Why travel the world if you're helping to destroy it? The rapid growth of ecotourism is beginning to change that, writes Davin O'Dwyer
You know those cards you find in hotel bathrooms the world over, imploring you to reuse your towels rather than send them to the laundry, all for the laudable sake of the environment? Well, laughable as they might seem in some of the more wastefully opulent hotels in which they appear, those cards might have been on to something - environmentally aware travel is the new boom sector in global tourism. Ecotourism, however, goes way beyond saving on towel-washing.
Taking into account the environmental, socio-cultural and economic impact of tourism, ecotourism (or sustainable tourism, as it is often called) seeks to ensure that the negative impact of mass tourism is minimised while its benefits are felt by those who need them most. A growing number of tour operators are providing holidays that boast of environmentally friendly and locally owned accommodation, minimal water and energy waste, and ethical business practices that make use of local staff and produce. At a time when the demand for Fair Trade coffee is booming, it is hardly surprising that people are now seeking Fair Trade travel. Colette Pearson, of Abbey Travel, has been selling holidays by the "responsible" British tour operator, Exodus, since 1994 and has seen demand surge in recent years.
"People want different holidays now," she says. "They want to visit Thailand not just to park themselves on a beach, but to experience the country also, in a responsible way. All clients receive a predeparture pack that has information about how to travel responsibly, about proper waste disposal, water conservation, eating local food, even about not overtly displaying your wealth.
"Exodus states that "the cultures, environments and economies we visit are fragile, requiring a sustained commitment from us to ensure that we have a lasting positive effect". As part of its responsible philosophy, Exodus sponsors orphanages in Nepal and has contributed to the rebuilding efforts in Sri Lanka after the tsunami, among other projects. While it does operate tours across Europe, much of the demand is for activity-heavy tours to Africa and southeast Asia.
"Exodus holidays certainly appeal to the upper end of the market," says Pearson. "The tours are more expensive, without a doubt, but you get what you pay for. If you just want to pay to sit on a beach and not see anything, of course that's going to be cheaper. Many of these places are steeped in history and wildlife - if you want to experience that in a responsible way, then you will be prepared to pay for it."
Trailfinders travel agents in Dublin offer responsible holidays through a number of the tour operators they deal with, and confirms that the public appetite for ethical tourism is growing.
"People are interested in making sure there are local guides, and how much says. "They are after more of a cultural experience. As well as seeing the country, they want to interact with the locals and make sure they're benefiting them, rather than taking advantage of them.
"Some of the operators facilitate charitable donations, where they will match your contribution to a charity in the area you are visiting. There is also an increase in interest in 'conservation tourism', where you help build schools and become involved in other development projects in Third World areas."
There are a number of companies and charities promoting ecotourism, including ResponsibleTravel.com, an online travel agent which recommends holiday packages operated by ethical tour operators meeting strict guidelines, and also campaigns to ensure that the UK's large tour operators, Thomas Cook, Thomson Holidays and MyTravel, adopt responsible tourism policies. One of the founders of ResponsibleTravel.com is Anita Roddick, of Body Shop fame, who is obviously hoping to do for tourism what she did for cosmetics.
Another campaigning group is Tourism Concern, which highlights the terrible exploitation that can occur in the name of tourism. In some respects, they point out, tourism is as guilty of labour exploitation as many manufacturing industries in the developing world. Their campaigns include lobbying against tour operators who travel to Burma, where people are displaced from their homes to further the tourism infrastructure, and support for the porters who carry luggage on treacherous mountain treks for awful wages and at great risk. It can be all too easy to contribute to the exploitation of people in the developing world through tourism. There might be no visible sweatshops, but the inhumane practices occur all the same.
The fact that much ecotourism is focused on developing countries means that environmentally friendly tourism is with an interest in minimising their environmental impact will also have an interest in the environment itself, and many of the early sustainable tour groups catered heavily for those travellers. These destinations, though, are often home to environmentally and economically delicate habitats, particularly vulnerable to mass tourism. They are also a long way from western Europe, and longhaul flights use tons of fuel per passenger. There seems little point in recycling and being careful about energy use when at home if your flight to Kuala Lumpur undoes your good effort in a few hours.
These considerations have seen the rise of carbon-balancing, a system whereby a traveller can calculate the amount of fuel used to fly them halfway around the world, and then make a contribution to a carbon-balancing company, which invests the money in reforestation and new technologies to offset the carbon emissions created by your flight. Flying Dublin to Kathmandu return? A quick visit to www.climatecare.org will tell you that your carbon emissions amount to 2.17 tons of CO2 and that a contribution of £16.28 (€24) will render you carbon neutral - and voilà, your conscience is cleared. Inevitably, some debate surrounds the practice, but for the serious ecotourist, carbon-balancing is a necessity, and demand is growing furiously - Climate Care reports that it has seen a tenfold increase in carbon-balancing in the last year.
But ecotourism is not only about exotic locales and helping indigenous people - there is an ecotourism initiative here in Ireland. Greenbox is a cross- Border project, started in 2004, that seeks to develop responsible tourism in Co Leitrim, Co Fermanagh, and parts of counties Cavan, Roscommon, Sligo and Donegal (an area already rich in lowimpact tourist attractions) and environmentally oriented facilities, such as the Organic Centre in Rossinver, Co Leitrim.
"Internationally, ecotourism is the fastest-growing sector of tourism, but in Ireland it's very new," says Pat Collum, marketing manager of Greenbox. "One of our fears is that ecotourism has been used as a marketing tool or a brand without any real back-up, with no definite criteria as to what it means. We've used an international standard, the EU Flower standard, as a starting point, and we've applied that to accommodation first, and then we will apply it to other aspects of tourist services, building an environmentally strong tourist infrastructure."
THE EU FLOWER scheme is based on strict environmentally friendly criteria, which can be applied to any aspect of infrastructure, requiring for instance that 22 per cent of energy be from renewable sources, that cleaning products meet certain standards, that long-life bulbs are the only ones used, and so on.
The auditing process is independent and exhaustive, and can take more than a year, but Collum hopes that Greenbox will soon have the biggest cluster of EU Flower-approved accommodation in Europe. "Ecotourism isn't so mainstream in this country yet," he says. "In other countries (the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavian countries), environmental issues have been on the agenda since the mid-1980s. We're quite a bit behind that, but people are becoming more and more conscious of it. Over the next 10 years, I can see ecotourism becoming a huge issue for domestic and international travel.
"Above all, we believe you can have a fun holiday without having a negative impact on the environment."