Updated June 2019.

Sustainable travel is the current buzzword in the travel/tourism industry where travellers and the industry alike aim to reduce their environmental impact on the people, cultures and places they visit and experience.

Even though this phrase has been in our lexicon for a couple of years, earth-conscious citizens for decades have been practicing the concept of sustainable travel as part of sustainable development and eco-conscious travel.

Travel+tourism is not a traditional cut and dried industry on its own but a melange of many sectors that make it what it is today thus it is a very multi-disciplinary sector requiring various specialties.

Sustainability is now a part of every corporate sector and travel has not escaped it. We’ve all seen videos and read articles on oceanic plastic, the Air bnb epidemic in major cities, Venice and over-tourism etc, where these issues highlight sustainable processes to alleviate conditions.

Sustainability isn’t just about the physical environment; it also concerns the well-being of local populations, culture, heritage and economic markets to sustain their communities resulting in sustainable travel.

As a result, the industry is moving towards positively influencing and/or reforming these various sectors of its pie in response to a very vocal demographic: Millennials.

“Ah! Those pesky whipper-snappers! They’re killing everything from eating out to movie theatres. Entitled young uns.”

Yep. We’ve heard it all before and as an older millennial, it’s tiring.

Eating out costs dinero which we’re trying to save to pay off loans, buy homes, travel and just live and frankly, unless I’m being treated to a movie, why spend that amount when Netflix, Hulu and HBO exist?? I assure you that we’re not spending all our money on avocado toast.

Disclaimer: My academic background is in environmental science/studies with a career in energy efficiency and sustainability.

 

Related: How To Spend An Eco-Friendly & Sustainable Weekend In Amsterdam

 

Tips, Shtips…

1 Planes, trains or automobiles. Where feasible, travel via rail as it’s not only scenic and restful, but less polluting than automobile or air travel. Alas, Stateside, it is usually much cheaper to travel via air or even drive, than by rail, compared to Europe. I know that size and geography play a big role in this but also cost is the main factor that travellers take into consideration.

My manager in D.C. regularly flies into New York-New Jersey because a round trip is cheaper than train. I don’t believe him till I look up tickets and I shriek! I can pop into Cuba on those prices. People regularly do this: taking air travel between NYC-Newark-Philly-D.C. and Baltimore which are close by.

I remember my time in Copenhagen and how I am able to pop into Sweden via train. It is 40 mins away, so convenient and less polluting. For zero pollution, biking across the Oresund is very possible and there are die-hard cyclists that do this.  That’s one of the many joys of living in Europe: accessible rail transport within and between countries.

Air travel contributes immensely to air pollution via carbon dioxide emissions with more emissions occurring during take-off and landing. Click To Tweet

Flygskam is a new Swedish word meaning “flight shaming”, to shame people into abandoning air planes for less polluting forms of travel.

I really don’t think shaming people into doing anything works but it is gaining acceptance and momentum in Sweden for sustainable travel. On the other hand, Sweden is not in the top ten of countries with high travel rates – China, U.S. & Germany are – so they can afford to indulge in flygskam whereas most Western countries cannot afford to.

I’ll be honest: I love travel and living in the U.S., I don’t see any other sustainable mode of travel between the North American continent and Europe, Africa or Asia, apart from air travel. The only way to alleviate flygskam is to fly as infrequently as possible & participate in carbon offset programs.

In 2008, Virgin Atlantic became the first airline to operate a commercial flight using a biofuel blend and now research is being conducted to develop the “world’s first truly low-carbon, commercially-affordable solution to traditional fossil jet fuel”.

Read more about Virgin and their research on here.

 

2 Direct vs Transit. If you can take a direct flight to your destination without transiting for a couple of hours, then do so. I know that we don’t generally have control over this unless we fly our own Cessna or lease a Learjet but we should endeavour to research airlines and their routes for a direct, as-the-crow-flies flight to our destination of choice.

 

3 Carbon Offsets. If all else fails per #2 above, you can offset the carbon emissions from your flight (or frankly any mode of fossil fuel transport) by contributing to carbon offset programs or donating to environmental and/or economic development in a LEDC*.

These contributions are done through specific airlines or Conservancy projects in individual countries. View the Points Guy’s post on the different types of airline carbon offset programs and the airlines that offer them.

It covers everything from national and international airlines’ carbon offset programs, mileage, carbon emissions calculators and comparison charts for the different offset programs. It’s very insightful & I have bookmarks for future travels.

4 What type of tourist or traveller are you? Ok. I don’t have a hang up about calling myself a traveller or tourist based on whether we prefer tourist traps or off-the-beaten path sights so I use these terms interchangeably on here.

Let's also remember that off-the-beaten path sights can quickly become tourist traps in a jiffy once they hit mainstream knowledge and so long as we venture away from our home base, we're foreigners in another region. Click To Tweet

Whether backpacker, budget, luxury or other traveller type, we adversely impact the people and cultures that we visit. As such, we should be mindful of economic leakage during sustainable travel, which is when money generated by tourism is lost to other countries’ economies.

Adventurous backpackers are the one traveller type that generate the least economic leakage as they tend to spend money with locals. Other traveller types tend to generate more economic leakage as they utilize services (chain resorts, foreign restaurants and foreign organized tours) in the ownership of non-natives, especially in LEDCs.

This is not to say that everyone be a backpacker but we should be mindful of where we spend coin and who we patronize when sojourning in emerging and developing economies.

For example, staying in casa particulars instead of large hotels in Cuba return money to the local economy as the hosts are local. Same with using local taxis and eating from local eateries just like we do on our Carefree in Cuba winter getaway.

There’s a new type of tourism called “pro-poor tourism” where the poor in LEDCs are able to participate effectively in the tourism industry to improve their economic development. This means actively creating links between the tourism sector and indigenous businesses and actively patronizing indigenous businesses as tourists.

I recently read a post by a fellow travel blogger visiting Darjeeling in India where foreign tour organizers are building accommodation for the throngs of tourists discovering the tea plantations and the beauty of the area.

As a result, local lads prefer to work for foreign operators than go to school and they’re slowly losing cultural knowledge and craft traditionally passed down through generations. This is how culture and heritage is eroded over time.

 

5 Buy Local.

I was bred and buttered in Nigeria and I always encourage first-timers to the country to patronize local restaurants, artisans and indigenous hotel owners so that tourism foreign exchange stays within the particular city economy.

If you’re unsure of what service is indigenous owned in a developing country, engage a local and they’ll gladly help.

Most local services and products sold are by women and patronizing them definitely helps in uplifting families and communities out of poverty and into self-sufficiency.

This helps push the ‘pro-poor tourism‘ narrative and stifles economic leakage from the country. Even in Western nations, if you can patronize marginalized groups, please do so.

For example, at Marche Bonsecours in Montreal, most of the products – winter wear, jewellery and shoes –  are of First Nation origin and it’s a pleasant surprise. Buying their products contributes to the particular tribe and community and I am happy to do my small part here.

 

6 Respect Local Cultures & Environment. Nothing is more sustainable than the respect and preservation of local cultures and environment by tourists. If a local tells you not to do something, please don’t, as they know better what affects their communities and environment. This is sustainable travel at its core.

In Cayman Islands, snorkellers and divers are advised not to step on reefs or even touch them for fear of destruction. Some pay heed and some do not.

In addition, follow the rules when interacting with endangered species – if you’re allowed to. For example, people are advised not to ride manatees in Florida and are fined if caught but I still see pictures of drunken spring break kids doing such.

Social media videos are exposing popular elephant rides in Thailand as abusive to animals and as such, tourists do not patronize them. We see pictures and videos of elephants being chained and beaten by mahouts resulting in these creatures losing it and causing fatal accidents.

There are a number of elephant sanctuaries that focus on conservation and care while permitting tourists a bit of interaction with the animals in a non-invasive environment but do your due diligence.

A recent Nat Geo article exposes some sanctuaries as fake because they cater to both Western and Chinese tourists – Chinese tourists want interaction & most Westerners do not – so these sanctuaries accommodate both requirements.

Another pet peeve of mine is the mindless big game hunting in East and Southern Africa and we’ve all seen pictures of wealthy Americans and Europeans beside dead rare wildlife for fun and taxidermy.

Of recent, The Guardian reports that luxury safari companies in Tanzania are burning Maasai ancestral land, banishing them from their lands and blocking access to their watering holes just to create luxury tours and access to big game sightings and shootings. Read the problem here.

The Tanzanian government is complicit in this too as in the 21st century, no foreigner can just come take your land by force. This isn’t the Scramble for Africa era of the 1800s where people and resources were stolen from their land. That’s an academic thesis on its own.

I’m sure some of you have taken or are planning on taking these luxury tours without realizing the displacement that occurs to the Maasai but I hope you dispel such thoughts and instead go with local tour operators that understand the culture and environment.

Lastly, please be mindful of buying stolen artifacts as souvenirs. Some of these are from shrines and sold to foreigners who unknowingly buy them as ethnic art. I’m very wary of these as I do not touch African shrine figures and art. I know them when I see them and prefer not to have strange dreams.

I translate this caution to ethnic art that I want to buy abroad as I do not want to unwittingly buy a piece of a community’s stolen heritage, the same way authentic African pieces are stolen and illegally traded in Europe and Asia. If in doubt, always engage locals as they have the scoop on everything.

 

7 Hold the Litter, Please! Garbage pollution and tourism go hand in hand and LEDCs suffer from this as they lack strong institutions to address these issues.

Most of the garbage is plastic waste from single-use plastic products and packaging. As such, try to limit packaging and if possible, wrap fragile items within towels and clothes to cushion them. This tip also saves on over-packing.

With the influx of travellers to Bali, most of its beaches are inundated with garbage and Indonesian officials have declared an emergency.

This pollution is evident in a recent video in Bali showing a diver surrounded by garbage underwater. It is horrible.

Always clean up afterwards on a beach or camp grounds and if there’s no garbage receptacle in the area, take them with you to dispose of at your accommodation.

Take a bag like this sling rPETe reusable bag and a non-plastic reusable water bottle to eliminate buying plastic bags and single-use plastic bottled water. I do this on my trip to Copenhagen where they come in very handy. These items are portable and will enable you do your part in sustainable travel.

In addition, there are many alternatives to plastic utensils that are either recycled, natural or compostable such as this bamboo travel utensil set in its case made from natural bamboo and the case from recycled water bottles.

Of late, there are a number of sustainable activities combining travel, exercise & clean up gaining momentum in global cities and they are setting the pace and making impact.

Plogging. This is a Swedish portmanteau word from “pick up” + “jogging” as a way to clean up the environment while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Those sustainable Swedes again are putting us to shame.

Strawkling. This is a new sustainable activity from Australia where snorkellers dive to collect plastic straws and discarded fishing nets while indulging in their beloved activity. Win-win!

 

Read More: Part 3: Zero Waste Challenge – Do It Yourself Plastic-Free

 

8 Endangered wildlife. Many places have illegal animal products and endangered wildlife knowingly sold to tourists. Animals like slow loris and pangolin have value because the slow loris is a cute nocturnal creature bought as a pet and pangolin scales are considered medicinal by the Chinese.

In fact, the pangolin is the most trafficked animal in the world and while it can be eaten, its scales are dried, roasted and crushed for ingestion.

Even if you have no intention of buying wildlife, they’re held captive on the streets of their native land and made to perform for tourists by handlers. No doubt, you seen & walk by monkeys performing for coins on your S/E Asian trips.

Granted, not many people know what animals are endangered and frankly I only found out about slow lorises four years ago, but it always helps to research and ask questions of locals so that you can contribute positively and practice sustainable travel as an eco-friendly lifestyle.

 

I’m aware that there is a direct overlap between some of these tips and empowering local people – for example, elephant and endangered wildlife handlers are locals that rely on tips to feed their families – and if we avoid them, families will suffer with no recourse to help from their national governments.

It’s hard to knowingly take food from another’s mouth but for mahouts, some take up work at reputable wildlife sanctuaries to learn about sustainable development and animal welfare.

 

Last Word

Do you incorporate some of these sustainable travel tips into your travel routine? What other sustainable travel tips do you know of and practice? Let us know in the comments.

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*Less economically developed countries

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