Sustainable and Responsible Travel
Filled with wanderlust this summer? The summer months are prime travel time, and can also be your opportunity to travel with a purpose. With responsible travel, have fun and feel good about knowing your travel choices align with your values and ethics! Here’s a look at how to travel responsibly, and why ecotourism is an excellent way to go.
Responsible Travel and Sustainable Tourism
Responsible travel and sustainable tourism are two interrelated ideas that, at their core, are about providing satisfying tourism opportunities that strive to mitigate or eliminate common problems caused by tourism. Responsible and sustainable travel takes a One Health approach in understanding the relationship between human, animal, and environmental interests. It’s concerned with protecting biodiversity and cultural heritage, promoting animal welfare, and addressing the social and economic impacts of tourism.
The UN World Tourism Organization 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 industry, the environment and host communities.” Sustainable tourism is a goal for tourism as a whole. The concept of responsible travel follows many of the same principles; the difference is that it deals with the behavior of the individual traveler. Responsible travel happens at a small scale, while sustainable tourism should happen at a large scale.
What Is Ecotourism?
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) defines ecotourism as tourism that includes the following:
responsible travel to natural areas
conserving the environment
promoting the welfare of local people
These characteristics speak to the benefits of ecotourism. When you participate in ecotourism, you’re promoting conservation—not merely mitigating environmental damage, but working to create benefits. You’re also getting hands-on education in conservation and culture.
Ecotourism also benefits communities economically. Queensland, Australia, for example, generates $54.2 million a day in visitor expenditure, with ecotourism directly and indirectly employing 234,000 Queenslanders.
If you’re interested in ecotourism and benefiting people, animals, and the environment alike when you travel, there are endless options for you! You can travel individually or in a group on eco tours or other conservation-focused programs. Here at International Veterinary Outreach (IVO), we offer programs that promote animal welfare around the world.
About IVO
At IVO, we’re on a mission to create a healthy global community free of animal suffering. We want to improve the lives of people and animals worldwide, and you can help us do it! Donate now to support our conservation efforts and our other animal health programs around the globe! Find out how you can get involved, sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date, and learn more about our decade of positive impact!
