Eco-Friendly Touring - Ten Easy Things You Can Do to Help the Environment

Reduce, reuse, recycle. You've heard it for years. But what can you do to help the environment while you travel? Here are some tips to make it easy for your travel to be eco-friendly.

1. Over two-thirds of air pollution in US cities is from auto emissions. The good news is car rental companies are experimenting with eco-friendly vehicles in some US cities. In the meantime, bus and train travel cut both pollution and the number of vehicles on the road. Rent a bike, use local transit or stay within walking distance of your targeted tourist sites. Use the airport shuttle or share a cab. If you're parked or stuck in traffic, turn off the engine.

2. Fly Southwest or Virgin Airlines - the industry leaders for eco-friendly travel. Southwest has adopted a policy of recycling all cabin waste and uses electronic ticketing throughout their system, reducing paper waste. Virgin Airlines has made mega-donations to developing 'green' solutions for air travel, and is a leader in implementing a system of towing planes to a take-off grid, resulting in less fuel consumption, less noise, and reduced CO2 emissions. Other airlines are working to adopt 'green' policies. You can reduce carbon emissions by choosing a closer destination or finding alternative transportation. If your schedule permits, travel by train or bus to your destination. Also consider making a donation to an organization that provides 'carbon offsets' toward your CO2 travel usage, basically a donation to help develop 'green' resources such as solar power or reforestation.

3. Take advantage of 'green' hotel policies by reusing your sheets and towels if you are staying more than one night. The savings in energy and water costs and detergent usage are significant. It's been estimated that at least 70% of guests take advantage of this simple idea. Use your own shampoo and soap instead of the mini-bottles and bars provided in most hotels.

4. Take shorter showers (Remember - in some areas, water is a limited resource. Your luxurious long shower could be depriving a native family of precious water.) Turn off the TV and lights if you're not in the room, and monitor your heat and A/C usage. Turn the thermostat off if you're going to be gone for an extended period during the day. Use a refillable water bottle and recycle wherever possible.

5. Pick an eco-friendly destination, also known as sustainable tourism. Enjoy local markets, native sites, and a natural environment. 'Leave it better than you found it', or at least strive to have a neutral impact on the area. Visit parks and local nature areas so your dollars can support the eco-economy. Orbitz (eco.orbitz.com/) has developed a list of 'green' destinations in the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean to meet the growing demand for eco-friendly travel.

6. If you're idea of a great day-away is aboard a boat, be aware of your fueling practices. Leakage at the nozzle, overflowing the fuel tank, leaky hoses or maintenance issues all contribute to stress of the water environment. Keep absorbent pads aboard to mop up possible spills and dispose of the material properly. Do not use soap to clean up a fuel spill. Use propylene glycol to winterize water lines, not common car anti-freeze which is highly poisonous to animals. And if your yacht has on-board facilities, dispose of sewage and wastewater properly.

7. Before you leave home, stop your newspaper delivery; pull the plugs on appliances (TV, VCR/DVD player, toaster, coffee maker, microwave, etc.) to prevent energy drain. Turn down your thermostat and hot water tank, and turn off the A/C.

8. Find solar-powered radios, cell-phone chargers, calculators and other 'powered' items to pack. This market is growing, and solar power has no impact on the environment. It's a true eco-friendly sustainable resource. Use a digital rather than a film camera.

9. Buy eco-friendly souvenirs. Don't purchase items that could possibly be made from endangered species. Support the local economy so that your tourist dollars benefit the natives' endeavors.

10. When you get home, write to your hotel and other travel providers to let them know you appreciate their 'green' initiatives. Your dollars speak loudly in the tourism industry and will influence travel and tourism in the areas you visit. Plan carefully to support travel companies, destination purveyors and suppliers who support your 'green' initiative.

The world is a wonderful place, and we can all do more to support 'green' initiatives. Adapt these suggestions at home as well as on the road so travelers to your hometown will also experience an eco-friendly vacation.

Green Travel And Tourism

All About Green Travel

What exactly is meant by a phrase like Green Travel? Green Travel can mean anything from environmentally responsible motor cars to eco-friendly transportation fuels, to responsible eco-tourism options, sustainable travel or stays in hotels and facilities that are environmentally conscious.

Read on to find some great options on the Internet where you, the environmentally-responsible traveler, can enhance your knowledge and continue to seek the smartest, most planet-conscious choices available when you travel.

Why Green Travel Matters

Tourism, in contemporary times, is a tremendously growth-oriented industry, and is among the world's largest, with spending figures estimated at over five hundred billion per year in recent years. Because of the overwhelming size of the industry globally, millions of people are employed within its ranks, and are therefore of great concern when it comes to responsible, eco-conscious decisions.

Such lofty statistics all begin with local, individual choices - where people spend their money when they travel, during their travel and the message that their actions send out to global populations. The impact of global travel, when geared toward the positive, can be terrific - including when tourism's dollars go to the enhancement of local populations, or when travelers return home with a fresh take on other cultures, communities and environments, for instance.

How Tourism and Travel Become "Sustainable Tourism and Travel"

WTTC Associations such as the World Travel and Tourism Council in London, England, offer world travelers a wealth of information on sustainable and green tourism. The mission statement of the organization speaks to their goals: "Raising awareness of the importance of Travel & Tourism, promoting synergies between the public and private sector, generating profit as well as protecting natural, social and cultural environment [these] are the fundamental components of [their] mission, as outlined in the Blueprint for New Tourism."

Whenever you travel, do what you can to extend the extra effort to ask questions about the businesses that service your trip: from hotels to tours to restaurants and more. Find out what you can about the impact of their businesses on the environment, in terms of both the physical and cultural aspects. No set of universal standards or guidelines currently exists to ensure that those in the travel and tourism industry world-wide operate according to environmentally conscious principles.

So What Is Ecotourism and Can It Help?

With a greater emphasis placed on the environment in general, travel and tourism has also felt the weight of the green revolution. The travel and tourism industry has sprung up in places where the natural environment remains in tact and available for one to experience first-hand. At its best, ecotourism is essentially nature travel - tourism of and cultivation of appreciation for the unadulterated vistas and landscapes of the planet.

Resources Available for Green Travel

ResponsibleTravel

At Responsible Travel, find "A hand picked directory of 1000s of stunning eco holidays run by 265 specialist tour operators and 100's of accommodations. Use the site to contact the specialists directly to request more information. Book direct with the specialists to get the best price."

The International Ecotourism Society (ecotourism.org)

The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) offers that through "Uniting communities, conservation and sustainable travel," they directly "promote responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people."

PlanetA

Debuting in 1994, PlanetA is a pioneering website that provides tips for travelers and locals who share a vision of eco-friendly, people-friendly and place-friendly travel. They take a dynamic wiki view of the Web and appreciate their viewers' helpful editorial suggestions and offer a yearly World Travel Directory.

Sustainable Travel International (sustainabletravelinternational.org)

The organization Sustainable Travel International has the following for its mission statement: "Promoting responsible travel and ecotourism, supporting sustainable development, and helping travelers and travel providers protect the cultures and environments they visit."

Google Green Travel Search (services.google.com/earth/green/)

At Summer of Green, Google's now legendary map service is powered to help Green travelers find what they need to in the way of environmentally conscious global travel, through the work of Earth Day Network. Find tips on traveling green this summer with keyword searches like "environmentally friendly hotel" rather than just "hotel."

Rainforest Alliance

The Rainforest Alliance says, "With more than 800 million people traveling each year, tourism is a growing source of revenue for people living in areas that are especially rich in plants and animals - and threatened with destruction. While tourism can lead to problems such as waste, habitat destruction and the displacement of local people and wildlife, it also has the potential to provide incentives for conservation." Find out more through the tourism arm of their website.

Eco-tourism

Responsible tourism means all tourism directly dependent on the use of natural life e.g. wildlife and landscape. Nature based tourism include eco-tourism and mass tourism. Uncontrolled mass tourism continues to contribute to the degradation of natural & cultural significance (commercialization of Culture) thus leading or causing loss of biological and cultural biodiversity, and important sources of income. Nature based tourism offers a way of financing unique ecosystems preservation. This provides opportunity for the community living near the protected areas to benefit economically e.g. employment opportunity. But Nature based tourism & travel while sustaining eco-system also degrades them. Much nature based tourism falls short of social responsibility to the local community.

Sustainable tourism is developed and managed in such a way that all tourism activities will focus on a heritage resource, natural and cultural which can be continued imminently and every effort is made to maintain the resource to perpetuity.
According to hector Ceballos-Lascurian (1983) ecotourism means "the tourism that involves travelling to relatively undisturbed natural area with the object of admiring, studying and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals as well as cultural features found there."

Eco-tourism embraces four basic elements:-
• The natural environment as the primary attraction and the cultural environment playing a secondary role
• The sustainable use of the ecological and cultural environment.
• Focus on education and the interpretation of the resource
• Provision of the benefit to the host community
Tourism is about people and places where one group of people leave, visit and pass through places, the people who make the trip possible and the people encountered in the tour, it involves travellers, host communities and governments.

In tourism industry the destination is perhaps one of the most important elements. The destination region represents the raison d'tre for tourism and the tourist attraction at the destination generates the visit. Tourism product is consumed where it is produced (destination). Hence the destination comes under considerable pressure from high levels of demand focused both in time and at specific sites for example the warm East Africa, Indian Ocean coastal beaches during the northern hemisphere winter.

Tourist pressures can lead to alteration of the tourism resource and as tourism resource and as tourist demand continues to raise so have many destinations around the world succumbed to environmental degradation. The impact that some form of tourism development has on the environment has raised concern among environmentalist and other constituents. Therefore professional management and planning of destination are critical if tourism is to contribute to their conservation and to be perceived as an acceptable industry in a world whose survival is threatened.

Tourism demand unspoilt environment in which to operate. It is essential that tour operation should be developed and managed in such a way that as to protect the natural assets. We subscribe to the fact that the extent to which tourism is developed, planned and controlled in an orderly and coordinated manner will affect the long-term quality of the tourism product and subsequently the success of the hospitality Industry. While tourism can be a catalyst for development, it is important for the government agencies plan and develop tourism carefully so that the benefit can be optimized without creating social and environmental problems

Low impact forms of tourism counteracts the effects of mass tourism that poses a number of challenges on the resource base i.e. environment, society, and economy. Low impact forms of tourism create a balance between environment quality and resource utilization. This is mainly aimed at empowering local communities in managing their natural resources that is creating an incentive to conserve the biological resource in the environment by allowing the beneficial effects from tourism filter down to the individual families and households.

Alternative tourism is seen as forms of tourism that are consistent with natural social and community values and which allows both the host and the guest to enjoy positive and worthwhile interaction and shared experience it is also known variously as ecotourism, nature tourism sustainable tourism environmentally friendly, environmentally sensitive, ecological compatible ecologically sound or Green and eco-tour such as Walking tours, Birds Safari, Camel safaris Guided nature walks, horse riding safaris, bicycle tours, home and farm stays, youth tourism.

Many destinations marketed as responsible tourism does not consider the local community development, economical, social welfare and human rights. Indeed majority of them care less about the resource as long as it brings the "green bill ". There must be concern with staff and tourist education i.e. the expected visitors' behaviour. Thus in this, nature based tourism is formulated as sustainable development. The concept of set principles, Ties 1991 defined it as responsible travel to natural areas that conserve the environment and sustains the well being of the local people.

It is now fashionable to look at tourism development in the context of "sustainability" "alternative tourism" "green tourism" all of which have a particular meaning to different people but majority of this are just eco-labels or marketing and PR slongs. Sustainable tourism is that which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.