Another kind of tourist
Stahili’s Transparency Officer Saskia Wishart reflects on what it means to be an ethical tourist.
Seven years ago, while I was living in Cape Town, South Africa, I travelled with colleagues to a winery where we had a unique experience. Besides tasting quality wine, we were introduced to a company that pays its workers a fair wage, provides onsite labourers with quality homes, and invests in the education of their employees’ children. Our wine-tasting experience was enhanced by the fact that we knew the money we were spending was being invested back into the lives of individuals in order to improve their quality of life and provide a fair and living wage.
As tourists, we have an important role in the countries we visit by choosing how and where we spend our money. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, travel and tourism supports 292 million jobs globally and generates 10.2% of the world’s GDP. One in 10 jobs in the world are in the tourism industry.
Aside from its economic impact, tourism can also have negative long-term effects – on the environment, on communities, on human well-being – which are more difficult to measure. Tourism has fuelled the rise in harmful practices such as ‘slum tourism’ and ‘voluntourism’ which are questionable for their harmful impact on local communities and their reinforcement of simplistic approaches to complex development issues. Not to mention that many children are trafficked to orphanages to attract the support of foreign volunteers.
What does sustainable travel and tourism mean?
The UNWTO defines sustainable tourism as ‘tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industries, the environment and host communities.’ Ethical tourism advocates for consumers and industry alike to avoid participation in activities that contribute to, or support, negative impacts on the communities we seek to help.
In other words, an ethical tourist considers the impact that their trip has on the people and places they visit and refrains from engaging in harmful activities such as orphanage volunteering.
The United Nations has designated 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism and Development and as tourist season is peaking this time of the year, Stahili has put together the following practical tips to help you become a more ethical tourist.
Tip 1: Consider your travel values. Before you go, take a moment to consider the values that matter to you and plan your trip with these values at the forefront of your plans. For example, if you care about vulnerable children impacted by poverty, do not give to or visit locations which use poverty or vulnerable children as tourist attractions.
The little things we do while travelling matter. For instance, we should always respect the cultures we encounter, pick up our own garbage wherever we go, and use ethical travel and tourism companies.
Tip 2: Do the research. In order to stick to your values, you will need to research the places you are going to and the companies you will be relying on. For example, if a large hotel chain has had allegations of exploitative labour in the past, consider booking a locally-run, eco-friendly hostel or bed-and-breakfast instead.
Tip 3: Buy fairly produced and locally sourced goods. Supporting local artisans and businesses helps to boost the economic benefits of tourism at an individual level. Buying in-season local fruits and vegetables prevents the need to ship in foreign-grown food to feed picky tourists. Support local businesses or social enterprises that have a fair wage certification or some other way of demonstrating how their company is positively impacting its workers and the community.
Tip 4: Support arts and culture. Instead of taking a slum tour or visiting an orphanage, why not learn about the culture of the place you are visiting? Check out museums and other places dedicated to the preservation of history and local art, music, and literature, and don’t miss out on local festivals and events. Be sure to respect signs that ask you not to touch items, to take pictures, or to walk on protected ground. Respect the religious and cultural practices of the places you visit.
Tip 5: Become a committed volunteer in your home community. Yes, you might really, really want to volunteer for an organisation helping street kids, or that one orphanage you are *certain* is not engaged in trafficking children. However, short-term, unskilled volunteering rarely does any good on a local level, can be damaging on a large-scale development level, and most often ends up being about the experiences of the tourist-traveller instead of the beneficiary.
This may be the moment when you need to come back to your personal values. How can you do the most amount of good and stay true to the things that matter most to you? My number one recommendation is to find an organisation operating locally that is having a measurable positive impact and make a donation. Once you get back to your home country, put all those amazing volunteer skills to work by committing yourself locally to a cause you care about.