As Mark twain has rightly said, “Plan for the future, because that’s where you’ll spend the rest of your life.” While traveling we often forget the places we are visiting in someone’s home. Ever thought, are you behaving responsibly in someone else land? How are your choices affecting the environment? Does the money you spend benefit the locals?
Here are few of the tips to promote sustainable tourism which would result in a better future of our planet.
- Treat locals like you wish yourself to be treated. You might observe a lot of diversity in culture, food, religion, eating habits, dressing style, language but always travel with the feeling of respect even though you are uncomfortable.
- Try local cuisines and relish the fantastic flavors that local cuisine has to offer. One of the best parts of traveling is to bring home the knowledge you didn’t have before and the kitchen is the place where you can travel to any part of the world for free and try international food in your own style.
- Shop local souvenirs, stay in local guest houses instead of luxury hotels, support family-run businesses. This way you can pour money back into the local community at the source and promote the economy of that country. Travel in public transport instead of private hire cabs. By doing this, you can interact more with locals, explore the country and reduce carbon footprint.
- Say no to plastics bottles or any kind of plastic items that can harm the environment. Buy small reusable travel bottles for shower gel, shampoo and moisturiser to fit in the hand luggage. This way you can avoid simply throwing off hotel plastic containers for each room you are in. Prefer to use recyclable items to maintain ecological balance.
- Be aware of the local authority’s recommendation before visiting a new place for travel. Getting vaccinated keeps you safe and healthy while you’re traveling. It depends where you are planning to travel, your current status of health, immunity power, existing disease etc. You should get vaccinated 4-6 months before your travel to allow vaccines to go deep inside the body and helps against the infections.
- Avoid being going to zoos or wildlife parks and stick to watching animals in their natural habitats at a safe distance. Don’t engage in any sightseeing activity promoting unethical tourism for fun. Remember that for 1 hour of your entertainment, you could be contributing to a lifetime of distress for the animal.
- Don’t encourage the sale of wildlife products with your money and avoid purchasing souvenirs made from ivory, exotic reptiles, turtle shells, tigers and other threatened species and exotic trees.
- Follow basic eco-friendly rules to make this world a better place to live in. Switch off the lights in your room where you stay. Don’t leave tap water running in the room. Control your urge to take seashells or sand from the beach or leaves from the forest.
Try to book holidays outside the high season if possible. In addition to becoming another burden for the environment, you’ll save yourself from long queues, crowds and the generally crowded atmosphere.
Take care of heritage buildings and don’t spread any trash at the sightseeing spots. Take your litter and don’t graffiti. Always remember these places will be for our coming generation not only ours.
