With Christmas come and gone and the new year under way, now is the time that many people start thinking about their holidays and travel plans for the coming year, even writing a wish list of things they’d like to do and places they’d love to visit. Perhaps you have written one yourself. But even if the list is in your head rather than actually written down, have you asked yourself how eco-friendly and responsible the things on your list are?
With the help of ResponsibleTravel.com, a pioneer of responsible tourism, combined with my own experiences, I’ve drawn up a list of a few must-do favourites that you might want to rethink.
Rethink your bucket list and travel more responsibly
1. Don’t volunteer or even visit an orphanage
I’ve written about orphanage tourism before and thankfully awareness on this issue is rising but there is still a long way to go. Orphanage businesses are particularly notorious in Cambodia and Nepal where many of the children aren’t even orphans. In fact their families may well have handed over their children having heard false promises that they will be given a better life and an education. Meanwhile well-meaning tourists pay large sums to volunteer in these so-called orphanages. These vulnerable children are encouraged to form bounds with their volunteer carers, who time and time again up and leave after just a few short weeks.
There are still plenty of ways you can volunteer overseas responsibly. One of the best volunteer organisations, in my opinion is the award-winning people and places. They work hard to match the right volunteer to the right project making sure that the volunteer has every opportunity to make a lasting positive impact, benefiting both the volunteer and, most importantly, the local community. The application process to get this right takes considerable time but it is time well spent.
If you are, however, still keen to work with orphans, why not look into helping out at an orangutan orphanage?
2. Don’t visit captive dolphins or orcas
I am ashamed to say that I once (and not that long ago) swam with captive dolphins. You can read more about my experience in my post Why I regret swimming with dolphins. I’ve been an active campaigner against keeping dolphins and orcas in captivity ever since. More recently I watched the documentary Blackfish* which gives an extremely intersting behind the scenes look at events leading up to the tragic death of a keeper working with orcas.
From how these wild animals are captured, to how they are trained and looked after in captivity is an outrage to me and to many others. Slowly people are turning away from this form of entertainment, however, this doesn’t mean you have to cross seeing these beautiful creatures from your bucket list entirely.
As ResponsibleTravel.com suggest “Say NO to the circus and go and see these incredible creatures in the wild – watch them from a boat, learn from local experts and maybe even join them for a swim. Some tours even get you monitoring behaviour as you go – meaning you are contributing directly to research and conservation.”
For more information visit their dolphin watching and swimming guide.
There is, however, some debate about whether people should try to swim with wild dolphins or even to simply observe them from a boat and you can read some of the arguments against this here Blue-World.org. Thanks to John Williams for this link.
Landbased dolphin watching is possible with the Scottish Dolphin Centre and Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre. I’ll be looking into further options over the coming months.
above image of snorkelling with dolphins in the Azores, courtesy of ResponaibleTravel.com
3. Don’t ride an elephant
When I visited India, many years ago now, twice I had the opportunity to ride an elephant and I leapt at the chance without giving it a second thought. One ride was on the way up to a palace in Jaipur and the other was in an animal sanctuary. Yet I now realise that many animal sanctuaries aren’t always what they seem. The animals in their care may not have been rescued at all, instead they may well have been taken from the wild so that the ‘sanctuary’ has a ready supply of animals to attract the tourists. Asian elephants are an endangered species and as ResponsibleTravel.com point out “The more elephants that are taken from their natural habitat to supply temples, sanctuaries and camps, the smaller their chances of survival. These days, no animal lover would dream of purchasing ivory – yet riding an elephant while on holiday could ultimately have the same impact on elephant populations.”
Of course many sanctuaries are truly there for the benefit of the animals and not the tourist but going to see elephants in the wild can also have many benefits, including contributing to the conservation of their habitat. For more information about how to have an eco-friendly elephant encounter check out ResponsibleTravel.com’s guide to elephant holidays.
above image courtesy of ResponsibleTravel.com
4. Don’t visit the Tiger Temple
When my fellow bloggers, Agness and Cez from eTramping, visited the Tiger Temple at Kanchanaburi I was amazed by the photograph of Agness with a tiger’s head on her lap and Cez crouching behind the tiger stroking it.
However, many years ago, before I went to university to study Zoology, I volunteered in a zoo that had a tiger. The conditions weren’t good but the keepers did the best they could to look after all the animals and tried to raise funds to improve things in whatever small way they could. While I was allowed to go in with the smaller Lynx cats, I certainly wasn’t allowed in with the tiger, which I’m sorry to say was kept in a pen far to small for it and with little stimulation.
Agness and Cez’s photographs of the cats in the Tiger Temple reminded me of the poor tiger in the zoo I had once worked in. Alarm bells rang, so I wasn’t surprised when Agness and Cez posted a second article about their tiger experience. They explained how they had since learnt that, among other things, the tigers were kept in poor conditions and drugged before they were brought out for the tourists to pet them. I admired the way Agness and Cez dealt with the situation they had unwittingly stumbled into and I am sure their posts about it have helped raise awareness. Read about their experience at Tiger Temple and what they later discovered, Tiger Temple, The Truth Behind the Mask.
If you are thinking of visiting the Tiger Temple, please think again.
ResponsibleTravel.com have a great tiger safari guide with some bucket-list worthy tiger experiences which promote the protection of wild tigers and their habitats.
5. Don’t walk with lions
Now this is one that featured high on my bucket list for a long time but was scrubbed off as I became more aware of how many animal-encounter, tourist attractions operate and came to a conclusion that I should have come to long ago, that wild animals should remain just that, wild.
Firstly, and there’s a recurring theme here, in some sanctuaries the animals were not brought there for their own benefit. Rather they are there solely to attract tourists, whether they were bred in captivity or captured from the wild. Secondly, any such animals are unlikely to be safely returned to the wild after being habituated to humans.
However, in the case of lions, there is another twist to the tale that up until recently I was still unaware of.
ResponsibleTravel.com say that once such cubs have grown teeth and claws and are too large to walk with the tourists “one option is to sell them on to ‘canned hunting’ reserves – where hunters pay big bucks to shoot adult lions in enclosures. It’s a dirty secret that the industry is keen to keep from tourists…”
If you want to walk with animals in the wild and contribute to their conservation, a walking safari is the way to go – the thrill of encountering wild rhinos, elephants and lions on foot more than makes up for not being able to hug or ride them.
And for more ideas about responsible wildlife encounters read Swimming with Dolphins, Tracking Gorillas: How to have the world’s best wildlife encounters.*
6. Think long and hard before hiking to Everest Base Camp
I first read about the congestion on Everest and the damage being caused by so many people both climbing the mountain or simply visiting the base camp on the blog of Harold Godwin, a leading expert in Responsible Tourism. Some of the things I have read over the last couple of years on the subject are truly shocking, however, the locals in Nepal rely on the income tourism brings so simply staying away isn’t the answer. Responsible tourism in the region does seem the best bet for helping locals help themselves out of poverty.
above image of the trek to Everest Base Camp courtesy of Laurel Robbins
ResponsibleTravel.com have a great guide to trekking in Nepal.
Travel blogger, Laurel Robbins’ has written some fascinating posts about her experience of trekking to Everest Base Camp last year, which she undertook just days after the Everest tragedy, in which 16 Sherpa guides were killed. Tragically disaster struck again just a few months ago when many tourists as well as Sherpas lost their lives or were injured in the Nepal snow storms.
If trekking in Nepal is something you are considering, please research it thoroughly and think long and hard about whether this is the right choice for you.
7. Visit but don’t climb Ayers Rock
Uluru, or Ayers Rock as it is commonly known, is a deeply sacred place to the indigenous people, the Anangu. By climbing the rock you are crossing spiritual “dreamlines” and trampling over a holy shrine. The Anangu watch on powerless to stop this as a condition of them being given the title to their ancestral land was that they would still allow tourists to climb the rock.
However, visitors have a choice; instead of climbing the rock, walk around it and talk to the Anangu who are happy to tell visitors about their culture and the significance of Uluru. Zoë Dawes, The Quirky Traveller, has written a lovely post about her experience.
above image courtesy of Zoë Dawes
“The sky morphed through a pastel palette of colour. All thoughts seemed to disappear as I sat and watched it become more clearly defined and – simply breathtaking. It’s really impossible to put into words what I felt during the time it took for the sun to rise fully and the Rock to be clearly visible in its reddish glory … but whatever it was, I suspect many others felt the same as hardly anyone said a word for a very long while.” Zoë Dawes
Read more about Zoë’s experience in her post, Sunrise at Uluru leaves me speechless.
Make a New Year’s resolution to travel more responsibly
January is now well underway but it’s not too late to make a New Year’s Resolution. Sustainable Tourism, Carbon Footprint, Responsible Travel were phrases I had never heard of when I started travelling some thirty years ago.
It is sad that we have to question people’s motives behind running an animal sanctuary or an orphanage or question whether tourism workers are paid a fair wage or are even putting their lives at risk but these are the facts of tourism today. Tourists, travellers, the tourism industry and governments – we can all do better, much, much better.
My New Year’s Resolution is not only to travel more responsibly but to learn more about sustainable / responsible tourism. Follow my blog and learn along with me or leave a comment and join the debate.
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ResponsibleTravel.com are the world’s leading online travel agent for responsible holidays and a pioneer of responsible tourism.
* This post contains two affiliate links, so if you buy a book or DVD through one of these links, I will make a few pennies to go towards another book or DVD to review.
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Wow. That is one of the best and most committed posts that I’ve seen on responsible tourism.
Thanks for sharing, Kathryn
Thank you for this insightful article – I hope it raises awareness and helps people make better choices!
Stumbled upon this article by chance. Simply great suggestion. Never thought of these things before, will definitely try to follow. Thanks for sharing
That’s really great to hear Jack. Thanks for reading it and I hope you’ll help spread the word too.
Great post, thanks!
I must admit I went walking with lions in Zimbabwe (Gweru).
At first we were thrilled, even though we were shocked by their volunteering policy (there were about 30 young volunteers paying big bucks to stay there a few weeks and do… well, they did not exactly what).
We only much later understood that those beautiful “cats” would never be released and most likely sent to a place for hunting… Some sick people pay 50k USD to shot a lion, but please, it would be easier if the lion doesn’t run away to far…
Yes, I agree with all points on your list. About volunteering, I would add to double-check the organization that organizes volunteering. It has turn into a major industry using the nativity out of young people to get a lot of money…
Cheers, Gilles
Great post and great info. I hope a lot of people get to read this post! I will be sharing!
Thanks Sally, appreciate your support.
What a great article! Hopefully it will raise peoples awareness of the issues.
Ever since I was a little kid, I dreamt of swimming with dolphins – wild, not captive. However, after a lot of reading, I’ve found that it is something I’ll never do. I still hope to go dolphin watching one day, but will be doing a lot of research beforehand to ensure that it has a minimal impact on the dolphins and the environment.
We also really struggled with the elephant riding and Tiger Temple issue. I really hope, one day, tourists will put animal welfare before the desire to have a selfie taken with an endangered animal.
It’s so great to see a post like this encouraging people to travel responsible.
So many people want to get that “special” photo of them riding an elephant or them posing with tigers but don’t really do the behind the scenes research.
Thank you for posting.
I can understand the temptation as I’ve been there myself, but of course, thats no excuse.
A thoughtful and insightful post Kat. It can be difficult to find out whether a ‘sanctuary’ is genuine or not but I guess it’s difficult to police. The more we read about this sort of thing though will surely make us all think twice before signing up for encounters of this type – and, sadly, I’ve been guilty myself in the past…
I think we all have but as you say the more aware we are the better. It is a shame that we have even to question people’s intent behind running a ssanctuary or orphanage but that is exactly what we should do every time we come across one and if at all possible investigate before we visit.
I wholeheartedly agree with everything you say, Kathryn. We now have the knowledge of what really happens and what the impact is, if we do ANY of the above. It is now our responsibility as travellers to stop these for major sustainability reasons and to keep things as natural as possible. I.e Ensure our footprint is left as little as possible.
I went to the Tiger Temple as part of a trip and was so sick to the stomach by the end of it. It was an absolute farce and it put me in such a bad mood. Other tourists were smiling and were using those animals for their entertainment.
Thanks for sharing this Clare. I’ve made a good few mistakes in my time but raising awareness is key.
I think it’s really important to be aware when you travel and to do things that feel right with your morality. When I went to Bali for the first time (about 2 months ago) I went with a tourist boat to watch dolphins. My first thought was “Omg, what am I doing here?”. Around me there were maybe 50 other boats, full of people with cameras and iPhones, trying to take the best shot. Shame on me, after a few minutes of hesitating I joined them and thought that the dolphins maybe even like it. Now I think I wouldn’t go there. Enjoy the nature, enjoy people around you, enjoy the animals as well, but don’t disturb them.
That does indeed sound like very irresponsible dolphin watching to say the very least. I’m sure there are some much more responsible companies offering whale and dolphin watching but I guess the only way to be sure you aren’t disturbing them is to watch them from dry land. I’ll add an update with some links to where this is possible.
A great list Kathryn and a timely reminder. We have always been wary of combining travel with volunteering, and we steered clear of cuddling Pandas in Chengdu or feeding tigers in Thailand. I was unaware of the congestion in Everest Base camp though.
Thanks Madhu. I’m sure there are many more examples that some, if not most, of us are still unaware of.
Fantastic article that I’m happy to share on my social media! I think everyone should think about these things before they travel, especially when it comes to animals in tourism.
Thank you so much Lauren (and sorry for the late reply).
Great article! I was really disappointed when I first learned about the Tiger Temple and riding elephants was a horrible tourist practice, thankfully there are always other alternatives. I’m happy to say I’ll be visiting Elephant Nature Park instead.
I have a quick question about the Nepal trekking. I was approached by a Nepalese trekking company to do a trek with them this year, and it seems like a great organization with treks all over Nepal. It was started by a local man who used to be a trekking guide. I understand the major problems with actually attempting to summit Everest, and I’ve read articles on that. But I was wondering what the issue is with less demanding treks such as Everest Base Camp and other mountains in Nepal?
Keeping in mind that I’m no expert and I’ve never been to Nepal, as I understand it there’s been a big increase in numbers going to base camp (and I can certainly see the attraction) and they are leaving huge amounts of rubbish behind. Also while the Sherpas are paid way more than the average wage in Nepal they only see a very small fraction of the huge amounts of money tourists are paying to go there. They are often asked to carry way more than they should be – if they hurt their backs or get frostbite, they can’t work and that is the end of their family’s income. There are lots of health and safety issues for both the tourists and Sherpas. Please do read the articles I’ve linked to. I’m not saying don’t go but please do your homework first. Assuming you do go, as a blogger yourself, you can help raise awareness of the issues involved. I really do hope you have a fabulous time and I’d love to hear about it when you get back.
Very thought provoking. Whilst I was aware of nearly all of these issues, I had not considering hiking in Nepal to be an issue although now thinking about it I can see how this is the case. The more I read the more I realise that reaching base camp has, for some become quite a ‘fashion’ statement in recent years which is no doubt going to cause issues.
Yes, I think you might be right there, although I can see the appeal of trekking to base camp now that it is more accesible – it doesn’t surprise me that so many people want to go.
Amazing post, Kate. It’s great to be a responsible traveler! Amazing tips!
Thanks for your contribution Agness. I can see why people are drawn to the Tiger Temple, I would have been if I didn’t know what I know now.
Excellent post Kathryn, very informative and enlightening!
I LOVE this post, will be sharing and linking to it. It’s so important that we travel responsibly, and spread the word. There are still so many ways to experience amazing things without exploiting people, wildlife or nature. I spent time at Boon Lott’s Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand and my experience was even better than riding an elephant (I imagine at least). 🙂
Thanks Katie. I’ve just been reading your Guide to Ethical Travel – great post with some really useful and insightful links. For anyone interested check it out here http://www.fromshorestoskylines.com/ethical-travel-guide/
Not all animal welfare organisations advocate swimming with dolphins even in the wild. The Blue World Institute, a dolphin conservation organisation based on the Croatian island of Losinj advises against swimming with dolphins: http://www.blue-world.org/en/conservation/not_to_swim_with_dolphins/
Thanks for the link John. ResposibleTravel.com’s guide covers many, but not all, of these points. I think having both sides of the argument gives people the chance to make a more informed decision so, if I may, I’ll add this link into the article.
Excellent article with lots of personal insights – certainly made me think. Thanks for including piece on not climbing Uluru. Responsible travel is not difficult and makes us all feel a bit better about helping this beleaguered planet of ours 🙂
Glad you found it interesting but while there are many responsible tourism policies that are easy to follow, I actually think that sometimes it is all too easy for people to do the wrong thing without realising it. Raising awareness among the general public is still sorely needed.
I remember reading your posts about orphanage visits in the past and finding it so insightful – some great tips here about travelling responsibly.
That’s good to know Shikha, thanks for reading it.
Well it looks like you have covered the gamut of being responsible when it comes to wildlife and sacred grounds, very thoughtful reasoning to those planning on doing these exact tours for 2015
Thanks Noel. There’s plenty more I could have included but these were the ones that resonated with me.