Ethical travel isn’t just about the environment
Travel is getting a bad rap at the moment. A strong sense of impending environmental doom surrounds us and is having an impact on how we think about travel. Which is a great development. Now that low-cost airline travel has reached the height of lunacy - like travelling from the UK to Spain for £9.38 - it’s about time that flight-shaming became a ‘thing’. Other criticisms about how tourism impacts the natural world have emerged as well. Riding elephants is out, as is swimming with dolphins. Crowds on the slopes of Everest are criticised, and mismanagement of Machu Picchu leading to significant erosion of the ancient site.
Travellers are beginning to see the wisdom and value of staying closer to home for their travel, of avoiding long-haul or unnecessary flights and being careful about the treatment of ancient monuments.
But it’s important to remember that ethical travel isn’t just about the environment. Ethical travel or responsible travel is travel that takes into account the negative impacts of travel decisions and trying to travel in such a way that the benefits and losses overall are roughly balanced. This is a complicated dance, and there have always been arguments about the boundaries. For example, while many have argued that poverty tourism like slum tours are the height of patronizing Western voyeurism, others have argued that benefits to the community outweigh Western guilt.
However, plenty of other issues make up ethical travel decisions, from micro to macro issues – propping up autocratic governments though tourist dollars, unfair dispersal of tourist assets among the community, sex tourism and loss of traditional cultures.
Ethical travel isn’t just about the environment, it’s about culture. When European cities overstuffed with visitors express their frustration with tourism, it’s not only the sheer numbers of travellers that they react to, but how those masses behave while visiting. Mainstream tourists rarely go beyond the main sights, prefer to stick to their own language and food choices, view locals as strange extras in the overall show of the city, and rarely make an effort to learn more than the top 5 most interesting facts about a culture before they leave again.
While many travellers, particularly those who consider themselves ethical travellers, rarely behave in such extreme ways, many are willing to disregard the local culture in preference to their own enjoyment of a place.
It’s crucial to show respect to a local area by thinking about how we travel there. Not just we travel to a place (which is where lots of the environmental stuff comes in), but also travel within a place. We need to question our roles as tourists, or travellers, whichever term you prefer.
It’s time we addressed this issue and start to recognize the power dynamics which are inherent in tourism. Local people are not subjects to practice your cultural learning on, but people living in the place you would like to visit. At Deliberate Travel we believe people have a responsibility to learn about a place before they arrive. Not to study for a BA in the subject, but learn something about a country’s history, culture, manners, proud achievement and problematic issues.
Cultural dissonance occurs often and can emerge in a number of different ways. For example:
Asking locals about subjects they’re uncomfortable discussing, while they are too polite to not answer.
Wearing casual clothes to places of cultural or symbolic importance.
Making assumptions about local culture based on pure observation rather than seeking to understand.
Refusing the help of locals in an attempt to ‘Get off the beaten track’.
Misunderstanding or disregard of local practices - even something as simple as not walking on bicycle lanes (a personal irritant of mine).
While none of these examples are utterly egregious, they are a part of the power imbalance that exists in the tourist industry. While that power imbalance will never completely disappear, when money exists on one side and not the other, we can be more respectful of this imbalance and learn from and about people. Furthermore, while these issues are easy for locals to brush off as a singular occurrence, they are often repeated again and again and again, by different people.
Phew, rant over. Oh, and if you’re one of those people wearing short shorts in Marrakesh souk, I really don’t have time for you right now.