for 100 days.’ (1)
Avoid water guzzling golf course resorts and keep your showers short.
For further info contact Rhonda Sutton, Ethical Tourism Advocate with the Justice and International Mission Unit. Rhonda.Sutton@victas.uca.org.au
She’s happy to speak to groups and has resources such as the ‘Your Place or Mine’ DVD – a light-hearted look at ethical tourism.
June 17th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Visit some local farms and eat where the locals do. The food is fresh, exotic and delicious! I went to Malaysia and definitely my favourite experience was the orchard I visited – 350 different kinds of fruit grown over the massive property, including the weirdest things I’d never even seen or heard of… I got to sample the produce and it took my tastebuds to a place they thought never existed! And walking around the hilly region keeps you fit too. Penang is great for Hawkers food… though try to find busy places with lots of Malay that well-cook their food. Mmmm… and while you’re there, buy and try the local costume. You’ll find it not only helps their economy (locally produced things in small markets or bazars or small local shops are good) but what they wear really is best for their climate, it shows you’re making an effort and it saves you from needing to bring unnecessary and never used trinkets as souveneirs.
June 18th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
As with both the website advice above and also with Tiffany’s story local is the key. Recently on a trip to Kenya Africa we opted to stay in a homestay, which was a local from a town that invited us into his home, he and his friends cooked for us for each meal and they introduced us to their traditions, food, friends and life. We ate, drank, learnt Kiswahili, cooked, swam and were just together. We made some great friends and I learnt a lot of the language while I was here. One of the best times was learning and making traditional Chai tea, a recipe that I now use at home. I followed on from this trip to Ssanje, Uganda where my ethical choices led me to a Permaculture Design Course supporting central Africans in their training as well. For 3 weeks we ate from the garden, learnt sustainable traits and taught each other sustainable choices. There was very limited power which meant my dependance on mobile phones was reduced as well as for my computer (and there were no lights). I also learnt very efficient ways of washing my clothes at the same time as showering, due to the limited supply of water. In a lot of ways the only advice I offer from my journey is: If you can have as much contact with local trade you will in turn be making the best local and ethical choices for where you are visiting. And also always ask where things are from, if they are not sort locally then try and avoid them.
June 21st, 2010 at 9:19 am
Great action guys! Some of the absolute best memories I have from traveling have been finding a local guide to take you on a trek, either for the day or overnight staying in homestays. They will definitely take you to places you would not find by yourself, and if you are lucky act as a translator with the other local people you meet and stay with along the way. Although you have to be flexible and do not forget your sense of humor as a “easy short walk” can translate to “6 hr of uphill in the humid heat!”
Most places have local tourism organizations, you just have to seek them out, particularly throughout Asia. This way more of your money stays in the community and less goes to big travel companies that can organize the same experience (often for double the price).
September 7th, 2010 at 9:18 am
[...] travel that benefits local communities and the environment go to the Harm Less Holidays action here. Tiffany travelling ethically in [...]