Q & A with co-founder of responsibletravel.com, Justin Francis

Every day we're delighted to get phone calls and emails from newspapers and magazines around the world keen to find out more about responsibletravel.com and to get our opinions about the different news stories of the day.  

We find that some questions come up a lot more frequently than others so we thought we'd publish the answers here for everyone to read our responses in a Q & A with Managing Director and Co-Founder of responsibletravel.com, Justin Francis.

What is responsible travel?

All holidays have positive and negative impacts on local people and their environments.  Responsible travel maximises the benefits to local people, and minimises any negative impacts.   It's also a really enjoyable and more authentic way to travel  - holidays built in partnership with local people and places bring you closer to local cultures and environments.  Check out the holiday reviews on the site to see what I mean! 

Is it more expensive?

I'm asked this all the time, the answer is no, not necessarily.  For example, it doesn't cost more for a tour company to hire local guides or for a hotel to buy food locally or reduce its waste.  You'll find a huge range of holidays on the site at all prices, and you pay no more for using responsibletravel.com.      

What is responsibletravel.com?

We've been working since 2001 (we were the first business to use the term responsible travel) to screen tour operators and hotels for responsible travel, and to make them available in one place for tourists to choose a holiday.  Use the site to find your next holiday (we've 1000s of holidays from over 250 tour companies and 100s of accommodations) - and then use the site to make an enquiry directly with the tour company or hotel who run that holiday.   For the last 4 years we've also run an Award scheme to highlight the best examples of responsible tourism in the World - www.responsibletourismawards.com.

Do you feel guilty about travelling overseas? If so, why? If not, why not?

No, I do not feel guilty about traveling overseas. Nearly everything we do in our lives contributes to carbon emissions, and it’s wrong to pick on or demonize one activity such as flying. We all need to reduce our emissions across the entirety of our lives. As individuals we have the right to choose how we do this and it could involve flying less, or it could involve compensating in other ways (our homes and the clothes we buy both account for more emissions per person than flying). However, I would feel guilty if I was flying the same amount or more, without making significant carbon reductions elsewhere.

Do you think people stopping or cutting back on flying is a sensible response to the issue of climate change?

I would argue that stopping flying altogether would be a disaster; however I would argue that flying less as part of a broader carbon reduction program would be sensible. If we all stopped flying altogether then global unemployment would increase dramatically (tourism related activities directly or indirectly employ 8% of the global population - more in developing countries).

As a result global economies would suffer. I believe that investment in new, lower carbon technologies is a requirement for a low carbon future. This investment requires strong economies, and tourism has a vital role to play in contributing to that. If we all stopped flying we could expect de-forestation to increase as a) many Parks are funded through tourism incomes and b) tourism places a value on the preservation of forestry and pristine environments. This too would have a negative impact on climate change. So in short, it’s very sensible to fly a little less each year (in line with overall Government targets we should be flying 60% less by 2030) but it’s not sensible to stop flying.

What is your view on carbon offsets?

Our first action must be to reduce our emissions as far as we can.  Once we've done that it's important to offset the rest.  Offsetting is not an excuse to go on emitting more each year!   We've offered carbon offsets since 2001 (one of the first to do so) via our partnership with Climate Care www.climatecare.org/responsibletravel. 

I like some of their schemes such as the introduction of new wood burning stoves in India.  These are cleaner burning, reduce de-forestation and also have health benefits as they create less smoke that damages local peoples eyes - in this way they serve development as well as a carbon reduction.  Read more about how you could reduce your carbon emissions both before you go and while you're on your holiday...

If you have a question about responsibletravel.com that we've not answered, or you would like to share you thoughts on some of the issues raised above, please feel free to drop us a note here .

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