Responsible travel, green certification and the case for a muchbetter model.

Summary:

It has been proved in both theory and reality that, when properly implemented and managed, ecotourism and responsible tourism has the potential to be a force for good in the world. Unfortunately this vision is yet to be realised in more than a handful of places, and is in danger of becoming swallowed up by its own commercial success. With more and more communities turning to tourism as their only hope for a sustainable future, true eco tourism and responsible travel projects now need to take the next step to becoming the mainstream travel choice, rather than becoming lost among green wash and green certification systems. To achieve this they need access to low cost, commercially competitive marketing platforms where they can compete for a larger market share. That is why we and a few others are here and have taken the approach we have.

Main article:

The problems with travel and tourism are widely recognised and well documented. For a summary, see the pros and cons of tourism. Emerging in the 90s in response to the horror stories of mass tourism, eco tourism, sustainable tourism and responsible travel promised much. Small-scale, authentic experiences with minimal environmental impacts and maximum benefit to local communities. Grass roots, community led and socially just, tourism could, in the words of ecoclub.com ‘serve the interests of the many and not the profits of the few’.

The theory of this more sustainable vision for tourism sounded great. In reality too, many examples abound of places where this type of eco tourism has indeed proved itself to be part of the solution. Now the best known of these are recognised as part of the high profile responsible travel awards. Indeed, largely thanks to the work of responsibletravel.com in the UK, institutions like Ecoclub, The International Ecotourism Society, Sustainable Travel International, and campaign charities like the UKs Tourism Concern and the Travel Foundation, responsible travel is now one of the fastest growing sectors of the travel market. We now also know that while the vast majority of travellers do not seek a responsible or green holiday, they would choose the ethical option if all other criteria (price, quality, experience) were equal. This is great news on the surface. However, there-in also lies the major problem with responsible travel as it is now.

So great is the commercial value of responsible travel and ‘greenness’, the principle has been adopted by nearly every travel operator, of every size, shape or interest. Yes, this has led to many positive changes in the industry, and raised consumer concern and awareness to an all time high. The end result however, is an industry that is largely the same as it has always been, albeit with a tinge of green around the edges. The true meaning of responsible travel and eco tourism is fast being lost. It has instead become a tick box to be completed, like ‘mini bar’ or ‘seaside view’.

So what next?

Like the general travel market, the responsible travel market is dominated by big commissions, large advertising budgets and plenty of green wash. We have seen for ourselves that, for every success story in the responsible travel awards, there are many promising conservation and sustainability initiatives from small independent operators, not for profits, community projects and charities that fail due to a lack of resources and access to markets, which are badly needed if they are to compete for the custom they deserve. We are still a long way from truly sustainable, grass roots tourism becoming a mainstream norm, and to make matters worse, the consumer now has no way of differentiating between this, and a large American owned resort in Cancun which has a few solar panels and doesn’t wash your towels.

It is widely agreed that, try as we might, tourism certification just isn’t going to solve that problem. Even if a satisfactory rating criteria can be devised, such as system will only ever be accessible to the larger companies who can afford to risk investing in costly and time consuming auditing processes with unproven commercial returns. This would again exclude the small scale operations that form the beating heart of sustainable tourism.

What is needed is a new breed of travel directories and travel booking engines which are designed to have widespread commercial appeal, even to those holiday makers not actively seeking responsible or green holidays. It is imperative that these mainstream platforms are also committed to the true principles of ecotourism and sustainability, are truly transparent in their approach, and which are accessible even to new operations on the smallest of budgets.

This is the task we have set ourselves. It is a long term project that involves us building up a base of the more established and well known responsible travel practicioners, as a platform from which new initiatives, community projects, not-for-profit and charities can compete for a wider share of the market.

We are not the only ones thinking on these lines. In particular we applaud the efforts of leap local. whl.travel and greentraveller.co.uk. It is not going to be easy for any of us, but thanks to the tireless efforts of many others before us, it should be possible.

We welcome your comments and ideas on this topic.