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.
1 The Ethical Travel Guide, 2009
