Our Travel Tips…
Tips for Arriving at your Destination
So you’ve just arrived at your destination - you have unpacked, had a swim, planned that hike over your first meal. What’s next? You want to visit the nearby village and learn a little more about how the locals live their day-to-day lives. If this is the blueprint for your ideal holiday, then we are ecstatic! You sound just like the kind of holidaymaker that Travel Matters loves! Whether this is your first, second or third time investigating a fascinating & new culture, please have a glance at some of our own personal experiences of how we think Responsible and like-minded travellers should interact with locals -
Haggle with Humour
Try to keep your money in the local economy; eat in local restaurants, drink local beer or fruit juice rather than imported brands and pay a fair price when you’re buying souvenirs and handicrafts. Bargaining can be great fun, so haggle with humour – but remember that if you bargain too hard, sheer poverty might make a craftsman accept a poor price just so that he can feed his family that day. Pay what something is worth to you.
No Time to Waste
We highly recommend the use of materials such as reusable filtered water bottles, bamboo cutlery sets or reusable coffee cups. Waste disposal methods are often very basic, so think about what happens to your rubbish. In the case of not having the opportunity to take reusable products with you, please use biodegradable products, recycle as much as possible and use as little packaging as you can.
Discarded plastic bottles can ruin a landscape – worth thinking about when you buy bottled water. Tap water is often assumed to be of poor quality even when it is fine to drink. If you are unsure, use water purification tablets.
Respect the Locals’ Work
Whilst your visit may provide some economic benefits to local people, it can also use up scarce resources. For example, water is in short supply in many tourist destinations and hotels put a huge strain on an already limited resource.
Alarmingly, one tourist can use as much water in one day as a village would use to produce rice for 100 days!
Even the most eco-friendly hotels may be using local people’s water supplies so do please ask your hotel manager about their policy on water use. And do your bit by using as little as possible. The places you visit on holiday are often the ones most threatened by climate change. Don’t forget your good habits just because you are on holiday – remember to turn off lights and fans when you leave your room and don’t leave the television on standby.
Keep Children Smiling
It is best to never give anything directly to children, not even sweets – a child who is begging may think there is no need to go to school. There are plenty of ways to help that will have a much more positive impact. You could donate to a local school, hospital or orphanage for example.
Get in touch if you’d like some recommendations on this topic.
Travel Matters Responsible Travel Tips
Promote and facilitate the reduction, reuse and recycling of materials.
Reduce your energy consumption.
Question the water quality, including the efficient treatment of sewage, which avoids discharge into marine and river environments.
Reduce and manage your litter.
Create your own adventure by getting out and about via public transport, bicycles and walking. These environmentally friendly ways of exploring really help you get closer to the country you have come to visit and its very essence.
Respect the local culture and traditions. Please ensure your dress and behaviour is appropriate for the place you visit. If you’re unsure, you can talk to local people, ask your travel representative or host at your accommodation or even have a quick search online.
Giving to children can encourage begging. A donation to a project, health centre or school might be more constructive.
Please don’t buy products from endangered plants or wild animals, including hardwoods, corals, shells, ivory, fur, feathers, skins, horns, teeth, reptiles and turtles.
Please don’t have your photograph taken with any wild animals (such as lion and tiger cubs, chimpanzees, bears, snakes or exotic birds). These animals are taken from the wild when they are very young, often mistreated and disposed of when they get too large or difficult to handle.
Work with local partners in long – term relationships ensuring local people benefit economically and socially from your visit.
Ensure that guides and others involved are paid a fair wage.
Try to make Fairtrade local purchases when possible.
Build links with locally based tourism projects.
All this information, and more, can be found on our downloadable ‘Responsible Global Tourist’s Guide’.
If you ever have any questions about how to be a more Responsible Traveller, or would simply like to pass on some of your wisdom, we would love to hear from you!