Eco Holidays

posted by Catherine on Mar 16

How do you know that the cultural tour that you have booked to Africa isn’t interfering with the local peoples habits? 

Can you be sure that the ‘authentic’ village trip in South-East Asia is actually with the permission of the locals or are they being invaded by tour operators?

Can you even be sure that the money you spend on the trip is going towards the people you will be visiting or photographing?

What To Look Out For.
Basically, you need to find out that the trip your are booking is authentic.  Are the people and the culture you are going to see actually a true representation of the actual communities – or is it all just a big show for the money?

Obviously, you can read up on your chosen destination first to see if there are details on their lives and the country you are planning to visit before hand – or you can travel with an expert who would have the communities interests at heart – and have an ethical policy to prove it. 

Even if a company was recommended by your friends as being ‘really good’ – you may still want to find out their policies regarding your own set of ethics.  The last thing you want is to spend a few thousand pounds on your trip – then to find out that the money you spent is leaving the country with you when you go home rather than making sure this location will still be here in the future for other visitors!

Don’t forget – 2 companies running the same trip can charge the same price – but one company might keep all the money to themselves – whereas the other may well feed 10% of that money back in to the community for their future and the longevity of that ‘perfect’ location.  Make sure you know which is which!

Who Is ‘Good’?
If you contact a great responsible travel company -  they will be happy to answer all your questions with enthusiasm, will have written policies on their ethics and possibly progress reports on their current activities – and will no doubt have customer and local testimonials too. 

If you contact a standard travel company that does cultural tours – but has less ‘culture’ and more ‘money’ in mind – they may well delay showing their responsible travel guidelines to you, offering to show you something else or have them posted to you ‘as soon as they can’.  They may even just not have one!

They may be a member of a basic ‘umbrella’ group that has certain standards – but are they happy to talk about it?  Can they stand up to exact questions about where the money from your trip gets spent and which members of the communities they work closely with to improve their tours and relationships with local peoples?

This latter agent may offer you a better price – but will it be the better tour, for you or the community you plan to visit?

8 Great Things To Insist On:
Here is an easy to read basic list of things that a responsible tour company should offer as part of their service to you and to the locations you wish to visit:

1)  They should clearly display their responsible tourism details and codes of conduct in brochures, their offices and on their website.  They should know what it says themselves and be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding it.

2)  They should also be able to offer you good, current and clear advice about the community, it’s culture and the local environment.

3)  They should offer some basic details about local customs and the do’s and don’ts for each culture they visit.  This should be highlighted to you without waiting for you to ask – as it is essential to conducting responsible travel.  This should be given before the trip is booked to avoid any issues upon arrival in the country.   

4)  You should be able to find out from their representatives about how the community is involved in the tour and the roles they play in supporting your travel while you are in the villages – and how they do so even after you have left.

5)  They should be happy to offer details of your local contacts in location and how they function as a company or association.  This group should be the main port of call in the destination – ie – the company you book with back home shouldn’t need a constant presence in their villages or towns.

6)  You should also be able to find out who your guides are in location and what training or qualifications they have received with money raised by previous tours.  Details of home-stays and community projects that your tours will be supporting is an essential part of your trip.  Why go there if you aren’t interested in preserving their culture?

7)  As a result, your package should not be ‘too cheap’.  Ask to see the percentage of your costs going to your agent, their community, transport costs, etc.  Paying less usually means the local people get less – but make sure you find out if paying more means they get more too!!!!

8)  Check on current groups sizes, as a responsible agent would not ‘over-run’ a village or environment with large numbers of buses, boats or tourists as this could damage the ecology  – and maybe even the local community’s opinions of travellers!  Many agents will want to support several villages, so will rotate destinations to limit numbers and to support a larger community.

There are of course many other things that a tour operator can do for the community and for yourselves, but these main points should help you pick out the more responsible companies and make a more informed decision for yourself and for your money!

posted by Catherine on Jan 17

.

Many travel writers now agree on what should be your benchmarks for selecting an ‘eco’ holiday and I have selected some of the easier to achieve targets and briefly discuss them below.

Eco-Holidays are not just about the environment anymore, they involve the whole community: all ages, all communities and all encompassing.

Gone are the days when you were praised for not washing your towels every day or seen as eccentric for volunteering abroad, these trips are becoming more and more popular – and people want to make sure that they are doing their best to support the places that they visit.

After all – we only visit the places we think are worth visiting – so why destroy them?

Listed below are 4 key areas that your eco holidays should score well on, and below there is advice relating to each one that you can easily achieve without too much effort on your part.

A) It should be fair.
This means that you are not just going somewhere for your own gains regardless of anything else, and your choice of accommodation of transport aren’t damaging either. You and your hosts are aware of their impact on that environment and you have taken this into account.

B) It should be community-centred.
By thinking about your impact on the communities in your destination, you are considering how your actions could affect their lives and or their future. Make sure that your hosts are thinking along the same lines.

C) It should be sustainable.
Ideally, your hotel/host/tour company should not be depleting or degrading their environment to the extent that future generations cannot enjoy it as you did yourself, or by destroying it completely.

D) Decisions should be ecologically sensible.
Your resort/hotel/host/tourguides decisions should offer the most logical choice for the destinations ecology. For example, offering a shower instead of a bath or offering travel by horse instead of 4-wheel drive!

Here are some simple steps to help you achieve these goals when travelling.

A) Take your vacation in your own country.
If you stay at home you are reducing your impact on the entire planet by not adding carbon emmissions to the already toxic skies or seas. You are also not likely to affect any communities other than the 1st world destination you live in, and that is better able to deal with your ecological demands and the waste that you generate.

B) Try to find different, less popular destinations.
By offering other destinations your tourist dollar, you are helping smaller communities to prosper. Many local people cannot get a store or hostel in the busiest locations as the rents are too high or they are dominated by foreign companies (like Cancun). By staying in these towns you can make a real difference to local communities and people’s lives.

C) Avoid travelling in sensitive areas without a guide.
If you wander into a nature reserve alone, for a start you may not see hardly any wildlife at all, but more worryingly, you will not necessarily know the correct paths and walkways. You may think it’s ‘ok’ to take that short cut through the trees, or to wade across that shallow pool – but you could be damaging the very environment you came to see. What if you make a ‘noticable path’ where you shouldn’t have and more people mistakenly follow it? Within months damage may be noticable and habitats destroyed.

D) Check that the food you eat is locally produced.
If you feast on US brand named food the whole time you are travelling – what are you offering to local farmers? By buying locally grown produce and locally made products you are feeding that money straight back in to the destinations economy. And who needs Hersheys chocolate bars anyway when there is so much tropical food to chose from?

Obviously these are only a few of the tips that you can take to make sure that you find yourself the most suitable eco holidays. And, there are many other things to consider when choosing your vacation, but this just covers a few basics for you.