Within the last few years, sustainability has become more and more important in my life. I’ve made changes in my travel behavior too, and I’m learning continuously about more sustainable ways to travel.
Writing a paper for university on sustainable traveling, I found out that tourist engagement on sustainable tourism is low, although there is interest. On my blog, I want to focus more and more on sustainable tourism and give practical examples/tips. My goal is to inspire others along my journey to be a more responsible traveler. For me, essential aspects of sustainable tourism are environment protection, the local community and animal welfare.
So, let’s start with the definition of sustainability:
Definition of sustainability
According to WTO, sustainable tourism is: “Sustainable tourism development meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunities 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.”
In order words, this means the usage of service, products, and natural resources responsibly. Sustainability is about minimizing possible harm to the local economy and the protection of the environment.
A crucial aspect is also to use earth’s resources in a sustainable way that the generations after us can use them without compromising. That is also what the protests in 2018/2019 showed, different groups and protests Friday for Future, Extinction Rebellions, Earth strike, …
Sustainability is important! It is about the protection of your earth, local communities, and animals.
Climate change affects the vacation
Imagine you have planned a road trip through Austria in spring/early summer. You are looking forward to it, and you have your bags packed and your itinerary is ready to hit the road. The road trip started quite well, and only the weather forecast does not look like that bridge. 90 % of the time it is raining, you can find any motivation to go for a hike due to the bad weather conditions. Higher precipitation is a direct result of climate change.
Imagine you have planned a holiday in Australia. A little bit of relaxation on the beach and exploration in the bush of the country. You are excited after some relaxing days on the beach for a kayaking tour at the Clyde River. But the bush fires are all over the news, and two days ago, everything still sounded so surreal. Yesterday on the beach, you could spot the smoke from the inland areas. The next day in the morning, you and your vacation buddies are getting evacuated a 4 hours’ drive north, where the bush fires aren’t that server.
Imagine you have planned a holiday in Indonesia. You have planned to visit some of the islands and before you fly out, you want to take a three-day city tour through Jakarta. In the last two weeks, you have visited National Parks, beautiful beaches, waterfalls, temples and enjoyed the Indonesian cuisine. It was time to leave Bali for Jakarta. But due to the flooding, you could not experience the city as you have a plan. Your idea of visiting the famous Taman Mini Indonesia Indah has been ruined.
Why is sustainable tourism important?
Those are some examples of how climate change can influence your vacations, not far from reality. Don’t let me get started with littering, overcrowded cities, or disappearing coral reefs, glaciers, islands, and whole towns.
We all want to see beautiful destinations. Want to visit national parks, see wild animals, take incredible pictures, stroll through new cities,… . But what’s the price for that? What do we do to protect those regions.
Is it too late? Here in Austria, I can already see the results of climate change. A glacier near my hometown looks naked during summer, and the precipitation is increasing. Still, our actions matter to prevent the worse. We should make this world more livable and cleaner for everyone. An example of last year shows that from changes come direct results: During the pandemic in early 2020, the air quality in Asian metropolis improved significantly.
“Because of these limited human activities, the environment got a chance to heal itself”
(Paital et al. 2020)
But we can’t simply stop our lives for the health of the environment. However, we can change our behavior. We can choose from which companies we buy products; we can choose who we want to support with our purchases.
Why does sustainable traveling need more authenticity?
Sometimes I feel sustainability is just a nice trend we can talk about, a buzzword. But when it comes to taking action, it is different. I remember my internship last summer in Bavaria. Some of my co-workers talked about this huge company that promotes sustainable transportation, and then they arrive at a business meeting with their SUVs. How can those people be taken seriously?
But do not understand me to wrong. It is not about accusing someone that does something wrong, not at all. But it is about the companies’ approach to sustainability. It is, in my opinion, not authentic. It seems they jumped on the sustainability train—products with a “sustainable aspect” getting better sales.
That’s the “dangerous” side when it comes to sustainability. For instance, Tulum in Mexico is promoting itself as a sustainable destination, but is sustainable when tourism produces more waste than the city can handle?
Thanks to Bea, she wrote a post about that:
Green Washing
Greenwashing is when a company promotes its products or services with a sustainable or green label. A marketing tool to sell more products. Particular to market the products to Gen Z (Generations 1995-2010). In the end, we consume more.
How to avoid it?
Keep your eye open for particular things the company is doing. The promotion of sustainability with labels like “eco-conscious,” “green,” “good for the environment” is not enough. Look what actions they take that it is good for the environment, etc. What is it what they do that’s sustainable? Does their staff get a fair payroll and treatment? How do they protect the environment? Is animal welfare paramount?
If you doubt if this company is taking sustainable actions and can’t find any concrete information on the Internet, contact them. Ask them some questions and in their reply, you will most likely see how their approach to sustainability is.
More about Green Washing.
Essential terms in sustainable tourism:
Responsible Tourism – Activities that minimize negative social, economic and environmental impacts.
Eco-Tourism – “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education” (TIES, 2015)
Slow traveling – traveling at a slower pace to get to know a country/culture better
Green tourism – “Green tourism or rural tourism, as an alternative for nature lovers, is a concept of life focused on respect, conservation and enjoyment of the environment with health and tranquility”
Ethical tourism – This is considering the impact of your actions as a visitor on the environment, local people, and the local economy.
More important terms you can find here.
The future of my blog escaping worlds
In the last couple of weeks, I thought a lot about my blog and my goal. I have changed my whole mindset about it as this website started with the idea to share my travel stories. But it never actually paid off. And now I have a bigger goal for it. Escaping worlds should provide practical tips to travel more responsible. Starting with travel planning to transportation, accommodation, food and activities.
If you have any questions or an idea of specific topics around sustainable traveling, let me know.
