The Growing Importance of Eco-Travel
THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF ECO-TRAVEL
WITH GROWING PRESSURE ON EARTH’S RESOURCES, ECO-TRAVEL IS MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER, AND ITS IMPORTANCE IS ONLY INCREASING.
The world today presents a unique mix of increased means of self-expression and eco-friendly awareness.These social and environmental trends have led global travellers to take greater ownership of both the makeup and impact of their travel habits. According to the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST), “96 % of Condé Nast Traveller readers think hotels and resorts should be responsible for protecting the environment they operate in, with 74.5 % saying a hotel’s environmental policies influence their decision to stay there.”
The impetus is therefore no longer left with travel agents to cookie-cut holiday experiences for travellers. Our globalized world provides us with so many opportunities to express ourselves through our online personas, and as a result people are looking to express their opinions and passions through all aspects of their lives, including their global travels. Ker & Downey Africa, an adventure travel company that focuses on providing experiential travel experiences for guests from around the world, have responded to this desire by taking on an incredibly hands-on approach to planning trips for their clients.
Ker & Downey Africa’s CEO, Lee Kelsall, comments: “Travel experiences have become yet another extension of people’s self-expression.They care about the impact of their travels, they want to connect with the destinations they visit, and they know that their footprint is a small and positive one.We aid travellers
in achieving the positive impact they’re after through developing tailor-made, experiential adventures for our guests – experiences that allow them to both impact positively on the wildlife and communities that they visit, as well as allow these elements to impact their lives positively.”
Examples of these travel experiences include mobile camping safaris, a travel concept which allows you to trek on foot through wild areas with a team of rangers. Not only does this reduce carbon emissions as a result of eliminating the need for a safari vehicle, but the mobile campsites which are set up every evening are solar-powered. As a result, these travellers do not leave any impact on the area travelled through. Other examples include mokoro and horseback safaris through the Okavango Delta, and opting to walk long routes such as the Otter Trail in South Africa, as opposed to using carbon-emitting modes of transport.
Fur ther up the supply chain, lodges are responding to the ecotravel call by creating eco-friendly infrastructure – something that requires major capital investment which would not be embarked upon if the demand in the market weren’t there. Some of Ker & Downey Africa’s most popular trips include incredible ecofriendly accommodations such as the Highlands, an eco-lodge in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania that operates solely on solar power and wood burning stoves; wooden huts at the summit of the Nyiragongo volcano in the Congo; and electric safari vehicles and boats at Chobe Game Lodge that have saved a combined 38,045 kg of CO² emissions.
Travel companies and accommodation providers in the world’s top travel destinations have long since promoted their eco-friendly stance, but the growing importance of eco-travel, and the increasing demand for treading lightly means that these intentions now have to be backed up by real long-term investments into eco-friendly infrastructure.