TRAVEL MASSIVE: Learning with the community
When I was approached by Susana Zarzosa to speak at the Travel Massive event in Madrid, I thought to myself: “Absolutely not. I am just a student! What do I have to say that tourism professionals could possibly benefit from?” But then she told me that all I needed to do was to introduce Slovakia and talk about my country and not to give a professional presentation about sustainable tourism. That seemed a way more manageable task and so I said yes.
Being courageous really paid off. I held a presentation about Slovakia and then I added just one slide to talk about the topic I am so passionate about: sustainable tourism. I thought we were going to go through it fairly quickly (after all, 15 minutes does not give much time) and then move on to networking. However, the reality was so different. I opened the question of what sustainable tourism meant to all present and the discussion started.
Ecology. Carbon footprint. Waste. The ideas were plentiful, although as I expected, majority mentioned were related to the environment. However, sustainable tourism is SO MUCH MORE than just the environment. It’s a concept built upon three main pillars: economy, socio-cultural life, environment. What does that mean?
First pillar of sustainable tourism: economy
The economic pillar refers to money from tourism supporting local economy. This is such an essential aspect of sustainable tourism as so many countries choose to pursue tourism to aid their economy and yet… not as much money stays local as we might think. I was so shocked when coming across this article written last year where the author quotes the statistic that only 5% of tourism money stays in the economy of developing countries. Yes, you got that right. For every 100 dollars you spend on traveling, only 5 dollars goes to the people who live and work in the destination visited. What's even worse, some countries are literally exploited by tourism. As the Travel Foundation points out, due to errors in the way we account for tourism, some countries believe that they benefit from the industry while having to PAY TO HAVE TOURISTS. They give an example of Thailand that has to pay 1 dollar per each incoming tourist. This act is referred to as "leakage" and it means that the cost of tourism outweighs the benefits for the local population.
The data is shocking and if you’re anything like me, you might think to yourself – alright, does that mean it’s time to stop traveling? Not quite - afterall, tourism is an important pillar of many economies; we just have to rethink the way we do it.
So, what can we do to make sure our money stays local? When I asked that question, the most dominant answer was to involve the government. That’s definitely the most effective solution based on my research. The government is an incredible tool for managing tourism effectively and beneficially for the local society. The most successful destinations in the world have the strictest regulation. For example, the Lonely Planet published a list of countries best countries to visit in 2020 and the very first is Bhutan; a country notoriously known for its strict tourism policies. The list also features destinations like Costa Rica and the Netherlands which strongly regulate the operations of tourism in their countries. Tourism regulation creates a higher quality of tourism. Money can be reinvested into maintainance of monuments, education of locals, protection of natural reserves, etc. making the destination better overall and thus also more attractive for conscious tourists.
Unfortunately, not all destinations are ready and/or willing to get involved in tourism. In fact, I dare to claim that majority of the destinations in the world do not want to get involved with strict tourism regulation for several reasons. They might think it’s not necessary, the leaders might personally benefit of that tourist money, they might have other priorities, etc. Therefore, if we travel to countries with poor tourism regulation and where tourism money does not benefit locals directly, it is our responsibility to make sure the money stays local.
It starts with easy actions like staying at a local-owned official tourism accommodation. By that, I don’t mean Airbnb or Couchsurfing as if you want to leave a positive impact, this won’t do. The problem with using resident’s apartment for tourism is that it may lead to a situation like the one experienced by Barcelonians or Venicians in which the locals themselves cannot afford to live there as the tourists who are able and willing to pay a higher price take over. Therefore, do check to make sure the place you're staying at is licensed for tourism and ideally, go to a hostel/hotel/rural house. Eat at local restaurants. Not only does it benefit the locals, however it also assures a better experience than eating in touristic places and chains. Buy locally made handcrafts as souvenirs. This gives job to particularly vulnerable part of the society, that is women (who often work from home) and people with lower education. Donate to a local charity. That is not to say, volunteer at a locally owned charity. In the recent years, there was a big revelation of the fact that volunteerism (that is, volunteer + tourism) is actually in many cases more harmful than beneficial.
Let me know if and how you are going to contribute to the local economy in the comment section below!
Second pillar of sustainable tourism: socio-cultural
Secondly, there is the socio-cultural aspect of tourism. This one spiked a lot of debate at the event as we were trying to find answers to what is actually means. I would say, as a basic definition, that “tourism is to be used as a tool to conserve local culture and traditions and encourage all artistic forms of expressions valued by the locals, however it cannot dictate what parts of the culture are ‘desirable’ and to be conserved.” When explaining this idea, I used an example of flamenco saying that it is a part of culture that is seen as representative of Spain and therefore highly demanded by the tourists when in fact it is a cultural expression originating in only one part of Spain and thus unrepresentative of, for example, Madrid, despite of the fact that it continues to be demanded by visitors. This led to a discussion about flamenco, which we might get into another time.
This flamenco talk brought up an important question; how is it possible to stick to sustainable tourism practices when one lives in a world of big competition and to make money must answer the demands of visitors? It is a key question for tourism professionals. How can we stick to our principles and corporate responsibility while trying to make a living? How can we fight for what we believe in while answering the demands of our clients?
It’s a very complicated concept that does not have just one answer. We could choose to work in a more sustainable industry – however, that won’t solve the problem of tourism. We could also choose to only cater to tourists who adhere to sustainable tourism principles – however, that could get us ruined before we know it. We could give up on sustainability and say that tourism will never be responsible so what's the point of trying? Or, we can choose the path of education. Educate our clients of the fact that their demands do not represent the country they are about to travel to and then give them alternatives to their request and let them decide what they are going to do.
Because, you see, there’s no way you can change people. You can show them a different way of living, get them to question their realities, educate them, but you cannot change them until they are ready to change themselves.
Can you think of a different way that tourism professionals can stay true to their values while making living?
Third pillar of sustainable tourism: environment
Lastly, we had a lengthy discussion about the environmental side of tourism. Everybody present was aware of the issues travel carries and I am sure that vast majority of my readers would be aware of them as well. They are much discussed between both tourism professionals and travelers. Carbon emission from transportation. Waste. Destruction of biodiversity. Where do we even start?
The problem of environmental damage of tourism is so complex that it may seem to be an unsolvable task. Yet broken down, we notice that there are things we can do to continue traveling better.
First and foremost, the problem of carbon emission creeps upon us. Planes took a great deal of blame for a good reason – flying requires a lot of fuel that produces a lot of carbon emission. And yet, the total emissions from transportation are anywhere between 3-8% and planes alone are about 2%. It's a lot but not as much as other industries produce. While it's good and admirable to stop flying for good, unless we implement other measures as well (eg. reducing our meat consumption, using second hand clothes, saying no to new electronic devises we don't need) it does not have as profound of an impact as one may imagine. And let's not forget, it would greatly damage the tourism industry that can have a very positive impact on both destinations and people.
My top tips for flying more sustainably are:
Don't fly unless you have to (in other words, take train and bus whenever possible instead of flying).
Pack less (less weight = less fuel used by the plane).
Choose airlines with higher corporate responsibility.
Looking at reducing carbon emissions from other sources, I absolutely adore Kimmy Costa's approach that she proposed for reducing waste, but works for pretty much anything. That is:
Do your waste/carbon emission/buying/etc. audit in which you record the status-quo. She proposed calculating each type of waste after a week of living “normally” and writing it down.
Consciously improve the status-quo by whatever amount possible. That is, if you use 10 water bottles a week under “normal” circumstances and then reduce them to 7, you have already started successfully.
Keep track of how you’re reducing your waste (or carbon emissions) and do your best!
I love this approach as it’s realistic, takes into account human imperfections, allows for errors, and it’s not overwhelming. It’s works wonders for waste reduction. As it's repeated over and over by sustainability activists, we don't need few people who do sustainability perfectly, but many who do it imperfectly.
Moving on to the last point, we discussed biodiversity destruction. I believe it’s the hardest to combat as ordinary citizens because we have the least influence over it. We can fight for maintaining biodiversity. We can make it a point to donate to charities that maintain them. However, at the end of the day, it is up to the police makers to decide whether or not they will destroy that piece of land to sell it to a developer. The problem is, that unless we are working for the government, we don’t have the power to change the situation (and even then it’s limited), unlike with the other areas discussed. Therefore, the only usable influence is the power of the market and the power of locals.
By the power of market I mean not using the thing that harms rather than help the biodiversity. That is, for example, not staying at the big hotels on the beaches or eating products farmed on a land that used to be a rainforest (hard to know, yes). The problem is, this is so difficult to achieve as while you might never stay at a hotel complex, millions of other, less conscious tourists, will.
The power of locals might be much stronger in some countries and weaker in others. It refers to the power to protest and to raise our voice when we see injustices where we live.
Before finishing, I would like to leave you with an open question that I myself have to ponder upon for a while now. That is, should we increase the price of tourism (eg. of flying or of tour guiding services) to increase the quality of tourism?
Thank you all for coming and for such an inspiring evening! As I said, you left me with many questions in my head for which I am forever grateful! If you would like to join me for more events, you can subscribe to my monthly newsletter and follow me on Facebook and Instagram to not miss any updates. If you are a tourism professional, join Travel Massive to connect with others from your industry. There are many chapters world-wide!
Are you ready to learn about sustainable tourism? Book a discovery call with Nikoleta from Sustain & Impact Tourism!
This article was original published on January 20th, 2020.