Overtourism. Influencers flouting local rules for the perfect ‘gram. Ignoring the locals living in the destinations we visit as we book Airbnbs, crowd streets, behave badly, and generate waste that will stay in our destination long after we leave.

There was a lot of bad travel behavior pre-COVID.

Sure, there have always been tourists behaving badly ever since the first tourist existed.

But, in an age where travel has become so easy and ubiquitous for so many for the first time, those problems were amplified a thousandfold. Destinations didn’t have the necessary infrastructure to handle the flood of tourists cheap travel brought.

From flouting rules and refusing to wear a mask to hosting parties, coughing on others, and just generally being selfish, the pandemic has shown us that the world is filled with more assholes than we thought.

But, despite all of that, when it comes to the future of travel, I think the pandemic is going to make it better.

As we yearn to reconnect with friends, family, and the world at large, I think that what we’ve gone through has also given many of us a chance to reflect on all the things we took for granted: the outdoors, community, neighborhood restaurants, and the arts.

The sentiment I’m picking up on is that, when we can travel again, we will do so better and more thoughtfully. The vast majority of people I talk to and surveys I read show that people want to reconnect with local cultures, explore off-the-beaten-path destinations, and avoid mass tourism. And they want to make sure their environmental impact is reduced.

The new mantra is: less is more and smaller is better.

That’s not to say that suddenly the world of “tourists” will be gone. There will be plenty of partying in Ibiza, Thailand, and Bali when this is all over. (Heck, I mean, look at Tulum right now. That place is crazy!) People can’t wait to get back on cruise ships. And I’m sure plenty of influencers will be back to flouting local rules for that perfect shot.

But I think, as a whole, there will be a lot more people trying to do better.

And that will be in part because the industry will reinvent itself.

We usually think of travel as “us experiencing a place”: we go somewhere, we do things, we leave. We treat places like museums.

There was (and still is) a general belief that travel is a right (it is not) and that locals should be happy with all the visitors (they often aren’t).

What many of us often forget is that people actually live in that place we’re visiting. They have lives and wants and needs and don’t like the crowded streets either. Whenever you’re thinking, “Ugh, there are so many tourists here,” well, all the locals around you are thinking the same thing too…and they have to live with that feeling every day.

But now, with so many destinations devoid of tourists, many locals (obviously those not working in tourism) are thinking to themselves, “Do we even want tourists back? If they come back, let’s make sure it’s done better.”

The pandemic has given destinations — and the industry as a whole — the opportunity to reset and rethink travel and tourism. Instead of trying to solve the problem of “overtourism” while the tourists keep coming — as if they were fighting the tide with a broom — they can now rethink tourism one tourist at a time. Everyone is virtually starting from zero.

There are endless examples of this, from Goa, Sri Lanka, and Prague to Italy, Iceland, and the Caribbean.

Moreover, travel companies are changing how they market to consumers, focusing on locals, going green, and touting their cleanliness policies. Hostels are reinventing themselves as digital nomads’ co-living spaces. Tourism boards are concentrating on getting people away from the hubs and spreading the tourism dollars around — or getting people to explore their own home, like in this New Zealand ad.

There is a movement among those in travel to use the pandemic as a chance for positive change. You see that not only among destinations but also big brands, resorts, and travel agents too.

And that’s why I’m hopeful.

Because with consumers, destinations, and companies — the trifecta of the tourism industry — all looking to change their ways, travel is going to change.

Now is one of those once-in-a-generation opportunities people talk about.

When you start traveling again, think about your impact — both on the local people and the environment. It requires more work, but it’s important work. It needs to be done.

We can’t be as careless as we used to be.

I was already changing how I traveled before the virus struck, especially when it came to my environmental and waste impact. I wasn’t the worst traveler out there, but there was definitely room for improvement. But when more when travel opens up, I plan to use more local brands, stay at smaller hotels, go visit more offbeat destinations, do more cultural activities (especially focused on marginalized groups), and be even more conscious of my environmental footprint.

As a traveler, you’ll never learn about a place fully in a few days. No one expects you to. But that doesn’t mean we need to think about travel as a one-way street. Think of what you can give back too. If I take a piece of the places I visit home, is there something good I can leave? Is there something I can do to make the interaction more symbiotic than transactional? After all, people who welcome strangers want to learn about them too. Travel is, at its core, about people. That’s what made the sharing economy so popular.

Whether it’s donating money, volunteering while abroad, educating yourself on local issues, or choosing local businesses over multinational chains, think of ways to give back when you hit the road again.

I see a lot of positive change in the future and, from my conversations with people in the industry and readers like you, I think travel will be less extracting and more sustainable in the future.

It was already a topic of conversation before the pandemic and I think what we’ve gone through will accelerate those attitudes.

After all, necessity is the mother of invention.
 

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Environmentally friendly travel is now one of the fastest-growing movements in the industry, and I, for one, welcome this trend. It’s an incredibly important topic that I’ve been writing about for years.

After all, why destroy what you love? No one wants to see paradise paved over. We all cringe when we return to an overdeveloped, polluted destination. None of us want to contribute to that. Being an eco-friendly traveler is simply being a respectful traveler.

As we strive to become more environmentally conscious, the questions for travelers become:

Just how do we “green” our travels?

What can we do to lower our carbon footprint as we travel the world?

How can we better interact with the communities we visit?

What changes can we make that are actually helpful?

Flight shaming people is not the answer, but do we all just stay home and quit traveling? I don’t believe so.

In fact, there’s actually a lot we can do as travelers to reduce our ecological footprint while contributing to the sustainability of the communities we visit.

Here are 12 concrete ways to reduce your environmental impact as a traveler:

1. Stay Close to Home

Though the “exotic and different” is always appealing, travel doesn’t have to be about going somewhere far away. Travel is the art of exploration, discovery and getting out of your comfort zone, all of which can just as well be nearby. Find somewhere close to home you haven’t been, get in your car (or better yet, take the bus), and go visit. You never know what you’ll come across!

During the pandemic, we all learned to love traveling close to home. I myself road-tripped across the country, exploring destinations I’d never seen before (especially national parks, since it was the best way to avoid people). I’ve road tripped around the US a few times now and have learned a lot. I’ve even had some of my own misconceptions overturned just by traveling close to home.

You don’t have to go abroad to travel. Start at home. You might just be surprised what you discover.

2. Make Greener Transportation Choices

After walking, public transportation is the next best way to explore new destinations. Not only is it better for the environment, but it’s more culturally immersive (and cheaper) as well. When it comes to longer distances, buses and trains are your best way of getting around, both of which can be quite an experience in and of itself. In the U.S. and Europe, companies like FlixBus and Megabus always have cheap tickets if you book in advance.

When traveling by car, consider offering rides to (or getting rides with) other travelers to lower your collective emissions and cut costs. Ridesharing is a fun way to connect with locals and other travelers going the same direction. Use platforms like BlaBlaCar and Craigslist to find rideshares near you. If you’re staying in a hostel, see if there’s a bulletin board, group Whatsapp chat, or just ask around to see if anyone wants to carpool.

If you do need a taxi to get around a city, use the “pool” option offered by Uber and Lyft in many cities. This lets you split your ride with other travelers, and while it may take a little longer to get to your destination, it will save you money and make your taxi ride more eco-friendly.

Avoid flying or driving long distances by yourself whenever you can. These are the two least sustainable ways to travel.

Related posts:

• A Complete Guide to the Japan Rail Pass
• A Complete Guide to the Eurail Global Pass
• How to Get Around Southeast Asia on the Cheap

3. Travel Slow

When we travel abroad, we have a tendency to rush around from place to place, trying to soak in as many sights as possible.

I get that.

After all, not everyone can be a permanent nomad, and when you have limited time and aren’t sure if you’re coming back again, I can see why people “travel fast.”

However, not only does this raise your transportation costs since you’re moving a lot, you end up increasing your carbon footprint. All those trains, buses, and planes add up. The fewer you take, the better.

Traveling to fewer destinations is good not only for your wallet and the climate, it’s good for local communities as well. Being a responsible traveler not only means reducing your carbon footprint but also doing good by the communities you visit. Day-tripping brings in very little money to communities but impacts their infrastructure heavily. (It’s why Venice will start charging day trippers a fee in 2024). So try to stay at a destination for at least a night.

Slowing down your travels allows you to get to know places in a deeper way. In travel, less can be more.
 

4. Pack Smart to Reduce Plastic Use

I hate plastic. It creates a ton of waste. From plastic bottles to toothpaste tubes to shopping bags, plastic sucks. I admit I’m not perfect, and I still use too much, but I’m always trying to reduce my consumption (both at home and abroad). Avoiding plastic as much as possible is a great way to reduce your environmental impact.

While the specifics will depend on where you’re going, here are a few things you can bring to help you travel more sustainably:

• Reusable water bottle with a built-in filter – Many destinations don’t have potable water, which means you’re going to be buying tons of single-use plastic water bottles. Instead, bring a Lifestraw bottle with a built-in filter, or a SteriPen that you can use with any bottle you already have. These devices purify your water so you can drink from practically anywhere, ensuring you can avoid single-use plastic bottles.
• Tote bag/stuff sack – If you’re traveling long-term, bring a tote bag or an extra stuff sack. You can use them for buying groceries and avoid plastic bags. At other times, they can be used to keep your bag organized.
• Menstrual cup – While I can’t speak from personal experience, a reusable menstrual cup is something our resident solo female travel expert packs when she travels, since menstrual products are not always available (and can also be quite wasteful).
• Solid toiletries – Solid shampoo, conditioner, lotion, even toothpaste tablets not only help you avoid all those plastic bottles, but are great for carry-on only travel (no paying attention to liquid size limits). Depending on when you get them, they might even be refillable.
• Bamboo Utensils – Travel cutlery (a fork, knife, and spoon, or just a spork or a set of chopsticks) can come in handy if you’re on a budget and plan on cooking your own meals. But they’re also useful for street food and eating out, as you can avoid plastic cutlery.
• Small Tupperware container – I always find myself with extra food when I cook in hostels. Putting my leftovers in a container helps avoid waste and provides food for the next day. It’s an amazing travel tip surprisingly few people make use of.

5. When You Fly, Do So More Sustainably

While I don’t believe in flight shaming, it’s impossible to deny that flying does have a hefty carbon impact. In addition to limiting your flying, try to use longer flights with fewer connections. A significant portion of airplane emissions occur during takeoff and landing, which means if you fly shorter flights with more connections, your emissions will be drastically higher. Flying direct is simply the better option environmentally, so opt for that whenever possible.

Other ways to fly more sustainably include:

• Choose more efficient aircraft – Newer planes use less fuel, creating fewer emissions than the same route on an older carrier. Skyscanner (my favorite flight search engine) highlights flights with less emissions when you do a search.
• Pack less – More weight = more fuel needed. Whenever possible, pack less.
• Offset your flight – Carbon offsets aim to cancel out the effect of the emissions that you’re creating by taking that flight. It’s a tricky topic, as not all offsets are created equal. Always purchase offsets separately (rather than simply ticking the box when purchasing the flight) and choose a reputable company. And make sure to research where you buy your offset from.

6. Avoid Overvisited Destinations

If you can, avoid places grappling with overtourism. You’ll find fewer crowds and lower prices, and you also won’t be putting as much strain on local communities struggling to keep up.

And, from a sheer personal-enjoyment point of view, who wants to deal with crowds or long lines? No one.

Visiting less-visited destinations, such as “second cities” (the second- biggest or most important city in a country), can be much more enjoyable and rewarding to visit.

I try to look for nearby cities that people don’t really talk about a lot and go there. For example, you head to Lyon over Paris or Bologna over Venice or Memphis over Nashville. There are endless examples of places you can visit. Not only will you get a less touristy experience, you’ll help local communities.
 

7. Stay at locally owned accommodation

I always advocate for staying in locally owned accommodations wherever you go, but this is especially important when visiting overtouristed destinations like Barcelona or Paris, where residents are struggling to afford housing.

Around the world, short-term apartment rentals drive up rents for locals and force them out of the city center. It’s gotten so bad in places that many cities are restricting Airbnb to protect residents. Stick to locally owned hotels, guesthouses, bed & breakfasts and hostels instead of using sites like Airbnb.

Unless you’re going to share accommodation with a local by using Couchsurfing, staying at locally-owned accommodation gives back directly to the community you’re visiting. Plus, you’ll have someone on hand to answer all your questions so that you can get even deeper into the place and culture.

If you have to use a site like Airbnb, use the “Rooms” feature. It lets you search for listings in people’s homes or guest houses. It’s like how Airbnb used to be — people renting out extra rooms or guest houses for added cash. You always get your own room and, sometimes, a private entrance. You’ll also get to interact with your host, who can provide lots of insider tips and insight to your destination. Plus, you don’t contribute to overtourism by taking housing off the market for locals. It’s a triple win.
 

8. Eat Local

Food that is imported has a much higher carbon footprint than locally grown food (and it’s usually not as fresh either). To keep your carbon footprint down, eat like a local. Stick to foods that are grown locally, and avoid packaged and imported foods much as possible. This ensures that you’re eating seasonal produce, which is both the freshest and supports the local economy.

Sure, the odd Western comfort meal is not the end of the world, but the more you eat locally, the more you reduce your environmental footprint and the more you help the local economy as well. After all, you didn’t come to Thailand to eat a burger you could get at home, right?

And, while not as cost-effective as eating street food or cooking your own meals, I also like taking food tours when I travel. Doing so is like taking a crash course in the local cuisine, plus you get a local guide who can give you recommendations on other foods or eateries to check out after the tour ends.

Here are some of my go-to food tour companies:

• Devour
• Get Your Guide
• With Locals

You can also use EatWith, where locals post listings for dinner parties and specialty meals that travelers can join.
 

9. Cut Back on Meat and Dairy

I’m not saying you need to go vegan. I love meat and never plan to give up sushi. But reducing your meat and dairy intake is extremely helpful. Livestock are responsible for an estimated 11-17% of global emissions, with ruminant animals and dairy accounting for over half of emissions from all food production.

So by cutting back on your meat and dairy consumption, you’ll drastically reduce your carbon footprint. (And especially avoid Brazilian beef if you can, as it generally comes from cleared rainforest land. Cattle ranching and growing soy for livestock feed are the biggest causes of rainforest deforestation in the world.)

Download the HappyCow app to find the best vegan and vegetarian options near you.
 

10. Avoid Animal Attractions

Part of traveling responsibly is helping the other creatures that inhabit his earth. That means you should avoid any and all attractions that use captive wild animals for entertainment. The most common offenders are riding elephants, swimming with dolphins, visiting captive whales, and petting (drugged) tigers.

These activities require animal abuse and imprisonment and should be avoided. Animals are typically kept in horrible conditions managed by inexperienced staff. Animal attractions exist to entertain tourists and therefore make money; they’re not sanctuaries or places concerned for the animal’s welfare. By visiting these institutions, we unintentionally become party to the system and perpetuate the cycle of abuse.

Animals are best viewed in their natural habitats. If you want to see them, go on a safari, jungle hike, gorilla trek or whale-watching tour and see the animals where they belong, in the wild.

If you want to be an ethical and responsible traveler, stick to taking photographs and avoid direct interactions with animals.

For more information on animal tourism and how to avoid it, check out these helpful organizations:

• World Animal Protection
• Wildlife Watch
• SPANA
• Save Elephant
• Born Free Foundation
• International Fund for Animal Welfare

11. Cut Back on Cruises

Cruises are one of the worst offenders when it comes to both carbon footprints and overtourism. One cruise ship emits as much greenhouse gases at 12,000 cars, creating more carbon emissions per passenger than a long-haul flight. Thanks to cruises, people and marine life are exposed to harmful pollutants, shortening their lifespans.

And that’s not to mention the dumping of toxic chemicals into the ocean’s waters or all the waste that comes from the all-inclusive nature of cruises.

To top it all off, day-trippers from cruises visits are overwhelming local economies, driving up prices, forcing out locals, and creating crowded destinations that are over-reliant on tourism, all while giving back very little (when you have already paid for all your meals and room on board, why spend extra in a destination?). Many cities are now trying to combat this by setting limits on cruise ship passenger numbers or charging a fee for them to get off the boat.

Don’t get me wrong: cruises are a fun way to travel. But cruise ship travel is only increasing, putting more strain on ports and the oceans. If you’re looking to lower your environmental footprint, you’ll want to avoid cruises as much as possible.
 

12. Take a Nature-Related Trip

Travel is one of the best personal development tools there is. It opens you up to a whole new world and widens your perspective of so many things. People, culture, history, food, and so much more.

If you want to better understand and appreciate the natural world, try taking a trip with the sole purpose of connecting with nature. Head to the Australian Outback, go diving and swim around coral reefs, visit national parks, camp in the Moroccan desert, stay a few weeks in a town with little or no electricity, canoe down the Amazon River, or spend a few nights under the stars in a field close to home.

Do something that gets you in touch with the world in a way that sitting at home with all the electricity and free-flowing running water doesn’t. I promise that when you come home, you’ll have a new perspective on why we’re all so focused on being environmentally friendly these days.

It doesn’t take much to see that we are living unsustainably and something’s got to give. Going on a nature adventure can get you to think differently when it comes to the environment and how important it is for us to treat it well.

Traveling in a more green and eco-friendly way is something we should all aspire to. As travelers, it’s our responsibility to make sure that, while we explore the globe, we do so in a way that doesn’t harm the planet or the local communities that we visit.

With a few simple changes, you can all become better and more sustainable travelers. You just need to take that first step. Action begets action, and the more actions you take, the easier the other ones will be.
 

How to Travel the World on $75 a Day

My New York Times best-selling book to travel will teach you how to master the art of travel so that you’ll get off save money, always find deals, and have a deeper travel experience. It’s your A to Z planning guide that the BBC called the “bible for budget travelers.”

Click here to learn more and start reading it today!

The post How to Become a Sustainable Traveler appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

As people become more conscious of their environmental impact on the world, there’s been an increased focus on air travel — and, over the past couple of years, a corresponding increase in “flight shaming.” The term is coined from the Swedish flygskam, which means “flight shame” i.e. you personally feel shame about flying but, unsurprisingly, it has devolved into shaming others for flying due to its carbon footprint.

After all, there is no denying that flying increases your personal carbon footprint — a lot. My carbon footprint is undoubtedly through the roof because of all my intense flying habits.

But what can we do? And is focusing on this issue really the best use of our efforts? Just exactly how bad is flying really?

Air travel accounts for 2.5% of global carbon emissions. In the US, flying accounted for 8% of transportation emissions, but less than 3% of total carbon emissions. It’s a drop in the bucket when compared to other industries in the United States:

• Transportation: 27%
• Electricity 25%
• Industry 24%
• Commercial/Residential 13%
• Agriculture 11%

So, when looking at the math, flying isn’t really the worst climate offender out there. There are far worse industries out there. Shouldn’t we focus on them?

Cutting down carbon emissions from flying isn’t going to make a big dent in total emissions.

And you can’t just shut off air travel. The world economy relies on it to function. We live in a globalized economy — and benefit from that — because of air travel. Ending all flights would end our modern economy.

Moreover, there are instances where flying is required. I mean, are we going to take boats across the ocean all the time? What if we have to rush to a sick loved one’s side? Driving might take too long.

Not only that, but even if we all cut back on our flying — as we did during COVID — the industry itself will still fill the gap. Policies are in place that require flights to happen regardless of who is flying. In the winter of 2021, for example, Lufthansa alone flew over 21,000 empty flights (known as “ghost flights”) just to maintain its airport slots. (Due to the shortage of airports, airlines compete for spots at airports and need to maintain a certain threshold of flights to keep those spots).

With all that in mind, it seems that we could get bigger wins elsewhere. I mean, just eliminating ghost flights alone would be the equivalent of removing 1.4 million cars from the road.

But I’m not a scientist. So I called one up to ask about the environmental impact of air travel.

Michael Oppenheimer is a professor at Princeton University, co-founded the Climate Action Network, and has been a leading scientist on climate change for over 30 years. He was one of the principal participants of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He said:

If you’re a traveler, you have to worry about four things from aviation. One is just the carbon dioxide emissions…number two, you have to worry about the fact that particulate matter from jets can provide surfaces for the formation of clouds, and that that reflects some sunlight…the third thing would be…the production of tropospheric ozone [a greenhouse gas] through the emission of nitrogen oxides…and then there’s a fourth thing, which is that high-flying jets that actually enter the stratosphere can produce some…ozone, and at some altitudes, they may release particulate matter, which would encourage the destruction of ozone.

My conversation with Prof. Oppenheimer gave me pause. It’s just not our carbon footprint we need to worry about when we fly, which makes the total cost of our flights pretty bad. (But, since the carbon effect is the easiest documented, we’re going to focus on that here.) Further research showed that flying is pretty bad.

Most of the time.

While you can say that, generally speaking, flying is worse than any other mode of transportation, the science is tricky because, since there is a surprising number of variables, there’s really no good apples-to-apples comparison. Depending on the make, model, distance, and the number of passengers in your car, driving might be better — or worse — than flying. The same is true with a bus. How many passengers are on that bus? Is it gas-powered or electric?

According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a round-trip flight from NYC to LA produces 1,249 lbs. (566.4 kg) of carbon per person. A car getting an average of 20 miles per gallon produces 4,969.56 lbs. (2,254.15 kg) for the same trip for one person.¹

If you’re driving alone, especially over a long distance, it might better to fly. Yet, on that same trip, if you carpool with three other people, you can get your numbers down by a fourth, making driving the better option.

So it turns out there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. You can’t say “flying is bad, never fly” because sometimes it’s better to fly.

That said, a round-trip flight from Paris to London creates 246 lbs (111.5 kg) of carbon while taking the Eurostar (train) will create about 49 lbs (22.2 kg) of carbon.

From Vienna to Brussels, a flight creates 486 lbs (220.4 kg) while the new night train (which takes around 14 hours) creates 88 lbs (39.9 kg) per person.

The International Council on Clean Transportation also came to the same conclusion when they looked into it. It turns out figuring out what mode of transport is quite complicated. As you can see from their chart, no one transportation option is the best every time:

So what’s a traveler to do? I felt overwhelmed just researching this article and doing the math on all these example trips. I didn’t realize how complex this was. And, as I explain later, depending on the carbon calculator you use, your numbers can vary wildly.

So what can you do?

Here are some tips I learned in this process to help reduce the carbon footprint of flying:

1. Avoid short-haul flights – Multiple reports, including from NASA and The University of San Francisco have shown that a significant portion (an estimated 10-30%) of airplane emissions occur during takeoff and landing. This means that if you take a lot of short-haul flights, you tend to have a higher per-pound footprint. Flying nonstop rather than a bunch of connecting flights is the better option environmentally.

The longer the distance, the more efficient flying becomes (because cruising altitude requires less fuel than any other stage of flying). If you’re flying a short distance, consider driving or taking a train or bus instead.

2. Buy carbon offsets (or don’t actually) – Carbon offsets offer a way to balance out your pollution by investing in projects that reduce emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. If you used one ton (2,000 pounds) of carbon, you can support a project like planting trees or clean water initiatives that would produce a saving in carbon equal to what you use (so the scale balances).

Websites such as Green-e, Gold Standard, and Cool Effect can give you a list of good projects to support.

But, while these programs help, they aren’t super effective. For example, it takes 15-35 years for trees to grow big enough to capture carbon.

And carbon offsets just shift the burden of what you’re doing to somewhere else. It’s not an actual reduction in carbon emissions; you’re just investing in something that you hope will take as much out as you put in.

In fact, in a 2017 study of offsets commissioned by the European Commission found that 85% of offset projects under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) had failed to reduce emissions.

Much of my conversation with Prof. Oppenheimer centered on carbon offsets. He said,

Offsets are good if, and only if, they’re accountable, that is, you’re sure they’re producing the greenhouse gas benefit that they’re advertised at, and that’s sometimes hard to figure out because the emissions are not direct, they’re somewhere else…so, you want to only do offsets and count that as part of your greenhouse gas budget if they’re from an accounting system that’s comprehensive and reliable. Secondly, offsets are good if some have been designed to stimulate technological change or other changes that would not have happened so easily without the offset.

He also said that he could “imagine situations where offsets are fine, even beneficial, but there are a lot of situations where they are not and where they’re…far worse than doing the reduction at…the direct emission site.”

I think this is the point. Offsets don’t have strict controls, so you don’t know if they are really working. And it’s far better to force more efficiency from airlines and build up alternatives to flying in the first place. Much of my research showed that offsets, while making you feel good, aren’t as effective as fighting for reductions directly at their source.

So, you can buy them, but be really careful and do your research into the projects you’re supporting.

3. Fight for better flying – We need to put pressure on airlines to improve fuel efficiency through new aircraft designs and operations, like implementing the usage of biofuels and planes that run on clean electricity, plus modernizing their fleets. For example, the new Dreamliner has very fuel-efficient engines that reduce CO2 emissions by about 20% in comparison to the planes it replaced. Pressure airlines and fly newer, more fuel-efficient planes when you can. Additionally, try to fly an airline that is generally fuel-efficient.

4. Calculate your footprint – As we’ve seen, sometimes it’s better to fly. Sometimes it’s not. Use a carbon calculator for your trip to see which mode of transportation has the lowest carbon footprint for your trip. If flying is a bad option, look for alternatives like trains, ridesharing like BlaBlaCar, or the bus. Some suggested carbon calculators are:

• IACO
• Atmosfair
• FlyGreen
• CarbonFootprint.com
• Less.ca

However, I want to put a big caveat here. My team and I used a lot of calculators for this article. We each found a bunch and tested them ourselves to see if our numbers matched. Like peer review scientific papers, we kept checking each other’s work. We were incredibly shocked to find out just how much variation there was between the carbon calculators. My suggestion is to use multiple calculators to find out what your exact footprint is.

Prof. Oppeniemer concurred, saying, “If the calculator shows that the car is worse, I would believe that, because all this is very sensitive to the load factor. And also…since a lot of fuel is burned on takeoff and landing, the longer the flight, you may sort of amortize the trip if you’re in an airplane.”

5. Fly less – At the end of the day, flying less is the best way to reduce your carbon footprint. Taking lots of flights a year, even if you do some of the lifestyle changes we mention below, is still going to cause your personal footprint to be huge.

In fact, the majority of emissions come from just 1% of travelers — avid fliers who take multiple flights per month. So, if you’re only taking a couple flights per year for your standard vacation, you shouldn’t beat yourself up. There are worse offenders out there who we should be focusing on.

I think we should all fly less. I look for ways to fly less all the time. We all need to be more aware of our carbon footprint. But it’s also important to understand, total flight emissions are small compared to other industries. There are so many factors that go into personal carbon footprints that I think we can make a bigger difference through the day-to-day actions we take since, as we’ve seen, most industries have a bigger impact on emissions! Do things like:

• Buy things that last a long time
• Buy secondhand
• Buy local, not online (so much packaging waste)
• Reduce your plastic consumption
• Drive less
• Switch to a hybrid or electric car
• Eat less takeout to avoid the plastic and other waste that comes with it
• Eat less meat or go vegetarian or vegan
• Switch your home heating to renewable energy
• Change your incandescent light bulbs to LEDs
• Install low-flow showerheads and toilets

If you don’t fly a lot generally, the things you do every day can have a huge impact on your carbon footprint and help the environment. Let’s not lose the forest through the trees.

In today’s “cancel culture,” we’re all supposed to be perfect people — but those who cast the most stones are imperfect too.

We all are.

I don’t believe in flight shaming because, when does shaming someone ever work?

When people feel like their values are attacked, they harden their positions. If you shame someone, they will just do more of the same and become entrenched in their positions. Study after study has shown this to be true.

Telling the person they are bad — when no one ever wants to think of themselves as a bad person — won’t get you anywhere.

That’s not how human psychology works.

Instead, I believe in finding and presenting alternatives.

That’s how you affect change.

I’m not going to judge people who fly. Nor will I judge people who have decided the best way to live their values is to fly less.

If you’re worried about the environmental impact of flying, reduce your own footprint, educate your friends on why they should fly less and find alternative transportation, and contribute to some good organizations that are out there fighting for a greener world:

• 1% for the Planet
• 350.org
• Alliance for Climate Education
• Alliance to Save Energy
• Environmental Defense Fund
• Greenpeace USA
• Natural Resources Defense Culture
• Ocean Conservancy
• Oceana
• Pew Charitable Trust
• Union of Concerned Scientists

The world needs immediate climate action. And there’s a lot you can do to help. If you want more effective change, donate to NGOs and sociopolitical groups that are pushing climate crisis action immediately — because the longer we wait, the worse it will get.

Support green-energy projects.

Fund the planting of trees.

Donate to land reclamation.

Vote for politicians that support climate action.

Fast action will get you more bang for your buck than anything else.

But whatever you do, don’t shame people for flying. That’s not going to do anything.
 

How to Travel the World on $75 a Day

My New York Times best-selling book to travel will teach you how to master the art of travel so that you’ll get off save money, always find deals, and have a deeper travel experience. It’s your A to Z planning guide that the BBC called the “bible for budget travelers.”

Click here to learn more and start reading it today!

The post Flight Shaming: Is Flying Bad for the Environment? appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

While walking down the streets of Medellín, I came across a Dunkin’ Donuts, a donut chain from my hometown of Boston. (It’s the best. Locals are quite attached to Dunkin. Don’t mess with a Massachusetts resident and Dunkin.)

As I looked at the store, a pit formed in my stomach and I got quiet and melancholy.

For days, I had been coming across Starbucks, McDonald’s, KFC, Papa John’s, and now, Dunkin’ Donuts!

Medellín had been overrun by the chains.

Another place ruined by globalization!

Another place where the local character was dying.

Or…was it? (Said in a Morgan Freeman narrator voice.)

Was that Dunkin’ Donuts really a bad thing?

Or that Starbucks I saw earlier? Or all those Papa John’s? (I mean that garlic butter sauce is amazing.)

As I continued down the street, a thought struck me: What had that Dunkin’ Donuts really ruined?

I mean the shops and stalls nearby were still full of life and brimming with customers buying snacks and coffee.

What was really bothering me?

Then it hit me.

I realized that maybe why I got sad was because what Dunkin’ Donuts really had destroyed was not Medellin but what I thought Medellin was.

As travelers, I think we tend to hate “globalization” because we imagine places to be a certain way from books, movies, and our collective cultural consciousness.

We often have this image — based on no firsthand experience — of what a destination should be like and how the people should act. We imagine deserted beaches, or quaint cafés, or rustic old towns, or gritty, worn-down cities because we saw that in a movie or read a book ten years ago. I mean, most Americans still think Colombia is teeming with narcos or that Eastern Europe is still like it was the day after the Iron Curtain fell.

This is not a new phenomenon. We want the places we visit to fit into the box we mentally created for them. We want our image of them validated.

Heck, even Mark Twain felt this way about the Taj Mahal:

” I had read a great deal too much about it. I saw it in the daytime, I saw it in the
moonlight, I saw it near at hand, I saw it from a distance; and I knew all the time, that of its kind it was the wonder of the world, with no competitor now and no possible future competitor; and yet, it was not my Taj. My Taj had been built by excitable literary people; it was solidly lodged in my head, and I could not blast it out.”

I mean we in part travel for a sense of adventure and exoticness. To be explorers and find spots devoid of any outside influence. My friend Seth Kugel said in his book a town in England became popular with Chinese tour groups in 2016 because it was quintessentially English. Chinese tour groups wanted to see a place that matched their vision.

Globalization stops all that from happening.

Suddenly, we’re walking down the street — and we see a part of home.

Our illusion – the myth we created about the destination we are in – is shattered.

“Well, there’s a Starbucks. The tourists are here. This place is ruined now.”

But is that really a bad thing?

When we imagine how someplace should be — like Thai islands with little huts and empty beaches, or rural villages filled with only local food and pushcart vendors — we seek to freeze the world (and often with an air of leftover colonialism).

We forget that places aren’t Disneyland and it’s not 100 years ago. Things change. Places develop, mature, and move on. The world around us hasn’t stood frozen in time to act like our theme park. (And this doesn’t even touch the tip of the iceberg around the colonialism / Western stereotypes associated with these ideas.)

Would I rather see the world full of mom-and-pop stores and no Dunkin’ Donuts in Medellín?

On the surface, yes.

But if I really think about it, that’s because I want to escape my home, not be reminded of it. It’s because I’d like the world to match the one I see in books and movies. It’s because no one is completely immune to the views I just talked about. I’ve created a castle in the sky that I don’t want to see destroyed.

But part of the art of discovery is having your preconceptions shattered.

For example, most Americans (and maybe even most people in the world) view Colombia as this remote jungle full of coffee, crime, fruit, and narcos roaming the street. It’s gritty and dangerous.

But Colombia is nothing like people think it is. Medellín has one of the best transportation systems I’ve ever seen outside Scandinavia, and Wi-Fi is everywhere. There’s also some incredible Michelin star–worthy gastronomy taking place here. Bogotá has world-class museums. Digital nomads flock there. The roads are stellar. Many young people speak English, they are educated, and they are very informed of world events.

So, as Colombia sheds its narco past and embraces the world as much as the world embraces it, should we – I – be surprised that the guy riding in a little jeep is playing Taylor Swift, or that burgers and pizzas and gin and tonics are really popular? Should we be surprised that Colombians want a taste of the world too?

We often think of globalization as a one-way street, where the Western chains “invade” other countries. Our conversation in the West is always about how we’re ruining other places.

Yet these places don’t survive on tourist dollars alone. Locals do eat there. Who are we to tell them no?

And I often think about the reverse: when people from other non-Western cultures travel, do they have the same reaction?

Do Colombians travel somewhere and go, “Ugh, a mondongo place here? This place is ruined.”

Do Italians hate the sight of pizza on vacation?

Do the Japanese lament seeing sushi abroad?

I don’t want to see the golden arches next to the Pyramids, but is it so bad that there are some franchises in Egypt? Who are we to say, “Hey, you can’t have that. I want to imagine your country as this Arabian Nights fantasy! Get rid of that pizza place! Where are the guys on camels?”

Whether it’s a chain or just a type of cuisine, I don’t think the mingling of cultures is such a bad.

Globalization is not perfect. And, of course, its benefits aren’t balanced. People have written volumes on this subject. Let’s leave that aside. I’m not here to discuss that. I’m here to ponder globalization and our perceptions of it as travelers.

That Dunkin’ Donuts reminded me that the globalized world that allows me to be in Medellín also allows Colombians to access not only my culture but other cultures as well.

I think we need to stop viewing globalization through the myopic one-way lens of being a Western traveler.

Do we really want places to stay impoverished / secluded / unconnected so we can have an “authentic” experience based on some fantasy we have about a destination? Do we really not want the locals to experience pizza, or burgers, or Scotch, jazz music, or Thai pop, or anything else not local?

I don’t think we should look at globalization as causing a place to be “ruined.” Cultures are always in flux.

The same process that has brought unfamiliar cultures to us has also brought parts of our culture (among others) there.

When you have more cultures interacting with each other, you get to understand that everyone is a human being and shares the same wants and needs.

And I think that is something we should celebrate.

Matt’s note: Before everyone freaks out in the comments, let me be clear: I am not saying globalization is all rainbows and unicorns. There are a lot of problems with multi-national corporations, specifically, when it comes to taxes, labor, and how much money they keep in a country. There are also a lot of environmental and social problems related to outsourcing. Those are important social and economic issues that need to be addressed politically so that everyone can share the benefits of a more globalized world. I don’t deny there are problems. But this post is simply about looking at the issue from a traveler’s perspective.
 

How to Travel the World on $75 a Day

My New York Times best-selling book to travel will teach you how to master the art of travel so that you’ll get off save money, always find deals, and have a deeper travel experience. It’s your A to Z planning guide that the BBC called the “bible for budget travelers.”

Click here to learn more and start reading it today!

The post What Does Globalization Really Destroy? appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Years later, I returned to the scene of the crime: Costa Rica. It was in that country that I first fell victim to the travel bug, a disease that would infect me for the rest of my life and lead me to where I am today. There was no place I was more excited about revisiting than Manuel Antonio National Park. Its wild jungles, deserted beaches, and bountiful animal life was the highlight of my first visit and I couldn’t wait to relive it all in this seaside town.

But then wonder turned to horror.

The quiet road to town was lined with endless fancy resorts. Hotels lined the park’s edge. Tour groups cluttered the once peaceful park. They fed the wildlife. They littered. The abundant troops of monkeys had vanished. So had the colorful land crabs. No deer roamed. And the beaches were a sea of bodies.

It was my first experience with seeing a destination shift into “overtourism.”

Overtourism is the term used to describe the onslaught of tourists who take over a destination to a point where the infrastructure can no longer handle it.

While not a new problem (that trip to Costa Rica was in 2011), this “trend” has been in the news a lot the past few months (heck, there’s even a Twitter feed about it) as many destinations have started to push back against the onslaught of visitors inundating their streets, communities, and overtaking their natural resources.

“Stay home!” they scream to visitors. “You’re no longer welcome!”

I believe travel can change the world. Done right, it expands people’s minds, fosters understanding, makes you a better you, and provides an economic boost to local communities.

But, thanks to cheap flights, the sharing economy, and (let’s be honest) an explosion of Chinese tour groups around the world, destinations have gotten a bit crowded lately.

I see it everywhere I travel these days.

There’s the Palace of Versailles, where years ago, I was able to film a video free of crowds. Now, it’s wall-to-wall tour groups slowly shuffling from room to room in the most insane queue ever. Its hard to even enjoy the experience!

There’s Tulum, once a quiet Mexican town, now awash with Westerners trying to turn it into the new Bali (which is also overrun with tourists and where “digital nomads” can float from yoga studio to cafe to retreat to wherever without ever actually having to interact with locals).

There’s Iceland, where Reykjavik’s main street, complete with a Dunkin’ Donuts, is now a sea of people, and the city’s roads are cluttered. (Don’t even get my Icelandic friends started on this subject. They are none too happy about all the tourists.)

There the crushing crowds in Prague, Barcelona, Paris, Venice, Edinburgh, the Gili Islands, Ko Lipe, Chiang Mai, and Queenstown, where tourists are overrunning locals, acting idiotically, and littering.

Sure, crowded destinations are simply a by-product of a globalized world where travel has become attainable for more and more people. The number of international tourist arrivals is expected to increase by 3.3% worldwide each year until 2030 when it will reach 1.8 billion. And, on balance, that’s a good thing if you believe in travel as a transformative tool.

Yet the very things that make travel cheaper — budget airlines, Airbnb, ridesharing, etc. — have also made destinations unable to cope with all the visitors — and pushed out locals in the process.

Now they are starting to push back.

Barcelona is no longer allowing new hotels and is limiting the number of cruise ships.

Dubrovnik is floating the idea of putting limits on the number of tourists.

Chile is curbing the number of tourists to Easter Island and how long they can stay and Ecuador is doing the same for visitors to the Galápagos.

Venice is trying to restrict Airbnb and the number of tourists (after restricting cruise ships).

Paris is also restricting Airbnbs in the city.

Iceland wants to limit the number of foreigners who buy property.

Amsterdam is launching a campaign to reign in the partying in the city.

Majorca has had continuous protests against tourists.

The world is saying “enough!”

And I, for one, am all for this.

Of course, I don’t think people intentionally try to “ruin” places. No one is saying, “Let’s go overcrowd Iceland and piss locals off!”

Most people just don’t even think of their actions causing harm.

Which makes education and these initiatives even more important.

Because there definitely needs to be a better balance between visitors and residents. Overtourism doesn’t help anyone. No one wants to visit a crowded destination – and no one wants to live somewhere that’s overrun with tourists.

While no one is talking about banning tourists outright, there should be better ways to control their numbers and the problems overtourism causes.

Take Airbnb. It’s one of the biggest problems in travel today (which is a shame, because I used to love the service).

It started out as a way for residents to earn money on the side and get travelers out of the hotel/hostel dynamic and into a more “local” way of life.

But that original mission has been perverted. As rentals have become more lucrative, Airbnb has turned a blind eye to the fact that real estate companies, property managers, and other individuals can list as many properties as they want.

These companies, tapping into tourists’ desire to have a home away from home, buy up properties in the city center, which then decreases the supply of rental properties for locals, increases rental prices, and forces residents out.

Driving locals out defeats the purpose of using the service! Too many town centers have been decimated by Airbnb. While a man’s home is his castle, I do believe there should be some restrictions on Airbnb because it’s driving people out of city centers. That’s not good for anyone, especially the locals who live there and, since Airbnb won’t do anything about it, local governments need to step in and start cracking down.

Personally, I’ve started to only rent rooms in an Airbnb (instead of an entire property) so I know there’s a local there benefiting from my stay. Rooms is their new version of what Airbnb used to be: when you rent space in someone’s home or stay in their guesthouse. It’s cheaper, you get to meet the host, and you don’t contribute to overtourism. It’s a triple win.

“But what about social media?” you may ask.

One can’t deny that YouTubers, Instagram “influencers”, and bloggers like myself have helped popularize travel and made it more accessible to the masses by destroying the myth that it’s an expensive thing only a few can do. We’ve shed light on destinations around the world and gotten people to visit places they might not have otherwise.

I don’t feel bad about that.

More people should travel.

And there’s always been the idea of that travel media “ruins” a place. The Lonely Planet effect. The Rick Steves effect. The Bourdain effect (which I experienced first hand since he came to my hometown).

I mean people have been opining about mass tourism for decades. Once it’s in the Lonely Planet, a place is dead, right?

But social media has an amplifying effect that didn’t exist in the past. It makes it easier for everyone to find – and then overrun a destination.

Do I really think my one article on (insert destination) created a crush of people like there is some Nomadic Matt effect? No.

But social media and blogging leads one person to a place and then another and then another and then suddenly everyone is taking a picture of themselves with their feet dangling over Horseshoe Bend, sitting on that rock in Norway, or having breakfast with giraffes at that hotel in Kenya.

Everyone wants to do what they see on social media so they can tell all their friends how cool and well-traveled they are.

This is also one of the downsides of the Internet. For me, travel is an act of discovery – and respect – and we constantly talk about being a respectful traveler but, for many influencers and bloggers, they don’t balance their actions and influence with responsible travel (I mean you had Fun for Louis rationalizing his North Korea propaganda movies) and try to educate their audiences to become better, more respectful travelers.

After all, we are as much a part of the solution as we are part of the problem. There are ways to mitigate your impact and create a mutually beneficial relationship between you and the local population.

Here are seven ways I think we can help mitigate the overtourism crisis:

1. Skip Airbnb homes – Airbnb is one of the biggest villains in this whole drama. Don’t rent an entire Airbnb home unless you can be 100% sure that you are renting from a real human who is just on vacation. Look at the photos, talk to the host, ask them if they live there. If this is a rental company or the person has multiple listings, skip them. Don’t contribute to the emptying of communities. Rent a room instead!

Instead, use “Rooms.” This Airbnb feature lets you search for listings in people’s homes or guest houses. It’s like how Airbnb used to be — people renting out extra rooms or guest houses for added cash. You always get your own room and, sometimes, a private entrance. You’ll also get to interact with your host, who can provide lots of insider tips and insight to your destination.

2. Spread your travels around – Don’t stick to the most popular areas in a destination. Travel outside the city center. Visit the smaller neighborhoods. Get out into the countryside! Getting off the beaten path not only means fewer tourists but also spreading the benefits of your tourism around. There’s more to Italy than Venice, more to Spain than Barcelona (seriously, nearby Costa Brava is amazing), more to Iceland than Reykjavik, more to Thailand than Pai, more to everywhere than where everyone is posting photos from! Get out there and find those hidden gems!

3. Visit in the shoulder season – A corollary to the above is to not visit during peak season. If you visit a place when everyone else does because “it’s the best time to go,” you’re just contributing to the crowds (plus facing peak-season prices). Travel during the shoulder season, when the crowds are fewer, the prices lower, and the weather still (mostly) nice.

4. Don’t eat in touristy areas – If you eat where all the other tourists are, you’ll pay more for lower-quality food. Open Google Maps, Foursquare, Yelp, or your guidebook and find restaurants where locals eat. Follow my five-block rule: always walk five blocks in any direction and cross the invisible line most tourists don’t. You’ll get away from the crowds, spread your tourism dollars around, and enjoy a more authentic experience.

5. Be an informed traveler – Read up on the destination before you go. Learn its customs. Learn its laws. Learn its history. The more respectful and knowledgeable you are, the better it is for everyone involved!

6. Don’t be a drunk idiot – Part of the growing pushback against tourists is not just their sheer number but their disrespectful behavior too. Heck, that is part of why the folks in Amsterdam are upset — they’re tired of drunk tourists! If you’re going someplace just to party, don’t go! You can get drunk back home. Don’t treat a destination like it’s your playpen. People live there after all! Treat them with kindness. You’re a guest in their home.

7. Be environmentally friendly – Finally, don’t waste a place’s (limited) resources. Don’t leave the lights on. Don’t litter. Don’t take long showers. Don’t involve yourself in environmentally dubious activities. The more you can preserve a destination, the longer it will last and the more the locals will want tourists like yourself there. After all, if you ruin it, how will you ever be able to go back? Here are some resources on the subject:

• Is eco-tourism really eco-friendly?
• How to become a sustainable traveler
• How to ethically volunteer anywhere in the world

Overtourism has been written about a lot lately (see the plethora of links from above) and it’s an issue I’ve been thinking about by another name for years and especially this summer as I jostled through the crowded streets of Amsterdam and my home away from home of New York City.

I think we’re going to see a lot more destinations limiting the number of visitors and placing restrictions on the travel industry. People are just fed up – and they have every right to be.

Let’s not love places to death. Just like it’s important to protect animals and the environment when we travel, so too is it important to protect residents and the destinations themselves.

Do I think lots of tourists are suddenly going to go “Oh, I didn’t realize we were doing this! Let’s change our ways!”?

Nope.

I think tourist behavior will, for the most part, continue as before. I think tourists are still going to act stupid. I think people will still be short-sighted.

But I’m glad this subject is being talked about. I’m glad there is more action around the issue.

We’re the cause – and part of the solution – to this problem and, the more responsible we act, the better it is for everyone involved.

Overtourism is a problem that can only be solved by residents and tourists together.
 

How to Travel the World on $75 a Day

My New York Times best-selling book to travel will teach you how to master the art of travel so that you’ll get off save money, always find deals, and have a deeper travel experience. It’s your A to Z planning guide that the BBC called the “bible for budget travelers.”

Click here to learn more and start reading it today!

The post Overtourism: How You Can Help Solve This Worldwide Problem appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

There is a trend in travel that has picked up a lot of steam over the last few years. That trend is called Eco-Tourism. As environmental welfare and sustainability have become more important to people over the last decade (and especially so in the last couple of years), travel companies around the world are trying to cash in on people’s willingness to spend lots of money in the name of environmental protection. Much of it is greenwashing though, or insincere and over-hyped attempts to be viewed as “green.” The travel industry has not been immune to this trend and many companies now tout their environmental credentials in an effort to lure customers and create a positive image.

You have to wonder though, just how environmentally friendly is eco-tourism? Eco-tourism is defined as:

Connecting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. This means that those who implement and participate in responsible tourism activities should follow the following eco-tourism principles: minimize impact, build environmental and cultural awareness and respect, provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts, provide direct financial benefits for conservation, provide financial benefits and empowerment for local people, and raise sensitivity to host countries’ political, environmental, and social climate.

But how many companies really live up to that? How much of it is really greenwashing? If I had to put a number on it, and I am going to, I’d say at least 70% of it is simply greenwashing. The Marriott or other resorts might talk about their commitment to reducing waste by using recycled toilet paper and low flow shower heads, but they have huge mega-hotels. The nature of their hotels means they will never be truly environmentally friendly, unless they rebuild the place from scratch. And most of their customers wouldn’t put up with higher prices to help offset the capital costs of upgrading to be eco-friendly. You can offset your carbon emissions with Qantas but, if you really want to reduce your footprint, you wouldn’t fly. And if you look at the most environmentally friendly hotels and tours, they are also the most expensive. Apparently, eco-tourism is just for the rich.

Companies tout how they are going green to save the environment, but they only make incremental changes designed to make us feel good. Few companies make the capital investment to truly change their business model, especially those in the tourism industry. It’s easier to change toilet paper than change how you design your future hotels. I doubt many cruises have 100% greywater systems.

And the commitment to local cultures? With the exception of a few tour operators (like Intrepid Travel) rarely do you see companies trying to help the local communities in any significant way. They operate big tours with underpaid local staff and export lots of money to headquarters instead of keeping it in the local economy. Ask most of the porters on the Inca Trail how they are treated and you won’t find a favorable response. Just because they hire local staff doesn’t mean they are “giving back” to the community to help it grow.

Eco-tours market themselves as a low impact, environmental, and community friendly way to see the world. See the Amazon or Patagonia without making a big environmental impact. See Antarctica without making an impact. Tourists come, learn a bit about the local culture, and then leave, content with the knowledge they “helped” the environment. But the reality is that big companies bring you in, make you feel good about yourself, and take all the profit back home.

I see promise and hope in sustainable tourism. To me, this is different than eco-tourism. Eco-tourism to me is about not damaging the environment and providing a little education, but sustainable tourism is about living and growing with the environment and the local cultures. You don’t find this with the big companies. They may change a light bulb and reduce waste, but would you really consider that sustainable?

Sustainable tourism requires new thinking, and you find this mostly with small scale operators. These operators change their business structure so as to have as minimal an impact on the environment as possible. They buy local goods, use local services, treat their employees well, use few resources, and try hard to help rebuild the environment and educate tourists. They’re working to make an impact instead of contributing to overtourism.

This is a much more promising side to the eco-tourism trend. By participating in local initiatives that better the environment instead of just a feel good, greenwashed tour, you contribute more substantially to protecting the environment. I believe the eco-tourism trend is here to stay and that is for sure a good thing. However, in order for it to have a much greater impact, there needs to be a focus not only on “using less toilet paper” but also on sustainable, local initiatives that help businesses grow with and heal the environment.
 

How to Travel the World on $75 a Day

My New York Times best-selling book to travel will teach you how to master the art of travel so that you’ll get off save money, always find deals, and have a deeper travel experience. It’s your A to Z planning guide that the BBC called the “bible for budget travelers.”

Click here to learn more and start reading it today!

The post Is Eco-Tourism Really Eco-Friendly? appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Travel is a good thing. To quote Maya Angelou:

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends

I believe in travel. Heck, I have an entire website and career dedicated to making people do it more!

But, in the rush to get people to travel, we often overlook the negative impact of travel on communities and the environment. We talk about how travel can be a force for good: breaking down social barriers, connecting people, teaching people about life, and themselves but….

Is too much travel a bad thing?

Is there an argument to be made for traveling less?

Are we all, even with the best intentions, doing harm to the very thing we want the most?

Nothing is ever perfect but if I had to make an argument against travel, these are the points I would make:

Travel destroys local cultures

The globalization of food, travel, hotels, and language diminishes the very culture we traveled so far to see. Instead of going out to seek the unknown, most people stay in resorts and hotels, never experiencing the country they are in. We go to McDonald’s or eat food we can get at home. It’s as though we travel to never leave home. Wherever we go, we seem to bring our western culture with us.

Read more:

• The Truth About Meeting Locals Abroad
• 6 Reasons To Learn the Local Language Before Your Trip

Travel makes the world Disneyland

From the hill tribes of Thailand to the Andes to cowboys of America, travelers have a certain expectation of what a place is and how the people should act. We travel to see that expectation. We travel to see Crocodile Dundee, Mayans, Native Americans, and hill tribe cultures in Asia. Cultures around the world then put on a show to give us what we want and in the process “Disneyize” their culture. I hate seeing the little hill tribes in Thailand or Native American shows in America or “traditional” dance in Vietnam. It’s not how they really act. It’s how they act for tourists. Doesn’t that just cheapen the experience and, in the end, cause more harm than good?
 
Travel destroys local economies

All that travel in big hotels and global restaurants doesn’t help the local economy. Most of that money is removed by corporations to the head office. Travelers go with what they know and most will stay at the Marriott before they stay in some unknown place, never thinking about where the money is going. Travel can be a huge economic boon but only if the money stays local.

Read more:

 
Travel hurts the environment

Traveling is not the most eco-friendly of activities. Flying, cruising, eating out, and driving around all have a negative impact on the environment. Most people when they travel constantly use towels in hotel rooms, leave the air conditioner going, or forget to turn off the lights. Jetsetting around the world in airplanes or driving around in an RV all contribute to global warming. Between waste, development, and pollution, we are doing exactly what The Beach said we would do — destroy the very paradise we seek.

Read more:

• Flight Shaming: Is Flying Bad for the Environment?
• Sustainable Travel Guide
• 9 Ways to Explore the Caribbean Sustainably

 
Travel produces short-term profits
Everyone tries to grab that last dollar. Travel isn’t the only industry this happens with but it’s the most relevant to us. Instead of building for the long term, people overdevelop in the name of short-term gain. You see it in Thailand with its built up beaches, in Cambodia, in southern Spain, and in Las Vegas with all the casinos (where’s all that water going to come from?). It’s everywhere. Money now, forget later. Eventually, the tourists will stop coming because they will be so put off and so sad the beauty they came for is gone.

Read more:

• It’s Time to Break Up With Airbnb

While there is a growing effort among people to mitigate these downsides, the truth is we can’t ignore overtourism and the negative side of travel. Yet I don’t think these reasons should make us stop traveling. In fact, I’m just thinking out loud here. Simply letting the wheels turn.

At the end of the day, these negatives come down to personal choice. You can easily travel the world and not do any of these things. I don’t fly much, I don’t stay in giant hotels, I avoid chain restaurants, I stay in local guesthouses, and I won’t do tours that exploit animals or the environment.

Things are only good or bad if they make them to be. If you stay with travelers, never get out of the tourist area, never look up from your phone, waste water, and ride elephants, yeah you’re travel is bad for the world.

But if you do the opposite, then there’s no reason why your travel can’t be a force for good.

While many travelers are good at thinking about the environment and cultures, the majority aren’t. And so I do think there is a strong argument to be made that travel does cause a lot of problems that should make us rethink how and why we travel. There’s a downside to what we do and we should take it upon ourselves not to do those things so we can keep travel the benefit that it is.

Let’s be a force for good and change the way we travel by using our money to support better local environmental initiatives and companies.

As they say, leave no trace behind.
 

How to Travel the World on $75 a Day

My New York Times best-selling book to travel will teach you how to master the art of travel so that you’ll get off save money, always find deals, and have a deeper travel experience. It’s your A to Z planning guide that the BBC called the “bible for budget travelers.”

Click here to learn more and start reading it today!

The post A Contrarian View: Why Travel is Bad for the World appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Last summer, while I was living in Sweden, I met up with travel writer Doug Lansky, the man behind several worldwide destination guides for Rough Guides. We were talking about travel (of course) and began discussing the philosophical question about whether, as traveler writers, we end up destroying the places we love by sharing them with the world.

By writing about those off-the-beaten-track destinations, those little local restaurants, and quiet parts of the city where you’re free of tourists, do we inadvertently contribute to the demise and overdevelopment of these destinations?

When I consider this question, I think about two things. First, I think about Tony Wheeler, the founder of Lonely Planet, the guy who pretty much commercialized backpacking. He’s the guy who turned the world onto Ko Phi Phi, which used to look like the left image and now looks like the right:

Secondly, I remember my own experience on Ko Lipe in Thailand (a tiny, out-of-the-way destination) and how overdeveloped that island has become in the last few years. Unfettered development has taken this tiny island and filled it with resorts and ruined coral reefs as drinking water needs to be pumped in from nearby islands to meet the needs.

And I think about how I always talk about Coral Bay, Australia — and other little towns and restaurants around the world — with great enthusiasm and encouragement. “Go there! They are wonderful and crowd free,” I proclaim.

By driving people to the next “undiscovered” place, do I just ruin it? Will I be that guy who returns and says, “Man, this place used to be cool 10 years ago.”

But, while not totally guiltless, I don’t think travel writers are to blame when destinations become crowded destinations full of tourists and overpriced hotels. (And, these days, there are a lot of factors that go into overtourism. It’s a complex — and urgent — problem!)

After ten years of traveling the world, I’ve come to realize that it’s the tourists themselves who ruin a destination.

And I don’t mean that simply because of the increase in visitors. I mean that because tourists end up supporting unsustainable tourism practices, and that’s what really destroys a place.

We simply love places to death.

Because, let’s face it, as a species, people are kind of assholes.

We can talk about sustainability and overtourism all we want but, if people really cared wouldn’t they stay in fewer Airbnbs, take fewer cruises, and try to avoid tours and animal tourism?

And then what happens?

You see many locals who are shortsighted and start building hotels, resorts, and businesses to try to cash in on the latest travel fad. And who can blame them? People need to eat, kids need to be sent to college, and money needs to be earned. The future is someone else’s problem, right? And I can’t really fault a lot of people for that. I don’t agree with that method of growth (not just in travel but in life in general), but how do you tell someone they can’t build something to feed their family?

I remember reading an article a few years back by Thomas Freidman from the New York Times talking about the rainforest in Brazil. In an interview, a local activist said that people need to eat, and, while most understand the need to protect the forest, with no alternative, people are going to choose food over protecting trees.

And it’s not just locals who do this.

Large corporations come in and take full advantage of lax regulation, low wages, and corrupt officials. Greenwashing, the practice of pretending you’re engaging in environmentally friendly actions, is very prevalent in travel.

(I think many countries in the world, including my own, should enact stronger environmental laws to help curb excessive building and development to ensure people take a longer view.)

Development is good, but unfettered development is bad and, unfortunately, there’s too much-unfettered development in tourism today.

But here’s why I put a lot of blame on visitors: As a writer, it’s important for me to not only highlight destinations (Go here! It’s great!), but to also emphasize responsibility so future generations can benefit from the place and enjoy it. There are a lot of great environmental travel blogs out there, and while this site deals more with the practical side of travel, I’ve talked about ruined places before and the need for better environmental protection many times.

But, as tourists, we ALSO have a responsibility to the destination. If we frequent operators, hotels, and services that are destructive — not only to the environment, but also to the local economy — we can’t really be surprised when we encounter mass development and “ruined,” overcrowded attractions.

How you spend your money is your vote for whether or not you accept what companies do. You know why companies have jumped on the eco-friendly bandwagon? Money. Sure, some actually care about the environment, but for 99% of them, it’s money.

People will pay more money if they feel like they’re positively impacting the environment. Wal-Mart executives are pretty open about the fact that they began selling eco-friendly and organic products because their customers were demanding it and there was money to be made.

I think the same is true in travel.

We have a choice in the vendors we use, the hotels we stay in, and the tour operators we hire. Our dollars go very far in developing countries, and the businesses there will change if we demand it. Start demanding good environmental practices and suddenly you’ll find them. If more and more people tell businesses that they want to see better environmental practices, they’ll happen.

You’ve found a company underpaying or mistreating their local staff? Or partaking in destructive practices? Let them know and use their competitors. There’s a lot of information online that can help you learn more about companies to avoid:

• Cruise Critic
• Green Global Travel Blog
• National Geographic Green Living Resources

I feel that many people, when given the right information, will make the right choice. And, as a travel writer, I’d like to encourage people to make that right choice. That means looking up the environmental record of the hotel or resort you’re staying in, choosing a tour company that is ecologically friendly, and avoiding destinations that are already overdeveloped. How do you do that? A little research and common sense.

But I can’t stop people from behaving badly when they get to a destination. I can just push them in the right direction.

If we push locals to be eco-friendly, they will. If writers push travelers to be eco-friendly, maybe they will. It’s a virtuous circle in which we all contribute.

We all bear some responsibility, but those whose money supports the ruinous ways bear the most.

It’s not the volume of travel that matters, but how that volume is handled. And we have a responsibility to ensure that the volume we create is well managed.

Or you could very well be the last person to see that destination in all of its splendor.
 

How to Travel the World on $75 a Day

My New York Times best-selling book to travel will teach you how to master the art of travel so that you’ll get off save money, always find deals, and have a deeper travel experience. It’s your A to Z planning guide that the BBC called the “bible for budget travelers.”

Click here to learn more and start reading it today!

Photo of Ko Phi Phi thanks to the Traveling Canucks. It’s a great blog; you should read it.

The post Why Tourists Ruin the Places They Visit appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

I’m frequently asked about volunteering overseas, and unfortunately I don’t know much about it. So today, I’m turning the blog over to friend and volunteer tourism expert Shannon O’Donnell from the blog A Little Adrift. She’s been volunteering around the world for years and recently published a book on the subject. She’s the expert, so without further ado, here’s Shannon’s advice on finding good volunteer opportunities.

A foundational motivation underpinning the past four years I’ve been traveling around the world has been the idea that serving others would help me find clearer direction for my life. There are many ways to better understand and respect other cultures as we travel, but for me, the most effective has been volunteering.

I left home to travel for many reasons, and I had many preconceived ideas about what I would find outside the confines of the United States. Traveling dispelled many of those notions almost immediately, but it was only when I slowed down and spent time volunteering that I was able to sink into the travel experience in a way that goes beyond photographing the major temples, churches, and iconic sites.

When I first left in 2008 on what I thought would simply be a year-long round-the-world trip, I was overwhelmed by how convoluted and ethically ambiguous the international volunteer industry seemed. Simple searches to find projects I could support on my trip yielded a bevy of companies touting volunteer experiences in the poorest countries in the world and yet costing many thousands of dollars — it didn’t make sense, and it nearly discouraged me from doing any work at all.

But once I traveled, researched, and learned, I realized there are many quality, ethical options out there for travelers interested in volunteering, but finding them is tougher than it should be. It’s this quandary that motivated me to write my book, The Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook.

I know what it’s like to want to volunteer and travel but to be confused by the sometimes huge fees, the equivocal ethics, and the sheer number of options. With that in mind, I jumped at the opportunity Matt gave me to share five clear steps on how to find and vet good-fit volunteer projects.

Step One: Understand Development and Aid

During my first year volunteering internationally, I overlooked this first step and instead fueled my volunteer efforts with enthusiasm and little knowledge, and, as a result, I, unfortunately, supported a few projects that I now see had fundamental ethical issues. One of the hardest things for new, eager volunteers to understand is that not all organizations — even nonprofits — are doing good, necessary work that ethically develops the communities and ecosystems where we volunteer our time. For that reason, take a step back from the planning and instead learn more about core problems facing development projects when they bring in Western volunteers and ideas.

Two core themes I analyze in my book center on how too many volunteer projects can actually foster dependency on international aid and compromise the dignity of the people they are trying to help. Before you volunteer, your job is to understand the macro-industry around volunteering. I’ve collected a list of fantastic books, TED Talks, and websites that provide context for international aid conundrums and the interplay between volunteering and development work. Each one of these three books and articles offers a good start toward broad-level understanding:

• The Elusive Quest for Growth by William R. Easterly: nicely frames the major, core issues of international development models
• The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It by Paul Collier: an easy read and great overall look at development; he presents interesting solutions to major aid issues.
• “It Doesn’t Take a Village: The perverse effects of local aid”: this Economist article analyzes the idea that empowerment at the local level is best, countering with arguments of corruption, elitism, and bureaucratic issues. The article illustrates that there is no panacea for the major development issues.

Step Two: Choose a Good-Fit Type of Volunteering

There are an overwhelming number of ways to volunteer, and since I started traveling more than four years ago, I’ve tried most of them. I used a placement company on my round-the-world trip to find a monastery in Nepal where I could teach, I’ve taken recommendations from travelers on the road, and now I most often volunteer independently with small organizations I find organically as I travel. Your next step is to assess your time commitment and your personal volunteer motivations.

• Independent volunteering: Independent volunteering is ideal for long-term travelers and those on a flexible round-the-world trip who don’t know when or where they might be traveling. There’s usually little or no facilitation, so you must arrange all travel, accommodation, and food. In exchange, the fees are low or free. You’re traditionally working directly with the project or organization on a very hands-on level.
• Placement companies: Middlemen take a fee to match you with a specific type of volunteer project and usually offer a medium level of facilitation. Ideal for very specific or niche volunteer experiences and either short or long time commitments.
• Voluntours: These offer a high level of facilitation and are ideal for those on a short vacation who want to pack in a lot of sites with a nod to service integrated into the trip. Voluntours are expensive, and the ratio of touring to service can vary greatly. Usually, the bulk of your fee goes to the tour company itself.
• Social enterprises: All travelers can support the small businesses working in their own local communities for change. If you can only volunteer for a very short time, consider nixing the volunteering and instead infusing your money into local communities as you travel. Volunteering is not always the right choice on every trip, but you can still do good by choosing restaurants, shops, and business with an underlying social mission.

Step Three: Research Organizations in Your Interest Area

Now we’re down to the nitty-gritty details. Travelers too often skip the first two steps and risk having an unfulfilling trip at best and doing harm with their volunteering efforts at worst. My prep work for a new volunteer trip starts with a search of the major volunteer databases to see what projects exist in my interest area. I then use a spreadsheet or an Evernote folder to track the details.

These websites allow you to sort and sift through the whole gamut of types of volunteering (conservation, teaching, medical, etc.) and requirements (family, timing, location). For now, simply fill your spreadsheet or folder with projects that excite you, and in the next step we’ll look at vetting potential volunteer projects.

• Go Overseas: This site collates volunteering placements from many companies and returns a lot of variety in the search results.
• Idealist.org: A large database that occasionally returns some fantastic, small, niche organizations.
• Pro World: A wonderful middleman placement company with community-driven projects and offering internships, volunteering, and study-abroad programs.
• Volunteer HQ: Very fair placement fees even with the refundable registration fee taken into account, and they seem to choose projects with a long-term community approach.
• WWOOF: Working on organic farms is a wonderful way to give time to farm, agriculture, and sometimes conservation projects. (Matt has previously provided a full guide on how to WWOOF on your travels.)

Step Four: Ask the Right Questions

Vetting the volunteer projects you researched is your next step and allows you to narrow your list. Diligently follow through with this stage of the process because there are heartbreaking consequences to supporting projects that are not sensitive to the needs of the people and places they serve. An example— and a cautionary tale — is the current orphanage scandals reported in Africa and Cambodia; something as innocuous as volunteering at an orphanage often has sad and heartbreaking side effects on the children.

Frustratingly, there are disparate issues within each volunteering niche, so I wrote up a full list of questions to ask your volunteer organization on my volunteer site. The core issues most volunteer projects face come down to:

• Where is the money going? Look at placement fees and how much of that fee goes back into the community or projects.
• How is the organization working with the community? Have they asked the local community if this project is something that is wanted or needed? Find out if the organization is prepared to stick around and support the project or development work for potentially many years if that is needed, or leave altogether if not.
• What is expected of volunteers? What is the exact nature of the volunteer work, and what is the level of volunteer support on the ground?

When you’ve effectively questioned the organizations and projects that interest you, you’re only left with the personal decision of weighing time, costs, and project details to decide which one fits your volunteering goals. My 11-year-old niece and I volunteered during our seven-month trip to Southeast Asia, and my volunteer goals then were quite different than when I travel solo. My various projects over the years have reflected my differing circumstances…as will yours!

Step Five: Take a Deep Breath

The single decision to weave international service into my round-the-world travels changed the direction of my life. I left the US back in 2008 confused about the direction I should take. I left behind my previous dreams as an actor in Los Angeles and hoped that travel and volunteering would help me refocus. It has done that and more: the regular integration of service in my life gave me a new lens through which to experience the world and an ability to experience communities and cultures in a way that simply traveling through a country does not.

Once you’ve picked your volunteer experience, take a deep breath before you tackle the planning phase and those practicalities. I have travel resources and volunteer resources when you’re ready for that, but pause first. It’s easy to get bogged down in the details, but the larger picture is very rewarding when you’re able to sit down in the airplane — your bags packed, vaccinations done, details planned — and simply anticipate the new experiences and perspectives you’re about to face.

Shannon O’Donnell has been traveling the world since 2008; she travels slowly and volunteers in small communities along the way. She recently published The Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook, and her travel stories and photography are recorded on her travel blog, A Little Adrift.
 

The post How to Ethically Volunteer Anywhere in the World appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Last month, I took my first cruise as an adult (previous cruises had been with my parents) and found it to be a very culturally eye-opening experience.

I broke completely out of my norm of independent travel and stepped curiously into mass consumer travel. Instead of hostels, figuring out local buses, and street food stalls, it was a lush stateroom, endless buffets, and planned events. Instead of young and independent travelers, it was families celebrating anniversaries, birthdays, and quinceañeras.

And while you may not learn about your destinations on a cruise (more on that in a bit), you learn a lot about people. I discovered that there’s a distinct cruise culture, a culture that makes for incredibly interesting people-watching. Since for a lot of people a cruise is their only form of travel, it was interesting to hear about travel and the world from those who see it through a highly sterilized and commercialized experience.

After all, a cruise is a resort-meets–Disney World on the sea.

Things That Amazed Me

First, there was formal night, a night where you dress up for a “nice dinner.” It was like going to adult prom. Everyone was dressed to the nines — I even saw people in tuxes. Families were taking portraits (including the classic “back-to-back mother/daughter shot”), and teenage girls celebrating their quinceañeras ran around in prom dresses and tiaras. I remember overhearing one guy say that formal night on a cruise is the only time of the year he dresses up. But what really interested me was that for so many people, this seemed like a big event despite the overrated cheese factor. I can’t really figure out why people loved it so much. It’s just a formal night on a cruise. You get lobster instead of steak, and it’s not like those pictures they take are free.

I felt that people made a big deal of the night because you were supposed to make a big deal of it.

Secondly, I was amazed that cruises were such family events. My cruise buddy Jason, a more experienced cruiser than I, told me that there are actually only a few boats for singles or young people. Most ships tend to be populated by families or older adults. Thinking about all my cruise experiences, I can see that. What I really found interesting was the nature of families here: tons and tons of large, extended families. Our stateroom was surrounded by a family that took up seven rooms. At dinner, one family took up three large tables. Everywhere I looked, I saw large families. Cruises, it seems, are where families go to travel. I guess it’s the new family reunion.

Because cruises for that many people cost a lot of money, it made me wonder: Do people know they could head to Paris for far less? Do they even care? Or do they cruise because it’s an easy, organized way to get everyone in one spot?

For most of the people I spoke with, a cruise was just a simpler and easier way to organize a large family gathering than a massive trip to Paris.

And in talking to people, what I really learned was that travel and vacation were synonymous words for them. This was their vacation, but in their mind, this was also traveling. Forget the fact they never left “the resort” — to most people on a cruise, this was travel.

And I think that’s unfortunate. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a vacation, but to think that heading to a mass consumer destination is the same thing as travel is not a good thing. Just like heading to Vang Vieng and saying “I’ve been to Laos” isn’t really true, so is heading to a cruise port or an all-inclusive resort. It sterilizes the destination and hides the local culture. You aren’t really experiencing Mexico when you’re in Señor Frogs, but it was amazing to me how many people expressed the idea that “Mexico is awesome!” while there.

I think there’s a distinct difference between travel and a vacation. The first is about experiencing the world, the latter about relaxing.

The Dark Side of Cruise Culture

On the one hand, I think cruise culture is interesting because it’s always about having fun, keeping a drink in your hand, eating, and meeting new people. It’s a very happy and lively atmosphere. And that’s good.

But there is the dark side to cruise culture: it’s insular. For a lot of people, a cruise is their only chance to get out and see the world. It might be their only chance to experience other cultures, especially since most Americans don’t travel a lot. And what I didn’t like about the cruise was that it was so inwardly focused, with everything designed around never looking outside the ship. I disliked how there was no emphasis on learning about the destinations we were going to.

In Haiti, when I started asking my Haitian tour guide in Labadee (Royal Caribbean’s private resort, where a double-walled, barbed-wire fence keeps people out and us in) about life beyond the wall, he became visibly uncomfortable about discussing it, as if it was taboo to discuss “things that happen over there.”

Now, we don’t need to have a discussion on Haitian, Mexican, or Jamaican politics (the three ports of call on my cruise), but I don’t see why cruises couldn’t at least offer some basic information about their ports of call. There was nothing in our daily itinerary planner about our destinations. (Jason confirmed that this happened on many other ships too.)

In a way, I felt like the ports of call were completely irrelevant. If there’s no effort to inform travelers about their destinations, why not just park the boat somewhere close to a beach and stay there? Why make a show of it?

We Americans don’t travel much. Our news programs don’t seem to report on a lot beyond what Miley Cyrus is doing. I know this is going to seem offensive, and I don’t mean it to be, but cruises have a definite “Middle America” feel to them. (I use that term because “Middle America” is often considered synonymous with bland, cookie-cutter consumerism.) Cruises are a highly commercialized and sanitized experience; they gloss over the reality of each destination to create a bubbly, you-don’t-need-to-think-about-it picture. That’s something I really hate about American culture. It’s often very insular, and this seemed to perpetuate that attitude.

I met people who had never traveled beyond a cruise. Folks who went on cruises two or three times per year. And while there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a cruise, what I learned on the ship is that cruises cater to a superficial, turn-off-your-mind form of travel. (Writing this post made me realize that I saw the exact same thing on my old Carnival cruises, so I’m not trying to single out Royal Caribbean.)

I’m happy people are leaving their houses. That’s a step in the right direction. I’d rather have someone on a cruise than at home. But while we all need a vacation, cruise companies could at least provide some fundamental knowledge about the ports of call they stop at. Shit, print out the Wikipedia page for heaven’s sake. Anything is better than nothing.

Instead, I felt that many of the folks on cruise ships knew little about the world outside the US, and cruises were more than happy to oblige them and support that attitude. Note: Not all cruises are like this. There are many wildlife and nature cruises that have naturalists and lectures on them.

A lot of people write off cruises because of the sanitized, Disney feel to them, and I definitely picked up on the carefree vibe. I’ll definitely go on a cruise again because I enjoyed tuning out. For once, I enjoyed not traveling. (And in that vein, all-inclusive resorts are probably in my future, too.) There’s nothing wrong with wanting to sit by the pool with a drink in your hand. That’s all I wanted.

But, for that family, whose only experience out of the country is this one cruise? There should at least be the option to learn more about the local culture so that family can walk away with some knowledge of the local area beyond that it has zip-line tours, some ruins, and cheap drinks.

Then again, maybe I’m assuming that people care and want to learn more about their ports of call rather than drown their brains in frozen piña coladas.

They might not, which might be why cruise ships don’t provide anything beyond mindless entertainment.

But that thought depresses me too much.

I’d rather think there’s still hope.
 

How to Travel the World on $75 a Day

My New York Times best-selling book to travel will teach you how to master the art of travel so that you’ll get off save money, always find deals, and have a deeper travel experience. It’s your A to Z planning guide that the BBC called the “bible for budget travelers.”

Click here to learn more and start reading it today!

The post Cruise Culture: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Tourism appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.