Irresponsible tourism

There are certain aspects of tourism where we believe we have a responsibility to just shout ‘stop!’. Downright irresponsible tourism has to be called to account, from canned hunting to highly polluting cruises, exploiting children to captive animals. These are issues that we can’t skirt around anymore, and so please take time to read in more detail below, share our activism on social networks, and join the movement to put a stop to irresponsible tourism.

Irresponsible tourism

We all love a holiday and the opportunity to unwind, in whatever form that takes for us individually. The tourism industry has marketed the right to a holiday to the extent that it has been one of few areas of life where we have been encouraged to forget about the world. They are our time to escape the stresses of everyday life, and no one wants to be made feel guilty about travel or think of themselves as an irresponsible tourist.

Sadly however, the tourism industry just gets things wrong sometimes, and carried away by our desire to have a much needed break, travellers can turn a blind eye to irresponsible tourism. This is also not helped by the fact that many travel companies and the travel media have traditionally failed to highlight the serious issues and impacts of our travel on many destinations. Mass media coverage is given to abuses arising in fashion, food and forestry but holidays are often seen as sacrosanct.

Travel media is often funded by the travel industry through complimentary trips to journalists and influencers, many of whom are therefore resistant to give negative coverage. There are always exceptions, but travel editors, in general, don’t like to shout about the dark sides of tourism. Not when a big tourist board, airline, all inclusive-holiday company or cruise multinational is about to spend thousands advertising on their website. An influencer trying to maintain an audience and reliant on gifts for their content is also unlikely to delve into potential issues.

The irresponsible travel round up

Here are some of the no-no’s of travel which we would like all tourists to be aware of, because an informed choice is often a happier one. We celebrate travel, so we don’t always want to give you the bad stories, but the key message from Responsible Travel is that for every irresponsible way of doing things, there is nearly always an alternative – one that is just as, if not more exciting, adventurous, restful and fun as the dodgy one. Here, in alphabetical order, are some of our no-no’s of travel.

All-inclusive resorts

All inclusive holidays are the first choice for millions of tourists who want a hassle free, low-budget holiday – yet their rapid growth has huge implications for local communities, low-paid workers and the environment. Travellers who have covered all costs up front are less likely to leave the resort and spend their money in local cafes, on handmade crafts and with local guides. At Responsible Travel, we don’t believe that all inclusive and responsible have to be separate. All inclusive hotels that partner closely with communities, sourcing food locally, can still have a positive impact, especially when they are providing fairly paid training and opportunities. Read more about our stance on all inclusive holidays.

Canned hunting

Canned hunting is when animals such as lions are reared simply for the purpose of being hunted on privately owned reserves. It does nothing for the environment – or for local people. There are several canned hunting reserves in South Africa, and tourists should also be wary of the fact that some of these are also in the market for 'conservation volunteers'. Unwittingly, tourists turn up to count, care for and monitor animals, unaware that elsewhere on this massive, privately owned piece of land, the animals are then being hunted – for a fee of tens of thousands of pounds.

Alarm bells should ring any time volunteers are permitted to interact with wildlife – feeding, cuddling and petting them – as any truly wild creature (or one which is destined for release) should never become habituated. Irresponsible tourism at its most ironic and ignorant.

Captive animals

Animals that are kept in captivity have long been used as tourist attractions or for frivolous entertainment. Our best piece of advice is, in general, if it isn’t in the wild, then it isn’t where it ought to be. We believe that aquariums with captive orcas and other large species such as sea lions, penguins, sharks and sea turtles should be banned. In the wild, orcas can dive to depths of 400m, and swim up to 160km in a single day. They live in family pods, spend most of their time well below the surface and are intelligent creatures – reacting to their complex natural environment. It is cruel to keep them in aquariums for our entertainment – shallow, chlorine water pools without plants or fish. Forcing them to perform like circus animals in front of noisy crowds adds to their distress. Read more about our stance on captive orcas, and our ‘Say no to Orca Circuses’ campaign.

Elephant trekking, riding, washing and playing are not on our list of top things to do either, as you can see from our ‘Elephants in tourism’ guide, although we make some exceptions when it comes to creating conservation income in national parks that helps protect endangered species, such as tigers in India. However, the mistreatment of these wild animals to titillate tourists is not something we endorse in any way. Dancing bears or any performing animals, such as snake charmers and dancing monkeys in Morocco, will have been trained using a cruel regime of punishment and reward.

Child sex tourism

The use of children for prostitution is a reality in many countries, such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and Madagascar to name but a few. The harsh reality is that this is a huge growth area in tourism, with children being trafficked for this purpose, even though in most cases they don’t realise that this is why they are being sent to a place, but think that they are going to do legitimate jobs. Although girls are sexually exploited, the UN states that it is young boys who face greater abuse by foreign sex offenders. Always report any suspect activities with regards to children to local authorities and, in particular, the tourism locations which are allowing it to happen. The Code (short for “The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism”) is an excellent point of contact for this purpose, as it works with tourism providers around the world to combat this horrific, but very real side of tourism.

Cultural insensitivity

This comes in many forms and, in many ways, is often the most common form of irresponsible tourism. So, dressing appropriately in sacred places, learning a bit of the local language, understanding local customs and respecting people’s living spaces are all par for the course in responsible tourism. One of the most common faux pas these days is around photography. Arriving into a tiny village armed with cameras, but no sense of subtlety or empathy regarding how it might feel to be constantly at the end of a lens reduces people to a tourist attraction. Treating people as objects for your entertainment, unless an event has been created specifically for that purpose, is wrong. You wouldn’t take a photo of a stranger’s child back home and then post it all over the Internet – so why do this with a child overseas?

The other most common issue is anti-social behaviour. Drinking binges, inappropriate dress and anti-social behaviour are just as as common and upsetting in Magaluf as in Malaysia. The easy question to ask is – would you be comfortable with someone doing this in your home? Because responsible tourism recognises that, first and foremost, when you travel, you are entering someone’s home.

Cruise liners

Giant cruise ships are a huge problem. There are many aspects of tourism which are an ethical grey area – with the need to balance the needs of local communities, create sustainable livelihoods, protect fragile habitats and conserve wildlife all competing. However, when it comes to giant cruise ships, things are certainly less nuanced: almost every impact they have is unequivocally bad. Raw sewage can be dumped at sea (cruise ships can produce up to 79,000 litres per day – this is no small issue); workers' rights are not protected; and the cruises often bring little financial benefit to the destinations where they dock. Instead, thousands of tourists spill into historic towns all at once – flooding them for a few hours, creating noise, crowds and chaos, spending virtually nothing – before returning to the ship. More recently, it has been discovered that the air on deck can be as filthy – if not more – as in some of the most polluted city centres. Read more about our views on cruise ships and how there is a world of difference between a responsible small ship cruise and a cruise behemoth.

Exploiting children

From giving sweets to begging children to visiting orphanages as part of your holiday, the exploitation of children in tourism is a very difficult area. In 2013, Responsible Travel removed all orphanage volunteering trips from our site following extensive research and consultation with child protection groups and volunteer organisations. We had many concerns about the implications of sending travellers to work with vulnerable children, including the lack of background checks on volunteers putting children at risk. In addition, up to three quarters of children in Cambodia’s orphanages are not, in fact, orphans; the high fees paid by volunteers have made vulnerable children a commodity, with more and more 'orphanages' opening in line with the number of tourists arriving in countries such as Cambodia and Nepal.

We now have guidelines to holiday companies that offer volunteering trips, with particular reference to working with vulnerable children in any of the following settings: Orphanages; children's homes; youth centres (including drop-in centres); residential facilities; trafficking shelters; women and children violence refuges and other similar settings. We only promote on Responsible Travel those volunteer projects from partner organisations that commit to our strict criteria which you can see here.

Forced evictions

There is not much you can do about it when you are there, if you discover that a fishing village has been taken over by a multinational tourism resort, and the villagers were displaced far from the sea. Such was the case in, for example, Sri Lanka, following the tsunami, when the developers poured in almost as quickly as the waters subsided. Similar land grabbing is alleged the world over, from the Caribbean to Kenya, South Africa to Scotland, when governments turn a blind eye to development impacts at the promise of ‘tourism income’. And it isn’t always development that is the culprit, however. In some countries, tribal people in particular are displaced from their lands in the name of conservation, or for the gazetting of national parks and reserves. Good for animals yes, but denying people their land and resources is very controversial.

A responsible tourism company will strive to offer holidays in places where the communities will truly benefit and thrive from tourism, not in spite of tourism. They know the families, the stories, the history, the culture and they aim to protect them and highlight a community’s pride in them.

Irresponsible wildlife watching

There are good ways and bad ways of doing most things, but responsible wildlife watching is thankfully on the up. However, there are still guides, drivers and tourists who will break all the rules just to get the right shot to put on Facebook, up close and personal with a tiger or hugging a dolphin. In fact any hugging, petting or walking with wild animals is not only irresponsible tourism, it is just wrong, and you should stay clear of it. Each of our wildlife watching holidays comes with its responsible rules and regulations, and you can see them all in our guides.

Irresponsible hiking and biking

In general, hikers and bikers are pretty switched on to conservation issues, but adrenaline addiction rather than adventure in remote places has become a new trend, often making the expeditions more about the achievement than the journey. The charity climb epidemic is spreading throughout the world now, with thousands landing on the hills, trampling and littering, with little financial benefit for local people and huge environmental destruction. Some charity companies or race organisers have responsible tourism policies, but they are rare. Charity and competition is good, churning up a precious landscape, not so much.

Similarly, mountain biking is a huge growth area in many destinations. Many are switched on to the potential negative impacts of frightening not only wildlife but other trail users, such as hikers and horses, but also to the damage caused to the landscape by braking hard or skidding. But, many are unaware and don’t want to think or see beyond their next bend or bump. Responsible tourism destinations need to work together in partnership between governments, national parks, state parks and walking or biking groups, to create the right guidelines and messages for all lovers of the outdoors.

Shark cage diving

Shark Cage Diving is big in South Africa, and many claim it is responsible for the increase in great white shark attacks. This is because very often the sharks are attracted artificially to the site by throwing chum (dead fish, offal, and blood) into the water. Attracting wild animals in this artificial way can never be responsible in our view, as it disrupts natural behaviour. There are some responsible diving companies, however, which do not use chum, so the shark viewing becomes no more harmful than any other kind of wildlife safari. So if putting yourself into a cage and surrounding yourself with sharks is your thing, always ask your operator if chum is used, to ensure your tour is not harming wildlife or people.

Marketing 'Paradise'

The tourism industry has always been obsessed with presenting an image of 'paradise'. Beaches are empty of people; they are postcard-perfect depictions of white sand lapped with crystal clear water. The Big Five roam freely across vast savannah, without another tourist or local community in sight. This is not only disingenuous; it is dangerous. It ignores the many, very real, challenges faced by local people and landscapes, and by hiding them from tourists, it discourages tourists from engaging with these issues, and from considering their impact when they travel. While we all want to 'get away from it all' once in a while, the problem is that our escape – our vision of paradise – is someone else's reality. Read more about our views on tourism's dangerous obsession with paradise.