A self-proclaimed globetrotter, Suman Dhaulta is always on the look out for a vacation that’s one of a kind. “I have already been to the world’s most visited places. I’ve also been to a few exotic locales off Europe and the Middle East suggested by friends,” says this Delhi-based senior executive in the cargo industry. “However, my best trips have been weekend getaways where we do nothing but trek and stay at a basic camp in the hills. I’ve been told such trips save a lot of carbon emissions,” she says.
Dhaulta is not alone in her enthusiasm for eco-friendly holidays. The mood for short, carbon-light, next-to-nature trips is fast becoming a global phenomenon. Destinations like Palau, Costa Rica, the Norwegian fjords, Kerala and Kenya are already tagged green tourism destinations — and the list is growing. responsibletravel.com, a travel site dedicated to responsible holidays, claims that travellers look for ‘deeper’ travel experiences with good value. A report, Passport to Adventure suggests that the demand for ethical and environmentally sensitive travel is predicted to quadruple over the next three years. The UN World Tourism Organisation goes on to suggest that developing nations — taking in a third of the $735-billion international tourism industry in 2006 — are well suited to green tourism opportunities due to the presence of untouched natural preserves. What spoils the game, however, is the economic side of the tourism business, where mass travellers complicate the efforts that blend travel and sustainability. “Tourism only functions in an unbroken environment. No one wants to spend his holidays in a dumping ground or catastrophe-marred area, which is the situation across many pristine locales in India currently,” says Maninder Kohli, an avid hiker and representative of The Himalayan Club.
In India, where hill stations have been plasticised, polluted and overpopulated, there have been conscious efforts from the government and like-minded bodies to undertake some damage control. One such programme is the Green Hiker campaign from WWF-India which has the support of the Ministry of Tourism. “The campaign will cover the states of J&K, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh, and aims to reach out to tour operators and tourists and encourage them to adopt responsible practices in the Himalayas,” says Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO, WWF-India.
Another hiccup in the sustainable tourism story is the commutation mode one picks. The UN World Tourism Organisation estimates that the tourism industry accounts for five per cent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions annually. A solution here has been the carbon offset programmes that allow travellers to compensate for air travel emissions by donating to climate protection initiatives such as reforestation projects. However, a problem with such options is that these are not standardised according to the same scientific basis and not all travellers are aware. “Also, we have increasingly, come to accept that such schemes offer a dangerous distraction from a committed carbon reduction strategy. We believe travellers should actively seek to reduce their emissions rather than offsetting them,” says Justin Francis, Founder, responsibletravel.com.
While several organisations offer ‘carbon flight calculators,’ they anticipate that these gadgets will become more sophisticated over time and grow to include mobile applications to help calculate emissions from anywhere. Though what’s most required is the keenness of travellers to walk that extra mile.