The Good Traveller Guide
SustEd prepared a competition brief and basic text on what makes a good traveller aimed at young adults. It was offered to VET students studying a Foundation course in Art and Design for the production a Good Traveller Guide.
SustEd prepared a competition brief and basic text on what makes a good traveller aimed at young adults. It was offered to VET students studying a Foundation course in Art and Design for the production a Good Traveller Guide.
Arts and Design students from New College Stamford were given a brief for their Foundation course to design a Guide for Good Travellers, aimed at 16-24 year old travellers to Europe.
Aim: To encourage young people (16 – 30 year olds) to think about the impacts of their holiday , adventure travel and tourism on the environment, local people and the local economy, and then trying to make the impact of their holiday as positive as possible.
Design: To design 1) a logo 2) a small guide or pledge that is passport size, and no more than 6 pages 3) a card that is credit card size to fit in a wallet 4) an A4 colour poster 5) a webpage on http://learnsustainabletourism.weebly.com. The guide/pledge and card would be for free distribution in student unions/ travel agencies, youth and backpacker hostels.
Competition: The final work would be judged by an international group from Portugal, Spain and Poland, as well as Susted in the UK. The winning design would be used as part of the VESURTE - Learn sustainable tourism project http://learnsustainabletourism.weebly.com. The winning student would have the opportunity to present their design to the group and other students in either Portugal, Spain or Poland during a project meeting.
Background:
UNEP Green Passport online www.unep.org/greenpassport
Green Passport http://learnsustainabletourism.weebly.com/uploads/1/5/3/6/15360360/unep_green__passport_070509.pdf
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green_passport.pdf | |
File Size: | 701 kb |
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The Good Traveller Guide
Sustainable, responsible, green, eco, smart, slow, pro-poor, fair, and ethical
All these words can describe the good traveller.
The good traveller:
One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things - Henry Miller
The good traveller values the triple bottom line:
Planet - travel and tourism that minimises negative environmental impacts and, where possible, makes positive contributions to the conservation of biodiversity, wilderness, natural and human heritage.
People - travel that respects culture and traditions and fosters authentic interaction and greater understanding between travellers and hosts.
Profit - travel that has financial benefits for the host community and operates on the principles of fair trade.
Making a difference
The good traveller can make a big difference. International travel and tourism is the world's top industry and growing rapidly. So it has a big influence on the lives, lifestyles and livelihoods of many millions of people, especially in more remote and less industrialised countries.
The good and bad of tourism
All of us can be good travellers
Planning
Explore your own backyard. It’s not necessary to travel abroad to meet people from other countries, to have new adventures, or to have a great holiday. Try a short break with friends exploring a city or the countryside in your own country.
Try a working holiday or volunteering. Volunteering and working holidays can also be a way to give something back while enjoying an encounter with a new culture.
See http://media.lonelyplanet.com/pdfs/volunteer-book.pdf
Choosing the place. Give preference to places that have demonstrated responsible practices. Consider paying a little more for your holiday if that means fair wages for the people working in your accommodation and conservation projects for communities. Look for websites specialising in responsible travel, ecotourism, or sustainable tourism.
Choosing the dates. Travelling during the high season can increase your negative impact, so planning a month earlier or later can help. Visiting during a local festival provides a window into the culture and helps support traditional crafts and customs.
Choosing the operator. Tour operators play a fundamental role in the tourist industry as intermediaries between tourist and their destination. If you can, choose tour, travel and accommodation operators that are committed to being good for the local community and environment.
Get the info. Arriving with a sense of the social, political, and environmental issues in your host country makes your travels more meaningful. Educate yourself about the history, economy, culture, religion and nature.
Learn the language: Taking the time to learn a few words of the local language (eating, greeting and local values) cultivates goodwill and enhances your knowledge of local culture.
Unplug Your Home. Good travelling begins at home. Before you head out, unplug any appliance that won't be in use while you're away.
Accommodation
Have a good sleep. It needn't cost the Earth. Hotels and hostels are very large consumers of resources. Don’t be fooled by greenwash from businesses that ‘talk the talk’ but don’t ‘walk the walk’ . Check how they handle rubbish, food scraps and recyclables, wash sheets and towels, conserve water and energy, offer local and organic food. If possible stay at certified, eco-friendly accommodation.
Stay simple. When looking for a place to stay, choose the smallest, simplest option. Smaller properties with fewer amenities consume less energy, and typically provide more personal, and authentically local, service.
Lees is good. Turn down/off the heating or air conditioning if not needed. Don't Pre-Heat or Pre-Cool you room, as this is one of the easiest steps you can take to save energy. As at home switch off lights, turn off TVs and gadgets when going out. Use water and showers sparingly, as there is a shortage in most hot countries. Ask to re-use towels and bedding for the next night.
Packing
Lighten up. Packing lightly will make it easier to get where you're going, while also reducing your carbon footprint.
Reduce waste. Trim excess food wrappers and packaging. Pack a waste-free meal or snack in a reusable container to bring on your trip. Waste disposal systems in many countries are ill-equipped to deal with the increased pressures that tourism brings. Pack rechargeable batteries and your battery charger.
Bring a reusable shopping bag. Packing a basic reusable bag, in your luggage is an easy way to help keep waste out of landfills and off roadsides, conserve energy, and protect marine life.
Bring your own water bottle. Break the addiction to buying plastic water bottles by refilling a single bottle with filtered water.
Keep waters clean. Eco-friendly detergents and shampoos are widely available. They will help to keep valuable fresh water supplies, rivers, streams and the sea free from pollution.
Dress down. As well as accentuating the gap between rich and poor, extravagant displays of wealth such as ostentatious jewellery and techy gadgets can be an incitement to robbery. In many places, dressing inappropriately can be considered offensive. Loose, long clothing is appropriate anywhere.
Pack your ethics. Take your normal environmental habits when travelling, including turning off lights and using less water. Remember to walk your talk, no matter where you are staying.
On and off the Road
Travel with an open mind. Each society has its own attitudes, traditions, and concepts of time that may be different from yours. Some cultures are more hurried, while others are more relaxed. Be patient and courteous. Accepting this and adapting to a new culture can make the difference between an enjoyable visit and a frustrating one.
Reduce your impact. Travel and camp on durable surfaces and minimize campfire impacts. Respect wildlife; Travel in small, low-impact groups; Always follow designated trails and respect conserved nature. Learn about and support local conservation programs and organizations working to preserve the environment.
Leave what you find. Take only memories and photographs. Leave only footprints. The impact of one person may seem minimal, but the global effect of removing items from their native place can be decimating.
Use your guidebook. But also know when to put it away. Remember that your guidebook is just that — a guide.
Respect the privacy and dignity of others. Ask before taking pictures of people. Some people do not want to be photographed. Sometimes choosing not to take photographs can bring you a more genuine experience because you don’t have a camera separating you from the local culture. Avoid giving gifts to children and don’t make promises to local residents that can’t be kept.
Involve communities. Instead of giving money to individuals, learn about community resources and how you can contribute. Tell people in your host community why you like it. This will encourage them to feel proud of their culture and preserve it for future visitors.
Lend a hand. Make a positive impact on any community you visit by giving back in some way eg. Clearing litter on the beach, make a river clean-up, support a local environmental organisation.
Make friends. Try to introduce yourself in the local language and then ask if they speak yours. Even if they don’t, you can try to communicate with common phrases you may each know and lots of gestures.
Shopping
Support the local economy. Be aware of where your money is going by supporting locally owned businesses. Support and celebrate the local culture by purchasing hand-crafted artwork directly from the artisan whenever possible. By buying the cheapest souvenirs you are unintentionally supporting the mass-market, cheap products and moving people in the area away from their traditional culture.
Bargain fairly. Remember the economic realities of your new currency. When bargaining, do so with respect to the seller and decide on a mutually beneficial price. Doing so contributes to the local economy, while an unfair price may contribute to local poverty.
Know what's endangered. Avoid buying products and souvenirs made from endangered plants or animals including corals, shells, skins and woods. These are listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species www.cites.org. Buying antiquities as it encourages the looting of heritage sites.
Travel
The way you travel has the biggest impact on the local and global environment. Only about 5% of the world's population has even been on a plane, so those that do have a big responsibility.
Fly less. There's no need to fly in order to travel! It is very possible to reach many parts of Europe by bus, train or ship. If you have to, fly non-stop and choose a responsible, on-time airline. Short haul flights (less than 500 km) are the worst polluters. 60% of international flights are for tourism. Flying causes about 5% of global greenhouse emissions, and is the fastest growing cause. The emissions resulting from an international holiday may even exceed the yearly emissions of an average world citizen (4.3 t CO2/year), or even of the average EU citizen (9 t CO2/year).
Travel slow. Slow travel, as a growing trend, is about spending more time at a destination, meeting locals, getting to know the local environment, taking long walks and exploring, instead of rushing. Trains and buses are a comfortable way of travelling, lets you see the country en route, meet locals, and can make an ideal combination with cycling ‐ bikes can often be carried for free!Public transport produces about half as much polluting gases per passenger mile, as private vehicles. Research free or inexpensive bike rental. See www.google.com/transit
Share a Car. If you have to rent a car, look for available shared car options. Shared cars are typically ultra-low emission, sometimes hybrid, vehicles or fuel-efficient hybrids, which are parked in high-density areas throughout a host city. See www.zipcar.co.uk
Touring
Visit Blue Flag beaches. Support coastal communities with Blue Flag beach. This is a voluntary eco‐label working towards sustainable development at beaches and marinas through strict criteria dealing with water quality, education, management and safety. See www.blueflag.org
Support ecotourism. Sustainable tourism is one way of protecting rare and endangered plant and animal species and their vanishing ecosystems. Good ecotourism values and conserves the biodiversity that brings the tourists and their money.
Stay on the trail. It can be tempting to venture off the beaten path to save time, avoid crowds, explore wild places. But if we all went off-track we'd destroy the very places we came to experience.
Respect local cultures. Treating others the way you wish to be treated is the basic premise of responsible travel. It sounds simple, because it is simple. When we travel, we are visiting the homes of our global neighbors, getting to know them, and experiencing how they live.
Food and Drink
Don't put the ecosystem on your plate
Eat local foods. By eating locally produced food you will reduce the CO2 emissions from transport and storage, reduce the use of preservative chemicals, as well as helping local farmers and the local economy. It will also enrich your travel experience with the culture, flavours and ingredients of a new place.
Choose organic food. Choosing organic food can help reduce pesticide use and fossil fuels for making fertilizers. It uses eco-friendly farming methods such as composting, terracing, and inter-cropping.
Order eco-friendly seafood. Limiting your seafood choices to fish and shellfish that are more abundant and more responsibly managed helps protect ocean life and habitats. Many fish stocks are declining. Fish caught in certain ways, such as dredging and bottom trawling, will damage marine habitats and the marine floor. Look for a certified product with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) label.
Take the next step
Offset your travel. Invest in carbon offsets after you return home from each trip, especially if you fly, and even if you travel responsibly as described above. Offsets compensate your greenhouse gas emissions from the use of fossil fuels by absorbing CO2 in tree planting projects and investing in renewable energy projects. So calculate your carbon footprint and buy offsets eg. www.atmosfair.de, www.puretrust.org.uk
Pass on the paper information. Lessen your load and reduce landfill by passing on to fellow travellers the mass of research and reading materials you acquire—maps, guidebooks, magazines, newspapers, paperback books, brochures.
Make a suggestion. Guests can have a significant impact on the environmental and social decisions and practices of the accommodation. So speak up and let the managers know what more they could be doing. See www.tripadvisor.co.uk
Green Passport – The UN guide to green travelling - www.unep.org/greenpassport
Green Traveller. A guide to travelling while reducing your impact on the environment; it helps conservation and provides genuine benefits for local communities- www.greentraveller.co.uk
WWF Travel Helper. Online search engine to help to find the best routes for your journey; check travel times and compare carbon footprints of different options - http://travel.panda.org
Green Choices. A UK guide to greener living - www.greenchoices.org
Sustainable, responsible, green, eco, smart, slow, pro-poor, fair, and ethical
All these words can describe the good traveller.
The good traveller:
- Cares for the people and places they love to visit.
- Helps solve problems of tourism rather than be a part of them.
- Thinks critically about their actions while travelling.
- Makes the connections between their luxury and privilege to travel and the local poverty.
- Is open to change their own lifestyles, as well as help others change.
One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things - Henry Miller
The good traveller values the triple bottom line:
Planet - travel and tourism that minimises negative environmental impacts and, where possible, makes positive contributions to the conservation of biodiversity, wilderness, natural and human heritage.
People - travel that respects culture and traditions and fosters authentic interaction and greater understanding between travellers and hosts.
Profit - travel that has financial benefits for the host community and operates on the principles of fair trade.
Making a difference
The good traveller can make a big difference. International travel and tourism is the world's top industry and growing rapidly. So it has a big influence on the lives, lifestyles and livelihoods of many millions of people, especially in more remote and less industrialised countries.
The good and bad of tourism
- Our money can be passed from us as richer tourists to poorer local communities and people.
- Our money can encourage others to invest in the local area and develop local services
- Our tourism can provide local jobs and boost the local economy.
- Our interest in the local natural and cultural heritage can help conserve it.
- We can understand other cultures and local people can understand our culture.
- Our tourism can be good for our own health and well-being.
- Our long distance travelling, especially by air, adds to the tourist industry's growing greenhouse gas emissions.
- Our tourism diverts valuable and essential local resources, like water and energy, away from local needs.
- Our tourism encourages developments which compete with local needs for land.
- Our consumption can produce high levels of waste and pollution from tourism which threatens local biodiversity and fragile ecosystems.
- Our vehicles and feet causes soil erosion around famous spots.
- Our tourism may encourage local people to employ children in the tourism industry.
- Our tourism may encourage local people to commit crime and establish prostitution among children and young women.
- Our tourism can also have an impact on local communities and their culture by making traditions loose their meaning and become tourist attractions.
- Our purchases may encourage local businesses to focus entirely on tourism, risking longer term dependency on selling to tourists.
- Our money does not always feed into the local community, but may pass to holiday operators and travel companies from other countries.
- Our money can be a vulnerable and unstable source of income, as it is often very sensitive to changing local conditions.
All of us can be good travellers
Planning
Explore your own backyard. It’s not necessary to travel abroad to meet people from other countries, to have new adventures, or to have a great holiday. Try a short break with friends exploring a city or the countryside in your own country.
Try a working holiday or volunteering. Volunteering and working holidays can also be a way to give something back while enjoying an encounter with a new culture.
See http://media.lonelyplanet.com/pdfs/volunteer-book.pdf
Choosing the place. Give preference to places that have demonstrated responsible practices. Consider paying a little more for your holiday if that means fair wages for the people working in your accommodation and conservation projects for communities. Look for websites specialising in responsible travel, ecotourism, or sustainable tourism.
Choosing the dates. Travelling during the high season can increase your negative impact, so planning a month earlier or later can help. Visiting during a local festival provides a window into the culture and helps support traditional crafts and customs.
Choosing the operator. Tour operators play a fundamental role in the tourist industry as intermediaries between tourist and their destination. If you can, choose tour, travel and accommodation operators that are committed to being good for the local community and environment.
Get the info. Arriving with a sense of the social, political, and environmental issues in your host country makes your travels more meaningful. Educate yourself about the history, economy, culture, religion and nature.
Learn the language: Taking the time to learn a few words of the local language (eating, greeting and local values) cultivates goodwill and enhances your knowledge of local culture.
Unplug Your Home. Good travelling begins at home. Before you head out, unplug any appliance that won't be in use while you're away.
Accommodation
Have a good sleep. It needn't cost the Earth. Hotels and hostels are very large consumers of resources. Don’t be fooled by greenwash from businesses that ‘talk the talk’ but don’t ‘walk the walk’ . Check how they handle rubbish, food scraps and recyclables, wash sheets and towels, conserve water and energy, offer local and organic food. If possible stay at certified, eco-friendly accommodation.
Stay simple. When looking for a place to stay, choose the smallest, simplest option. Smaller properties with fewer amenities consume less energy, and typically provide more personal, and authentically local, service.
Lees is good. Turn down/off the heating or air conditioning if not needed. Don't Pre-Heat or Pre-Cool you room, as this is one of the easiest steps you can take to save energy. As at home switch off lights, turn off TVs and gadgets when going out. Use water and showers sparingly, as there is a shortage in most hot countries. Ask to re-use towels and bedding for the next night.
Packing
Lighten up. Packing lightly will make it easier to get where you're going, while also reducing your carbon footprint.
Reduce waste. Trim excess food wrappers and packaging. Pack a waste-free meal or snack in a reusable container to bring on your trip. Waste disposal systems in many countries are ill-equipped to deal with the increased pressures that tourism brings. Pack rechargeable batteries and your battery charger.
Bring a reusable shopping bag. Packing a basic reusable bag, in your luggage is an easy way to help keep waste out of landfills and off roadsides, conserve energy, and protect marine life.
Bring your own water bottle. Break the addiction to buying plastic water bottles by refilling a single bottle with filtered water.
Keep waters clean. Eco-friendly detergents and shampoos are widely available. They will help to keep valuable fresh water supplies, rivers, streams and the sea free from pollution.
Dress down. As well as accentuating the gap between rich and poor, extravagant displays of wealth such as ostentatious jewellery and techy gadgets can be an incitement to robbery. In many places, dressing inappropriately can be considered offensive. Loose, long clothing is appropriate anywhere.
Pack your ethics. Take your normal environmental habits when travelling, including turning off lights and using less water. Remember to walk your talk, no matter where you are staying.
On and off the Road
Travel with an open mind. Each society has its own attitudes, traditions, and concepts of time that may be different from yours. Some cultures are more hurried, while others are more relaxed. Be patient and courteous. Accepting this and adapting to a new culture can make the difference between an enjoyable visit and a frustrating one.
Reduce your impact. Travel and camp on durable surfaces and minimize campfire impacts. Respect wildlife; Travel in small, low-impact groups; Always follow designated trails and respect conserved nature. Learn about and support local conservation programs and organizations working to preserve the environment.
Leave what you find. Take only memories and photographs. Leave only footprints. The impact of one person may seem minimal, but the global effect of removing items from their native place can be decimating.
Use your guidebook. But also know when to put it away. Remember that your guidebook is just that — a guide.
Respect the privacy and dignity of others. Ask before taking pictures of people. Some people do not want to be photographed. Sometimes choosing not to take photographs can bring you a more genuine experience because you don’t have a camera separating you from the local culture. Avoid giving gifts to children and don’t make promises to local residents that can’t be kept.
Involve communities. Instead of giving money to individuals, learn about community resources and how you can contribute. Tell people in your host community why you like it. This will encourage them to feel proud of their culture and preserve it for future visitors.
Lend a hand. Make a positive impact on any community you visit by giving back in some way eg. Clearing litter on the beach, make a river clean-up, support a local environmental organisation.
Make friends. Try to introduce yourself in the local language and then ask if they speak yours. Even if they don’t, you can try to communicate with common phrases you may each know and lots of gestures.
Shopping
Support the local economy. Be aware of where your money is going by supporting locally owned businesses. Support and celebrate the local culture by purchasing hand-crafted artwork directly from the artisan whenever possible. By buying the cheapest souvenirs you are unintentionally supporting the mass-market, cheap products and moving people in the area away from their traditional culture.
Bargain fairly. Remember the economic realities of your new currency. When bargaining, do so with respect to the seller and decide on a mutually beneficial price. Doing so contributes to the local economy, while an unfair price may contribute to local poverty.
Know what's endangered. Avoid buying products and souvenirs made from endangered plants or animals including corals, shells, skins and woods. These are listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species www.cites.org. Buying antiquities as it encourages the looting of heritage sites.
Travel
The way you travel has the biggest impact on the local and global environment. Only about 5% of the world's population has even been on a plane, so those that do have a big responsibility.
Fly less. There's no need to fly in order to travel! It is very possible to reach many parts of Europe by bus, train or ship. If you have to, fly non-stop and choose a responsible, on-time airline. Short haul flights (less than 500 km) are the worst polluters. 60% of international flights are for tourism. Flying causes about 5% of global greenhouse emissions, and is the fastest growing cause. The emissions resulting from an international holiday may even exceed the yearly emissions of an average world citizen (4.3 t CO2/year), or even of the average EU citizen (9 t CO2/year).
Travel slow. Slow travel, as a growing trend, is about spending more time at a destination, meeting locals, getting to know the local environment, taking long walks and exploring, instead of rushing. Trains and buses are a comfortable way of travelling, lets you see the country en route, meet locals, and can make an ideal combination with cycling ‐ bikes can often be carried for free!Public transport produces about half as much polluting gases per passenger mile, as private vehicles. Research free or inexpensive bike rental. See www.google.com/transit
Share a Car. If you have to rent a car, look for available shared car options. Shared cars are typically ultra-low emission, sometimes hybrid, vehicles or fuel-efficient hybrids, which are parked in high-density areas throughout a host city. See www.zipcar.co.uk
Touring
Visit Blue Flag beaches. Support coastal communities with Blue Flag beach. This is a voluntary eco‐label working towards sustainable development at beaches and marinas through strict criteria dealing with water quality, education, management and safety. See www.blueflag.org
Support ecotourism. Sustainable tourism is one way of protecting rare and endangered plant and animal species and their vanishing ecosystems. Good ecotourism values and conserves the biodiversity that brings the tourists and their money.
Stay on the trail. It can be tempting to venture off the beaten path to save time, avoid crowds, explore wild places. But if we all went off-track we'd destroy the very places we came to experience.
Respect local cultures. Treating others the way you wish to be treated is the basic premise of responsible travel. It sounds simple, because it is simple. When we travel, we are visiting the homes of our global neighbors, getting to know them, and experiencing how they live.
Food and Drink
Don't put the ecosystem on your plate
Eat local foods. By eating locally produced food you will reduce the CO2 emissions from transport and storage, reduce the use of preservative chemicals, as well as helping local farmers and the local economy. It will also enrich your travel experience with the culture, flavours and ingredients of a new place.
Choose organic food. Choosing organic food can help reduce pesticide use and fossil fuels for making fertilizers. It uses eco-friendly farming methods such as composting, terracing, and inter-cropping.
Order eco-friendly seafood. Limiting your seafood choices to fish and shellfish that are more abundant and more responsibly managed helps protect ocean life and habitats. Many fish stocks are declining. Fish caught in certain ways, such as dredging and bottom trawling, will damage marine habitats and the marine floor. Look for a certified product with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) label.
Take the next step
Offset your travel. Invest in carbon offsets after you return home from each trip, especially if you fly, and even if you travel responsibly as described above. Offsets compensate your greenhouse gas emissions from the use of fossil fuels by absorbing CO2 in tree planting projects and investing in renewable energy projects. So calculate your carbon footprint and buy offsets eg. www.atmosfair.de, www.puretrust.org.uk
Pass on the paper information. Lessen your load and reduce landfill by passing on to fellow travellers the mass of research and reading materials you acquire—maps, guidebooks, magazines, newspapers, paperback books, brochures.
Make a suggestion. Guests can have a significant impact on the environmental and social decisions and practices of the accommodation. So speak up and let the managers know what more they could be doing. See www.tripadvisor.co.uk
Green Passport – The UN guide to green travelling - www.unep.org/greenpassport
Green Traveller. A guide to travelling while reducing your impact on the environment; it helps conservation and provides genuine benefits for local communities- www.greentraveller.co.uk
WWF Travel Helper. Online search engine to help to find the best routes for your journey; check travel times and compare carbon footprints of different options - http://travel.panda.org
Green Choices. A UK guide to greener living - www.greenchoices.org