By Elaine Glusac
In the month of May, like the other 18 passengers on the Origin ship, from the Ecoventura expedition cruise company, I went to the Galapagos Islands to be amazed by nature. Swimming with barrel-rolling sea lions, seeing a blue-footed booby chick peeking out from under its mother, kayaking with flamingos, and experiencing the meditative rhythm of a giant tortoise—all of it was beyond the mark.
Along the way, coming across the most beautiful white sand beaches I’ve ever been to, With no hotels, but plenty of sea turtle tracks and sun-bleached whale bones, I was in awe not only of nature, but of humanity as well.
Ecuador’s decision to create the Galapagos National Park in 1959 has preserved an archipelago with some of the highest levels of endemism, or species found nowhere else. “I can say without fear of being wrong, throughout 40 years of working in and out of there as a tropical ecologist, that if tourism control and visitor management had not been put in place in the 1960s, it would have been lost. ”, said Gregory Miller, executive director of the non-profit organization Center for Responsible Tourism (CREST, for its acronym in English).
Now it is also up to visitors to do their part to visit the Galapagos Islands and other sensitive places in environmental terms in order not to cause any damage.
Interest in responsible tourism is booming; In a recent Expedia Group Media Solutions survey of 11,000 international travelers, nine out of ten respondents said they look for sustainable options when planning trips. In the same survey, 70 percent said they felt overwhelmed by the process of becoming a more sustainable traveler.
When I was planning my trip last winter, willing to do it as responsibly as possible, Miller helped me put options under the sustainability lens, which took time. It took me months to decide where, how and with which company to travel; looking at the operators’ websites for sustainability practices and committing to pay—triple my normal travel budget, partly because the Galapagos Islands aren’t cheap—for what I claimed to want.
“Unfortunately, sustainability is not yet very widespread”, said Paloma Zapata, CEO of Sustainable Travel International, which advises on destinations and educates consumers on sustainable travel. “Local people, businesses and organizations don’t know what sustainability is or how to fully meet those criteria.”
In this sense, she and other experts help guide travelers who want to plan sustainable trips, particularly to sensitive destinations such as the Galapagos or Antarctica.
How to define ‘sensitive’
Luckily, both the Galapagos Islands and Antarctica facilitate this type of tourism thanks to their strict environmental regulations, including mandates to leave no trace on the shoreline and ensuring that all tours are accompanied by a guide. In the Galapagos, no ship can carry more than one hundred passengers; in Antarctica, vessels with more than 500 passengers are prohibited from touching land.
Proponents of sustainable tourism say their best practices apply everywhere but in places as ecologically fragile as Antarctica, which most consider sensitive as the last great wilderness where humans have had little direct impact—urgency is greater.
“Walking through the streets of Paris is very different from walking through the Galapagos Islands,” Zapata explained. “When you go to very sensitive places, you have to be even more aware of what you are doing,” he added.
“That’s where the traveler must consider visiting and tourism as a privilege, not a right, where their choice matters,” said Miller.
Ask questions, confirm answers
The choice begins with researching the issues affecting the destination and the questions to ask tour operators, based on CREST’s responsible tourism tips. Most companies that work to protect the environment and support local communities will be transparent about it.
“I should be able to ask questions and they should have answers and know where to go,” said Erin Green, an agent for Excelsior, Minnesota-based Pique Travel Design, who is on the sustainability committee for Virtuoso, a consortium of travel agencies. . “Otherwise, that tells me that sustainability may not be a core tenet of your business.”
The answers should be much stronger than eliminate the use of plastic straws and reduce laundry, which are things that she considers should already be taken for granted.
“I am looking for a concrete and achievable goal, such as reducing emissions or being carbon neutral. Where do your staff come from? Do you work with local communities? Where does the food come from?” Green said.
Among operators, she highly recommends Lindblad Expeditions, an expedition cruise company that was one of the first to make non-research voyages to Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands in the 1960s, went carbon neutral in 2019 and serves sustainably sourced seafood (voyages 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands, from $7,710). Quark Expeditions hires Inuit chefs on its Greenland and Canada summer cruises, and Ponant has just launched a hybrid electric ship that operates in the polar regions.
On land, Big Five Tours & Expeditions, which blends culture with adventure on trips to Africa, South America and elsewhere, advocates for social sustainability, for example by sponsoring locally owned safari camps in Kenya; its safari offerings include an ‘Elephant Ranking’, which represents the sustainability achievements of African countries. Natural Habitat, which leads wildlife-watching expeditions, has been carbon neutral since 2007, and in 2019 conducted the first net-zero waste trip in Yellowstone National Park.
Beware of empty incentives to join the green trend. The Impact Travel Alliance, a nonprofit organization championing the positive power of tourism, offers tips for avoiding green simulation, including finding companies that are active in areas such as recycling, reducing waste, and supporting biodiversity and that they not only limit themselves to talking about it or recommending that travelers buy carbon offsets.
“A $5 food and beverage credit so you don’t get your room cleaned, in practice, is simulation,” Justin Smith, owner of Evolved Traveler, an agency based in Beverly Hills, California, said of emphasizing the reduction of the working hours of the maids. “A more pejorative impact on the local economy is caused by a minimal amount of energy savings.”
Confirm certifications
For those who like to travel on their own, sustainability certifications can help identify responsible driving. The Global Sustainable Tourism Council, which sets international industry standards for sustainability, recognizes several certification bodies for tourism businesses and destinations, including Bureau Veritas, EarthCheck and Green Destinations.
But with so much fragmentation, certifications can be hard to decipher. Check a destination’s website for information on sustainability. For example, Aruba has distinguished itself by its use of solar and wind power, which powers about 20 percent of its needs. And Jordan created a Meaningful Travel Map that identifies 12 social enterprises — including a cafeteria with food from a women-run farmers’ cooperative and a Bedouin camp run by a local tribe — that it invites travelers to visit.
Planning Resources
The carbon emissions associated with flights prevent any trip from being fully sustainable. Aviation is estimated to be responsible for 3.5 percent of global warming, and although it is relatively small, it is difficult to decarbonise. A White House initiative to promote sustainable aviation fuel development aims to meet 100 percent of demands by 2050.
However, while that happens, there are many travel agencies, organizations and operators committed to targeting conscious consumers.
Regenerative Travel, a consortium of 30 independent hotels selected for their practices in supporting local communities and the environment, has just switched to a subscription model, charging travelers $99 per year to receive weekly and monthly updates on regenerative issues. . Members get that $99 back in the form of a credit at any of the group’s hotels if they book a minimum stay of three nights.
“We work with amazing independent companies that don’t have the backing of big groups or the funding to reach consumers and are typically not found in online travel agencies,” said Amanda Ho, CEO of Regenerative Travel. .
The Evolved Traveler agency recently introduced sustainability icons applied to each itinerary that represent activities or places that have a positive social or environmental impact or a commitment to the community.
“With this we hope it will pique the interest of customers and make them talk about us,” Smith said.
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
