Eco-Friendly Travel Methods – Some Tips and Ideas to Promote Green Tourism
Current concerns about global warming have changed the way many of us live our day-to-day lives. To sustain the state of survival over the globe, many have also decided to travel ‘green’! Eco-friendly travel has become a norm for some; an opportunity to contribute to the effort towards reducing pollution and global warming. Promoting green tourism is helpful to fellow mankind and can also be quite self-gratifying.
No need to get nervous. Going green doesn’t mean you’ll have to plant trees along your travels, nor does it mean you have to spend more money on eco-friendly products. People typically vacation to avoid stress, so the idea is to do your part with minimal effort. Eco-friendly traveling methods do not consist of a great amount of labor or self-sacrifice; you can make your mark while chilling on the beach, if that’s where your travels take you.
Generally, Green tourism means to travel and protect the environment and the culture of the places you visit. It begins from the time you leave your home and continues until you return back.
There are many ways to stay green while traveling, but you may wish you try some of these simple tips and ideas:
- Before leaving, switch off and unplug all of the appliances you use in your home
- Divert your newspaper service to donate to a local school or hospital, if they don’t allow you to temporarily pause service
- Shut off your home’s water connection
- Opt for e-tickets for airline flights
- Some may choose a nearby destination to save fuel
- Opt for a hybrid rental car (if your not just ‘hoofing’ it with a backpack!)
- Some destinations now boast their environmentally sound accommodations, ‘green hotels’ or ‘ecolodges’. (These hotels and lodges are specially retrofitted and setup to save electricity, water, and provide great comfort while preserving their surroundings)
- Avoid excessive laundry
- Use recyclable utensils
- Avoid use of disposable materials
- Use water according to your actual needs (shorter showers, etc)
- Use public transportation or, if possible, walk. This also allows for more unique and up-close experiences in a new culture
- Avoid useless gadgets that require electricity
- Respect local native culture and wildlife
- Avoid smoking and other environmental polluting activities
- Use local food and shop locally to reduce the taxation and other expenses
Just be sure to have fun!!
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Thanks for the article! Admittedly, I haven’t made a huge effort to be ‘green’ while traveling, but you gave some great (and effortless!) tips that I’ll definitely keep in mind on my next trip. Thanks again, and look forward to more of your travel articles!!
To that interesting article I’d add: try not to generate waste – we run extremely low-impact eco accommodation in Devon, and it’s amazing the variation between guest’s rubbish ad the end of their stay. Some produce almost nothing, others overflow their bins with wasted food, packaging from shopping etc. We recycle what we can – about 75% overall – but it would be better not to produce the waste in the first place!
On a slightly different tack, I know a few “green” travellers who like to take old clothes with them if they are travelling to developing nations. They then distribute these among the locals before coming home which not only ensures that they help the local community and recycle old clothes too, but their cases are considerably lighter on the flight back which saves fuel.
Definitely a very efficient method of traveling abroad (ditch a couple shirts when you buy something near the end of your travels). I dig the idea of leaving behind something of mine to remain in country, as well as helping the local community!