RESPONSIBLE AND SENSITIVE TRAVEL

Responsible tourism is difficult to describe in a single sentence, but the common aim is to minimise the impact people have when they are traveling. As tourists we perhaps do not realise that our presence can have negative effects on the economic, environmental and social fabric of a place. Our own personal impact may only be very slight, but when we pay our travel company for a month long cycling adventure in Patagonia, or a two week diving course in Indonesia, we are treading in the same footsteps as many other people who have been, and will be, visiting the same places.

One way to visualise this effect is on a smaller scale is to picture a local country park. The area around the car park, where people arrive and congregate, will have the most trampled bits of grass, the most litter, the highest concentration of gift shops and cafes. Wherever people gather, they inevitably alter the environment. This is true of towns and cities as well as coral reefs and rainforests.

That is not to say we should not visit places. Tourism can bring many benefits, especially if the tourism is well managed by an organisation that understands and cares about its corporate responsibilities. These companies may bring economic benefits to local people by investing in their communities. This in turn can improve working conditions, unemployment, and without being patronising, perhaps help local communities learn from the mistakes we have already made in our own countries. Companies who are committed to responsible tourism may also invest in environmental conservation projects which help ecological habitats that would otherwise be unprotected, or they may actively take part in preserving local cultural heritage. There are numerous success stories, where companies offering gap year travel have been directly responsible for improving the lives of local people and their communities.

Despite a global population explosion that shows no immediate sign of slowing, there are still many wild, untamed and relatively untouched places around the world. If you are lucky enough to be able to visit one of them, perhaps consider traveling with a company who are already working to ensure the pressure that your presence brings, will not adversely affect the local environment and ruin the place for future generations.