Tips for Travelers and Tourism Companies
Are you a responsible traveler? Are you improving your habits and adopting responsible behavior?
Here are some tips on the way to being a responsible traveler that supports sustainable tourism:
1. Check the background of the travel agency, tour operator, hotel, or any other companies you selected to organize your trip.
- Are these companies supporting the local development and communities
- Are they being careful of the environment and ecology
- Do they have any green labels or certifications that can prove it
- Are they taking part in any actions to preserve local cultures
- Do the employees of these companies have knowledge of sustainable travel
2. Think of the impact your journey might have on the preservation of local cultures that you will discover. You can think carefully about your travel itinerary, and find the one that will have a really low impact on the integrity of the community. Ask yourself if the plan you made is good enough to preserve the area you will visit, and make sure you have enough information about the place you’ll discover. You can also make a donation to a local organization that is protecting nature and culture, if there is one in the place you want to discover.
3. You have to pay attention to your impact on the environment. The guide you’ll hire will be really important. As a responsible traveler, your guide needs to respect the local environment and have to encourage you to do the same. He should absolutely not interfere with nature or wildlife in purpose and encourage you to go sightseeing in a protected and forbidden area.
4. Shopping during your trip is normal, but there is a responsible way to buy items. Sustainable living also means buying local, instead of buying imported items, and encourage the local economy by going to shops or hotels owned or operated by locals. Of course, don’t buy things made with rare plants or preserved animals.
5. Use bicycles or public transportations to discover the area.
6. Try to use green energy and to lower your carbon footprint during your journey. How? Find information about the hotels or other businesses you will use during your trip, and check if they are taking into consideration the preservation of water and energy, if they are using energy-saving equipment such as light bulbs, solar energy, or rain shower, for example.
7. Respect the local customs. Before your trip, ask yourself if you are ready to accept and integrate a cultural life far different from the one you are usually living. If you have a guide, it could be good to check if he is respectful of the local customs and if he is willing to give you advice in advance about it and about the traditions, the clothes you might have to wear, the sacred locations where you should not go. During your trip, ask for permission to residents before taking pictures of them.
8. Gastronomy is almost always an important part of a journey, right? A responsible traveler never eats protected wildlife animals. Food produces and sourced locally is preferred. Reducing meat consumption is also preferred due to the high carbon footprint of the meat industry.
9. Unnecessary waste should be avoided during your trip as well as during your daily life. Take with you eco-friendly bags, cups, chopsticks, etc.
Planning to book accommodation for your next trip on Agoda? Why not do so and support the GSTC at the same time? For each completed booking, Agoda will donate to GSTC a percentage of the value of your booking.
As a company of the tourism sector, your goal is probably to turn your business into a sustainable one, as the environmental question and cultural preservation are two major subjects of these last years, and will gain importance more and more in the future.
You have to work on four major pillars:
- have a sustainable management
- maximize positive social and economic impacts on local communities
- preserve and promote local cultures and traditions
- minimize the negative impacts of your business on the environment
Here is a list of sustainable recommendations and advice for businesses:
1. No matter what is the size of your company, its management needs to have an adapted eco-friendly vision, and a policy for sustainable development.
2. The customer’s experience and feedback are, of course, really important for a company. As a sustainable business, you need to advertise the environment and culture of your area. The feedbacks of the customers need to be treated according to specific processing guidelines.
3. Your work practices matter. A sustainable company needs to:
- Respect laws and regulations, and renew any license that can be needed.
- Have one or several employees specialized in sustainable development (environmental preservation, energy saving, carbon-reducing, cultural preservation, community feedback…)
- All the salaries of your employees need to meet or exceed the minimum wages according to the law of your country
- All the employees of your company need to regularly have training about sustainable tourism and low carbon tourism
- Offer equal chances to your employees to access to management positions. Don’t discriminate any of them.
Offer decent work conditions, and career advancement possibilities to your employees.
4. The management of your company has to take in consideration carbon-reducing, and energy saving. Reduce pollution from your activities and avoid food waste and too much garbage. Your company can probably create an alternative solution, such as composting, providing disposable cleaning products, using double-sided photocopies, recycling water, paying attention to the cleaning products composition before using them, and creating a report to record the number of products used… Your company can also apply for a sustainability label.
5. Be eco-friendly when buying products for your company. Try to purchase locally, products with a national or international sustainable qualification. Use recycled paper.
6. Create an energy-saving plan. Use power-saving light bulbs, have regular maintenance of all the vehicles used by your company, provide information to tourists to encourage them to used public transportations in priority. Use renewable energy products, and check if the equipment you use (toilets, refrigerators, washing machines…) have an energy label.
7. Work to preserve the ecosystem. Provide information about nature and environment preservation to tourists and to your employees.
8. Create a positive impact of your company on the local communities. Provide information about cultural preservation to tourists and to your employees. Participate in community activities and encourage your visitors to buy products made locally and promote local villages. Try to hire local people to work at your company. You can even think of having a building that has traditional architecture or characteristics and organize some events such as exhibitions to promote local arts.
9. Provide access and information to people with special needs, such as disabled people. You need to officially check your level of accessibility and give them clear information about it.
10. Water is precious, and so is the land. Before buying those resources, ask for the informed consent of the local communities. Don’t buy it without including them in the project.