Because this world is the only one we have, can we treat it better as we begin to travel again? As the world reopens, travellers have a unique opportunity to hit reset after this pause and explore the world differently.
“Conscientious travel” — protecting cultures, preserving the environment and supporting local economies — can be our new shared mantra.
Does that spell the end of the travel bucket list, the phrase popularized by the 2007 movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman?
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“Not really,” says Robin Esrock, best-selling author of the 2013 book, The Great Canadian Bucket List.
“The title appealed to the universal desire to see the things we want to see in the limited time we have,” Esrock says. “For me, how we travel has always been more important than why we travel. It’s not the number of countries I can visit in a week, it is the conditions around me, the emotions and the characters I meet rather than the location itself that are so appealing.”
Here’s how to take a fresh approach to travel that benefits the traveller and the world.
Immerse yourself in your destination
Of course you’ll want to read up on a place before you visit, but go deep and wide, concentrating on the culture, region and local rules and sensitivities.
Also, are your proposed trip dates a good time to visit? Learn a few words and phrases of the local language, too, so you can share at least a friendly “hello” with residents. Plan to get out of the tourist bubble to meet locals who will want to show you their world. You can almost always connect at a sporting event or a neighbourhood festival or a wine-cellar tasting.
But don’t over-prepare. That can be as restrictive as not doing any homework at all. Be sure to leave room for the unexpected. “When you approach any travel experience, if you lower your expectations and open your heart and your mind to anything that may happen, you will increase the likelihood of having a life-changing experience,” Esrock advises.
Consider the environment
To start with, think about how to get where you want to go. Of the various ways to travel from point A to point B, flying has a large carbon impact due to the production of greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide, during the flight. If flying is the most logical — or only option — take a nonstop flight whenever possible. Most emissions are released during takeoff and landing.
Consider buying a carbon offset from a provider such as Carbon Footprint. Here’s where you can determine and compensate for the carbon impact of your flight. Or consider planting a tree that reabsorbs the emitted CO2.
The aviation industry is striving to become net zero by 2050. KLM’s Fly Responsibly Campaign, for example, is committed to achieving these net zero targets. “Since January 2022, all KLM tickets for flights departing Amsterdam include a small contribution to incorporate Sustainable Aviation Fuel,” says Catherine Guillemart-Dias, general manager, Air France/KLM Canada.
When you can, take the train or a bus, which are better than planes when it comes to carbon emissions.
On a recent trip to northern Portugal, I flew to Lisbon, then hopped on a train from the downtown station for the city of Porto. It took about the same time as flying, considering the driving time from downtown to airport and the two-hour wait before boarding the plane. Bonus — three hours to relax and enjoy the beautiful countryside.
Even small actions can make an impact. When flying, pack light. Less weight means less fuel consumption. You can help to reverse the plastic trend by packing a refillable water bottle, a reusable shopping tote and your own toiletries, to avoid single-use hotel products.
For road trips, Google Maps last year launched eco-friendly routing in the U.S. that gives drivers the choice between the fastest and the most fuel-efficient route. The latest addition are maps that show where to find bike and scooter sharing stations in 300 cities around the world.
If you want to be more environmentally responsible on a long road trip, consider leaving the pickup truck, SUV or van at home and rent a hybrid, suggests the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute.
On our first post-pandemic overnight in Toronto, my husband and I checked into the Chelsea Hotel, parked in the underground garage and explored downtown the greenest way possible — on foot.
This hotel is committed to sustainability. It saves up to three million sheets of paper annually by switching from paper to electronic guest receipts. Even the bees that have taken up residence in the rooftop flower garden are doing their bit. Their honey is sold in the hotel’s Market Garden restaurant, with all the proceeds going to SickKids Foundation. For the Chelsea’s efforts, EarthCheck, an international, industry-wide program that certifies operational practices, awarded the hotel Gold Certified status, its top honour.
Embrace sustainable travel
Beyond low-impact environmental protection, sustainable travel provides socioeconomic benefits to the community you visit.
For a growing number of conscientious travellers, giving back to a destination in a positive way is an important component of their trip. Earth Watch Citizen Science Trips, for example, allow participants to assist researchers with meaningful fieldwork. At the Arctic’s edge, near Churchill, Man., participants assess snowpack and shrinking sea ice and survey and record Arctic mammals in the Arctic landscape.
Immersive experiences that give back to the communities we visit can be as simple as volunteering an hour to read to a group of children or contributing money to a local charity or a wildlife protection fund.
You also can have a positive impact by choosing a locally owned tour operator or a provider that gives back to the community.
We contribute something to the destination when we shop for produce at a farmers market or buy hand-crafted souvenirs or jewellery from local artisans rather than mass market, made-in-China look-alikes. Spending money locally helps keep the destination vibrant and one-of-a-kind.
Closer to home, we can incorporate Indigenous communities in our travels. Feast Cafe Bistro in Winnipeg, for example, is one of many Indigenous restaurants across the country creating awareness and jobs for their communities. Owner Christa Bruneau-Guenther invites visitors to Winnipeg to “visit Feast to connect with us and enjoy the bold flavours of our great land.”
Did you know that the Canada-based Native Land app shows which Indigenous territories you are on, not only in Canada, but in many parts of the world?
Now is also the time to tip generously in local currency. It’s been a disastrous two-plus years for people who work in the travel industry. Generosity along with a word of kindness go a long way to help.
Fighting the scourge of over-tourism
Before COVID-19, the biggest threat to travel was over-tourism. Too much of a good thing was not a good thing.
In 2018, the Oxford English Dictionary shortlisted over-tourism as one of its words of the year, defining it as “an excessive number of visitors heading to famous locations, damaging the environment and having a detrimental impact on residents’ lives.”
In 2019, authorities around the world enacted new rules to reduce tourism hotspots and improve life for locals. The Netherlands government stopped promoting beleaguered Amsterdam, slapped a tax on overnight visitors and focused its promotion dollars on smaller cities.
Greek authorities proposed a cap of 8,000 cruise passengers a day at ports such as Santorini, and in Italy, Venice introduced turnstiles along the main thoroughfares into the city to redirect tourists to lesser-known streets.
And then came COVID-19 and the entire travel industry came to a standstill.
As we restart our travels, we have an opportunity to get it right.
Esrock encourages people “to think beyond a bucket list of the world’s most popular destinations. You can still have an incredible time.”
Instead of Venice, for example, consider Slovenia — a place of beautiful landscapes, cobblestoned old-world European cities, sustainable tourist destination awards and smaller crowds of Instagramming tourists. Rather than the seriously developed towns of Puerto Vallarta, Bucerias and Sayulita in the Mexican state of Nayarit, travel a little farther north up the coast to charming, less populated San Pancho (also known as San Francisco).
Closer to home, New Brunswick, too often considered “the drive-through province” on the way to Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island deserves detours and stops all along the way. Slowing down for a leisurely two-hour tour in the Sussex area, for example, takes you through five romantic King’s County covered bridges (a.k.a. the Kissing Bridges) where it’s a tradition to lift your feet off the floor as you cross the bridge and make a wish.
Wherever you travel, doing it off-season usually brings a bonus of fewer crowds and cheaper rates.
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them,” Albert Einstein once said. He may not have been speaking specifically of conscientious travel, but if the shoe fits, strap it on for the first step on a journey to a better world.
