Travel for tomorrow
Travel, when done right, has the power to transform the world for the better, writes aleney de winter.
As folk flit from snow to sea, glaciers are melting and coral reefs are dying, and while travellers live it up in fancy five-star hotels, the very staff that wait on them are often living in poverty. I love travel as much as the next person – indeed, as the descendent of generations of voyagers, I’d go as far as saying it’s in my DNA. But with children of my own set to inherit the burden of a climatechanged planet, I’ve been faced with a moral conundrum. Is it okay to travel? After much soul searching, the answer is – yes!
It was Mark Twain who famously said, “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrowmindedness”. While this statement holds true, we do need to address the fact that unless we start changing our behaviours, travel may also prove fatal to the very destinations we visit.
Travel brings people together to share different perspectives, create understanding and has the power to transform the world for the better. But that requires us to address how and where we travel, to ensure we are not guilty of placing a strain on the environment, infrastructure, people or the places we visit. It goes beyond simply adopting good practices to reduce the negative effects of travel. So how do families play their part?
From avoiding destinations where overtourism is threatening communities and environmental futures, to supporting destinations with sustainable practices, choosing the right place for your family holiday is a good start to making a difference.
Make it mālama
Hawaii is one destination holistically embracing the need for transformative and sustainable travel, encouraging visitors to have a positive impact through its Mālama Hawai’i program. Mālama means to care, nurture and protect and is an intrinsic Hawaiian value. So, it’s no surprise that Hawaii’s tourism body is fully committed to moving away from a conventional model of tourism to regenerative tourism, reinvesting tourism dollars into community organisations, and taking the destination beyond sustainable with a goal of making it better for generations to come.
“For more than a century, we have taught the world about the value of aloha in hopes that visitors would take it home and share it. At the crossroads the world finds itself at today, mālama is an equally important value to share. If visitors can come and experience how we mālama our home and one another, we hope they will take that value and apply it at home. Mālama Hawai’i is a program to expose our visitors to this value in action” says Ilihia Gionson, public affairs officer, Hawai‘i
Tourism Authority.
The remarkable Mālama program offers opportunities for visitors to work side-by-side with the locals who steward its special places, and in doing so generously share their culture and history. Whether it’s getting muddy in a traditional taro patch, repairing an ancient fishpond, or planting native trees to protect forests for future generations, many of the Mālama Hawai’i opportunities are family-friendly.
“As the proud father of a four-year-old,
I know that children are extremely receptive to what they are exposed to. The attitude of being a productive, contributing guest in a new place is one that will serve our children well into their futures,” adds Ilihia.
Even the national airline is on board. Hawaiian Airlines actively encourages visitors to Travel Pono, which means to explore with care, offering one’s kōkua (help) to preserve precious natural resources, cultures and communities. All passengers on board international flights are introduced to the importance of conservation, as well as cultural best practices, via a five-minute video.
“We are proud to welcome our guests with valuable information that will enrich their experience on the islands while helping protect Hawaii’s natural resources and our way of life,” says Avi Mannis, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Hawaiian Airlines.
Giving back
“Make good choices” is the last message my kids see as they leave our house each day, courtesy of a framed artwork by my 11-yearold daughter, hanging inside our front door. Nowhere does this message seem more relevant than in the travel world.
Travel must be a two-way exchange. By acknowledging our privilege and making travel choices that respect and benefit local people, preserving and protecting their cultures, economies and the environments in which they live, we have an opportunity to leave a destination better than we found it.
For families, supporting responsible tour operators that give back to communities is an easy way to play their part.
“Travel is a privilege and I feel it’s important that our children understand that, even if that concept can be a challenging one,” says Shannon Guihan, The Travel Corporation’s chief sustainability officer and head of the Treadright Foundation
By giving back to people and places at the core of its business, the many travel brands under The Travel Corporation’s umbrella focus on initiatives to help the planet.
“We make sustainable travel options available and assessable through our extensive family of travel brands. We also try to demystify what it means to be conscious, through education and awareness,” says Shannon.
The Make Travel Matter Experiences are carefully selected conscious travel experiences available on itineraries across its family of
brands. Chosen for the way in which they support communities and the environment, as well as the United Nations global framework, the experiences can make a powerful impact. From preserving ancient arts to supporting refugees through social enterprise and providing employment and training to empowering marginalised women and girls, each experience is selected to encourage the greatest community benefit.
The company’s not-for-profit arm, Treadright, has supported more than 60 community-based projects to date, the most recent being two nature-based climate change solutions – kelp farming and using minerals and sea wave action to capture carbon.
Small footsteps
World Expeditions is another tour company that is a good choice for families.
Seeing a need for travellers to have a positive impact way before the term sustainable tourism was coined, all the company’s tours are 100 per cent carbon offset through its support of renewable energy and reforestation projects, and it adheres to strict protocols to ensure communities are supported, children are protected, and wildlife remains unharmed.
To ensure it leaves a place just a little bit better than when travellers arrived, itineraries offer visitors opportunities to get involved in directly supporting sustainability. “Regenerative travel happens when travellers take part in an activity to support the host destination or when they support a place economically – or when the travel experience helps foster tolerance and understanding between people of different cultures,” says World Expeditions' Michele Eckersley.
“If you can give your child the opportunity to see how other people live, they’ll understand a lot better about how lucky they are,” says Michele.
The company’s 'Peru Tour' is a good example of this, offering families a chance to live with a local family and work with them as they replace a rudimentary open fire stove with one that does not produce a toxic thick smoke.
“This is a fantastic way for families to develop relationships with local families and to help them enjoy some of the equipment that we take for granted every day,” says Michele.
Modelling the right moves
Intrepid Travel is also modelling the right moves. “Kids’ brains are like sponges, so when they’re modelled responsible travel behaviours, it’s very likely that they’ll continue to make conscious sustainable travel decisions as adults,” says Intrepid Travel’s Dyan Mckie.
“Whether that be taking trains instead of planes, choosing locally owned accommodation over big chain hotels, or choosing experiences that directly impact the community they visit, their mindset will change in the choices they make.
"The organisation has been walking the walk to maximise the benefits created by tourism for many years, not only through employment of local staff and leaders, but by encouraging travellers to purchase sustainable, locally produced goods, and to travel in an environmentally friendly way.
“Many of our Intrepid Family trips have experiences that directly support sustainability and provide learning experiences for families,” says Dyan.
Recent examples include meeting the Indigenous people supporting reforestation in Costa Rica and turning waste into upcycled treasures in Halong Bay, Vietnam. Through partnerships with NASA, Oxford University, Happy Whale and others, Intrepid’s onboard Citizen Science Program even allows travellers to contribute to the future of Antarctica, collecting data that is included in real scientific studies of the frozen continent.
Last resort
While I’ve always tried to teach my kids to make travel matter, when it comes to the subject of sustainability, they’re educating me.
At 11 and 14, they are riding the wave of youth climate activism across the planet, and while I’m still guiding them in many ways, I’m happy for them to take the lead on this topic. On a recent visit to Fiji’s Plantation Island Resort, instead of spending their days in the pool or inflatable water park, they enthusiastically immersed themselves into the resort’s admirable sustainability projects.
With two full-time marine biologists on staff, plus long-term volunteers, the Plantation
Island Resort team is dedicated to maintaining a sustainable environment through funding community projects at the school and medical centre and managing its surrounding reefs to ensure the local environment is not only protected but thriving.
Working in partnership with Dr Austin Bowden-kerby, one of the world’s pioneers of coral gardening, the resort has implemented initiatives including the construction of seven coral conservation nurseries, out-planting at damaged or dead reef sites, and working to adapt coral reefs to survive climate change. The resort’s successful program has seen it evolve into a training site that is instrumental in helping other hospitality operators with their own reef-restoration initiatives.
The resort’s General Manager, Alex Wilson, believes that responsible travel is critical and is passionate about engaging kids and families in environmental activities both onshore and in the oceans. So, along with all the usual fun you’d expect to find at a Fijian resort, the resort invites guests of every age to learn about marine conservation. With hands-on activities such as coral gardening, coral out-planting trips, mangrove planting, weekly conservation awareness classes, guided tours with resident marine biologists, fish house construction and even bimonthly clean-up days, my own junior ocean advocates were all in.
“No school or university teaches this, but it is so important as a parent and as a business to have a model to teach children to give back,” says Alex.
It is this silent message that is reaching younger guests at the resort, including my own, as they get hands-on to help make change for the better.