What is Sustainable Travel?

Webster's dictionary offers this definition for travel. Main Entry: 1trav·el Pronunciation: \ˈtra-vəl\ Function: verb Inflected Form(s): trav·eled or trav·elled; trav·el·ing or trav·el·ling \ˈtra-və-liŋ, ˈtrav-liŋ\ Etymology: Middle English travailen, travelen to torment, labor, strive, journey, from Anglo-French travailler
Date: 14th century intransitive verb 1 a : to go on or as if on a trip or tour : journey b (1) : to go as if by traveling : passed fast, (2) : associate s with a sophisticated crowd; c : to go from place to place as a sales representative or business agent
2 a (1) : to move or undergo transmission from one place to another ing by plane; (2) : to withstand relocation successfully & well; b : to move in a given direction or path or through a given distance  in a groove; c : to move rapidly 
3 : to take more steps while holding a basketball than the rules allow transitive verb 1 a : to journey through or over b : to follow (a course or path) as if by traveling 2 : to traverse (a specified distance) 3 : to cover (an area) as a commercial traveler
   — travel light : to travel with a minimum of equipment or baggage

SInce travel consists of individuals moving from one place to another, there is a variety of industries that support these individuals in their travail, which in french means to work. If travel is work, to what end? Pilgrimages, explorers, traders, armies, and displaced due to famine, war and disease are many of the travelers through history, only in the last 200 years have tourism become the main driver for today's travelers.


The evolution of awareness to the impact of travel and tourism on local people and the environment has moved the travel industry toward adapting some of the most stringent sustainability practices in the global economy. The push comes from the travelers and the local stakeholders of the destination seeking a balance between the common good and personal gain, be it enrichment of travel experiences or financial portfolios. Sustainable travel utilizes the Triple Bottom Line and lies equally in the hands of the individual and the organization. 

Sustainable travel focuses on reducing the environmental impact of travel and preserving cultural heritage. It generates income and employment for travel destinations while protecting local ecosystems and preserving local culture. Sustainable travel encompasses a holistic approach to the business of travel that creates value for the traveler, economic opportunity for local communities and business opportunities for the industry.

Why is there a need for Sustainable Travel?

The very size of the travel industry demands that travelers practice sustainable travel. Considering that more than a billion people travel from city to city, country to country, jetting from one side of the globe to the other every year, the impact they have on the natural and cultural environment of their destination is obviously one of importance. The sheer volume of people traveling creates huge potential for damage to numerous natural resources and to the environment at large. For this reason alone “green” travel is crucial in ensuring that the negative impact on environmental resources is limited while simultaneously paving the way for more positive-impact travel in the future.

After four years of growth averaging at 3.6%, Travel &Tourism GDP growth slowed to just 1.0% in 2008, its weakest performance since the recessionary period. Two difficult years are forecasted, with Travel &Tourism likely to contract by 3.3% in 2009 and expand by only 0.3% in 2010. But, looking beyond the current crisis, Travel & Tourism is expected to resume a leading, dynamic role in global growth.

Scale and Importance of Global Travel

The Travel & Tourism industry is the largest business sector in the world economy, responsible for

GDP

• Real GDP growth for the Travel Tourism economy is expected to be -3.5% in 2009, down from 1.0% in 2008, but to average 4.0% per annum over the coming 10 years.

• Total Employment in 2009 is 219,810,000 jobs, 7.6% of total employment, or 1 in every 13.1 jobs. By 2019 this is expected to rise to 275,688,000 jobs, 8.4% of total employment or in 1 in every 11.8 jobs.

Exports

• Export earnings from international visitors and tourism goods are expected to generate 10.9% of total exports (US$1,980 bn) in 2009, growing (in nominal terms) to US$4,132 bn (9.8% of the total) in 2019.

• Tourism is a principle "export" (foreign exchange earner) for 83% of developing countries, and the leading export for 1/3 of poorest countries.
For the world's 40 poorest countries, tourism is the second most important source of foreign exchange, after oil. (TravelGreen.org)

Business travel and tourism both offer the opportunity for beautiful and remote communities to rise out of poverty provided they set up their travel/tourist infrastructure to favor a triple bottom line approach. On October 6, 2008, United Nations Foundation Founder and Chairman Ted Turner joined the Rainforest Alliance, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to announce the first-ever globally relevant sustainable tourism criteria at the IUCN World Conservation Congress. The new criteria - based on thousands of best practices culled from the existing standards currently in use around the world - were developed to offer a common framework to guide the emerging practice of sustainable tourism and to help businesses, consumers, governments, non-governmental organizations and education institutions to ensure that tourism helps local communities and the environment.

Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (2008)

• Demonstrate effective sustainable management.
• Maximize social and economic benefits to the local community and minimize negative impacts.
• Maximize benefits to cultural heritage and minimize negative impacts.
• Maximize benefits to the environment and minimize negative impacts. (UNEP)

With this global framework in place, the industry has a well thought out set of guidelines to work from to ensure a mutually beneficial outcome.

See Bali with the Balinese aka the Jaringan Ekowisata Desa - Village Ecotourism Network

The issue of mental shifts from inclusive resorts to local experience in Bali brought together some innovative people to put this group together. Through collaborative effort of the Village Ecotourism Network visitors now can use this system to enjoy a vacation and experience Bali thru Balinese themselves. An important development to help shift travel and tourism in Bali to a sustainable direction in which all residents benefit from this income.  http://www.matamera.com/JED/v1/index.html

RARE-Changing the way people relate to nature

I found this group through my research on sustainable travel. Their organization is over thirty years old and represents one of the best examples of evolution of their mission and methods to help save endangered species.

'Rare specializes in social marketing – a method for changing attitudes and behaviors that has been successfully applied by other organizations to such issues as seatbelt use, smoking, pollution, teen drug abuse, and reproductive health.

Rare is the leader in social marketing for biodiversity conservation — with a successful track record in more than 50 countries to date. We train and support leaders from the world’s top environmental organizations, local grassroots groups, and governments – all of which are increasingly aware that failure to create support at the community level reduces the chance of conservation success.'
www.rareconservation.org/about/

What is Sustainable Travel and why we are not there-Part III Notes on Scale of the Industry and Impacts

Why is there a need for Sustainable Travel?

The very size of the travel industry demands that sustainable travel be practiced by travelers. Considering that more than a billion people travel from city to city, country to country, jetting from one side of the globe to the other every year, the impact they have on the natural and cultural environment of their destination is obviously one of importance. The sheer volume of people traveling creates huge potential for damage to numerous natural resources and to the environment at large. For this reason alone “green” travel is crucial in ensuring that the negative impact on environmental resources is limited while simultaneously paving the way for more positive-impact travel in the future.

Travel covers almost every economic sector so it is the story of how we move from place to place. There are thousands of people who spend more nights in hotels then their own homes so it is natural for amenities to cater to the business class. This presents a business opportunity on converting both the traveler and the business to a triple bottom line model. Bob Willard pointed out for companies that commit to sustainable practices, experience a substantial return on investment, 30+% being a conservative estimate on his part.

The necessity and scale of travel help explain why so many aspects of the industry get the sustainability message. Now travelers need to become aware of the impact of their choices and the power of their money to help reinforce the best social and environmental practices, both locally and globally. As outlined previously the practices extend to the individual as well as the large corporations in a collaborative effort to maintain or improve the conditions of the places they work and travel to. It may be as simple as a mandatory pledge to offset and make their trip carbon negative. Education and affordability will be key areas to work on and market well to persuade people to take that next step.

There is growing network of sites and groups whose concerns for the state of travel and turned to action. Below is Ethical Traveler, take a moment to see what they have to say and better yet, join their network to help spread the word.

Ethical Traveler 'is the first grass-roots alliance uniting adventurers, tourists, travel agencies, and outfitters — everyone who loves to travel, and sees travel as a positive force in the world. We feel that all travelers are, in effect, freelance ambassadors. We also believe that we have the ability to join our voices, and to use our economic power to strengthen human rights and protect the environment.' Jeff Greenwald

Interview Tammy Leland, Co-Founder of Crooked Trails

Last Tues, I had the pleasure to interview a colleague and friend of mine, Tammy Leland. As a co-founder of Crooked Trails an inspiring travel company creating cultural exchange through sustainable means.

We met through another sustainable travel company specializing in Seattle based tours and realized we both share a passion for travel, cultural exchange and sustainability.

What Tammy and Chris MacKay, her friend and co-founder, have created is a company that strips away the barriers to true cultural exchange while guiding their clients safely through remote regions of the world to gain insights into whom we share our time on Earth with.

Tammy and Chris founded Crooked Trails in 1998 after a long period of travel and graduate study. They looked long and hard at who was practicing sustainable travel, which didn't exist then. Tammy called what they started, 'Community Based Tourism' which meant the community was involved with the decision making on who travels there, how they interact and what they are allowed to do. They also provided tools to the community on how the manage the impact of tourism would have on their economy, society and environment and how to make it a sustainable practice. This practice went one step further then eco-tourism by giving the community the power decide how the world could interact with them.

As their business grew, their clients struggled with just a straight cultural exchange without giving back to the community they visited. At first they called this travel, 'bearing witness', which was living with a family and learning how other people lived, grew rice, etc. Tammy felt strongly that service would not become the reason for travel since it tends to eclipse the cultural exchange aspect of the trip.

They did find ways to engage the communities they traveled to and find out what they needed and would accept these gifts. Most communities did not understand why people would come over and work, since they were concerned about being good hosts to their visitors and not their labor.

The result was a blended experience of shared work and enhanced cultural exchange by sharing  the labor and talking about it in the evening. This program morphed Crooked Trails into a non-profit since the cost of their service projects needed to a different structure for the fund raising. Their programs evolved around cultural exchange with only half the time committed to service to make sure the memories wre primarily of the people they met versus the bragging rights of what they built. Their belief in this method is a paradigm shift for most people who believe in the service of others as the cultural exchange. Now they are contacted by dozens of different groups ranging from high schools and universities to non-profits and religious groups to help facilitate their trips and service projects.

What keeps Crooked Trails sustainable? The guidelines they set down for themselves, the communities and the clients have evolved and maintain the backbone to how they interact. They set boundaries to make sure there is leadership in the communities in the form a tourism committee to guarantee guidelines are followed on the local level. Tammy provides a 30+ page trip packet with detailed guidelines on cultural understanding, money exchange, and appropriate behavior. This is a rigorous, ongoing process, which has resulted in taking certain areas off the active itineraries and some clients being screened or asked to leave. This integrity has served them well as their business continues to grow as people seek more meaningful travel beyond the boundaries of the inclusive resorts and the insulated tours.

Can Travel help spread wealth?

I came across this video on what your daily expenditures could do abroad. I actually think donations do not directly improve anyone's situation without going after the systemic issues to create these cycles of poverty. Several African leaders agree and prefer training and support through micro finance and debt forgiveness. Approximately 40 cents for every dollar spent by African governments services debt to the World Bank.

From a travel perspective, the impact of going directly to the community, spending money on local services and experiencing genuine cultural exchange is significantly greater than donating money to organizations outside the country you are visiting. You control who received it and how it is spent in the community, also empowering local businesses to help meet the needs of future travelers, while supporting their community.

One of the forms of community empowerment, is simply visiting and talking to the locals. Cultural understanding through appreciative inquiry can lead to a richer, shared experience and generate the social wealth of connection and knowledge. This video helps all of us understand the value of money and how to spend and live with greater intent and awareness. Whether at home or in a less developed country, the sustainable traveler spends within the norms of the community to avoid creating false expectations that all travelers are wealthy and tourism will be the sole means to escape poverty. Does this resonate with fellow travelers out there?

What is Sustainable Travel and why we are not there-Part II Affordable Responsibility

Eco-tourism provides an easy target for what is wrong with sustainable travel, as it largely caters to the top end traveler looking for a guilt free adventure. Remote lodges maybe environmentally sound yet they contribute little to the sustainability due to high cost. This misses one of the central tenets of sustainabiliy, shop local. Budget travel that evolved from the early 1960's broke ground on two fronts, developing local tourism economies and affordability to students and young adults. In the mid 70's, the Wheelers of Lonely Planet Publishing, wrote their first Asia on a Shoestring that followed in the shadow of Arthur Frommer's post WWII travel guide, Europe on $5 a Day. This period amounts to the Golden Age of Budget Travel, as people set out to remote corners of the globe once considered inaccessible before air travel evolved into a form of mass transit.

The second wave of travel growth occurred in the Adventure Travel sector which brought all manner of activities to trips. These trips offered a range of affordability with Everest and the South Pole on the high end of expense of the commercially possible. Now Eco-Tourism offers remote adventure destinations at luxurious standards and prices. This again will not promote growth needed to make the greening of travel more affordable.

Traveling will continue to require some offsets until airlines work out different fuels, at least the Boeing 787 will be more fuel efficient due to it's carbon fiber frame and composite exterior. There are other alternatives to help clean up the rest of your trip. As for specific destinations, that will come in a later post, right now I am covering ways to travel sustainably that are achievable:

• Unless the international hotel chain is the only option, book a local hotel, that addresses putting your money directly into the local economy.
• Ask the locals for their food and site recommendations, this builds language skills, relationships through appreciative inquiry and gives you a sense of self discovery and insight into the local culture.
• Take local transportation, preferably trains if you can, rather than private cars.
• Go to the local tourism offices to find and use local tour agencies and other services. You can compare them to your guide book: often the office has more current information and gives you a better range of options.
• Go to the local markets and bargain if just for the conversation. It is a chance to immerse yourself in the culture. 

This list covers ways to make a positive impact via local economic stimulation and cultural interaction. The environmental portion of the triple bottom line does not need LEED certification to be effective. By engaging in the local economy you already gain efficiencies by sharing transportation and other parts of the local infrastructure, reducing the impact created by the larger footprint of the Inclusive Compounds. These resorts often operate to meet the global standards which exceeds the neighboring community's daily use of energy and cleaning supplies,  thus heightening their impact while keeping money out of the local economy except at select gift stores and tourist attractions.

The green resorts will eventually make their way to a mainstream audience once energy efficiencies catch up and surpass the initial costs. The remote luxury lodge will remain in the repertoire of the Eco-chic, with growth occuring in more rustic cabins that cater to a greater range of people and activities. We will look at some examples of the rustic versus luxurious lodges next, bon voyage!

Portland's Future Emissions Goals help put in on top of everone's Greenest Cities list

Sustainable Travel International posted about the Greenest Cities worldwide and nationally. Very impressive list and a salute to Portland for raising the bar on sustainability and using that to help promote their brand! Although the actual rankings varied list to list Portland made every single list, showing the depth of their commitment to this process of reducing it's Carbon footprint below 1990 levels, while doubling their population. Great read and fun lists of Green cities around the world to go visit!

Green Globe Trotter writes about BGI Graduate's work on Jackson Hole Sustainability

I just read Jessica Blair's post Green Globe Trotter about Hotel Terra which is a leading green development in Jackson Hole. One of my classmates from Bainbridge Graduate Institute, Ashley Morgan works for the hotel and it is great to see her work recognized.

The Green Globe Trotter covers a wide range if sustainable travel issues and destinations in thorough and entertaining style.

Activism and Travel

Lately I find my focus on how climate change, social justice and access to public lands influence one another. I previously mentioned the conflict with community property rights and large corporate resort development in Albania. In the Western U.S., recreation, extraction and bigbox suburban development overlap, creating a rift in who ultimately controls access and the sustainability around each stakeholder.

I created an activism tag on my Delicious page with the Winter Wildlands Alliance and Outdoor Alliance as the two latest sites I found working on these issues.  These sites deal with policy, management, and access in the Western US. Please check them out if you enjoy playing in the outdoors.