Exploring responsible travel started for me in the early 2020s when I co-founded a social travel startup called LocalsFromZero, which we later merged with Fairbnb.coop. With our team, we're constantly exploring the idea of creating a better ecosystem in host communities. Both on the side of travelers and on the side of destination stakeholders.
And just recently I have begun to dive deeper into these topics, as I have (finally!) started writing my master's thesis titled: Are digital nomads motivated to give back to the visiting communities? I have finally found a topic that is so close to my heart that I am excited to write about it. I will be exploring the literature on digital nomads, the impact they and other travelers have in the communities they visit, transformative experiences, and voluntourism. I will share my thoughts and findings in this journal as well.
Another deeper insight into the industry and its dynamics for me was the documentary The Last Tourist. The film got me to the point that we need to talk more about how we travel and how we can positively impact the communities we visit. It's not just about our environmental footprint (which is very important), but also the social impact we create (which is usually neglected).
The film is scary, to say the least, considering how we exploit local (especially underdeveloped) communities to play status games and satisfy our hedonistic needs. It talks about some of the negative aspects of the commercialization of travel. Things like the exploitation of local labor, the exploitation of animals, gentrification, the destruction of cultural landmarks, and more.
My summary of the movie in one sentence:
Tourism is a beautiful industry on the outside but ugly on the inside.
The film was a great overview of the problems currently caused by the tourism industry, and I hope it will inspire many people to at least think about their travel decisions. But we also need concrete solutions to tackle these problems, apart from using paper straws and portable water bottles instead of plastic ones.
I am pessimistic that many of the problems shown in the film will be solved by the choices we, the travelers, make, or it is naive to think that this will happen anytime soon. In my opinion, this needs to happen from the top down, from the education system to the business models. Here are some of my thoughts and solutions that I believe can potentially reduce the negative impact we are causing. These are long-term measures, not quick fixes.
1) Education and awareness-raising - better travelers = better citizens
Introduce the topic of (responsible) travel in elementary and secondary schools - so far no one is teaching you how to travel, and we should prioritize this topic since it is such a big part of our lives
Tourism schools and faculties should be leaders in training staff to think about these problems and propose solutions, rather than training new tourism staff to mindlessly follow tourism trends - right now most of these organizations bring little value to the world
I am currently participating in an interesting project where we are focusing on designing workshops for young people between the ages of 13 and 18 and educating them about responsible travel - I think we need more initiatives similar to this one
We need more travel influencers promoting responsible travel
2) Creating new destination business models
where local communities get more value - decentralization of power or centralization to the local community and more transparency. Most of the profits generated by tourism tend not to end up in the local community but in the hands of companies that set up store in the destination. I would like to say that blockchain and the DAO organizational model will solve this problem, but I think it does not start with the technology, but with the mindset.
3) Westworld-like world
A Sci-Fi idea but heck, why not? Let's create a world like the TV show Westworld, where you can satisfy all your hedonistic needs without harming anyone (except the robots and AI). It shouldn't be that hard to do, right?
We need to separate the words travel and tourism:
Tourism is an industry, traveling is a lifestyle.
In my podcast interview (in Slovenian) with Tina, she said that traveling just for the sake of traveling is classic consumerism and not what traveling could really be about. Traveling should be an experience. The best experiences you have on your travels (or in life) were usually not paid for. They are the moments that come spontaneously. Out of the blue. By opting for more local options on your travels you’re not just making a better impact on the destination, but you’re also on the way to having a much more authentic experience and uncovering the deeper layers of the place.
The reason for traveling is, of course, very different for each individual and always will be. Everyone has their own reason and we will continue to travel. Let us just try to play a positive sum game where we return from our travels with meaningful experiences and local communities benefit. Just traveling and experiencing more will not solve our problems, as Seneca (Stoic philosopher) wrote in his letters to Lucilius:
“Are you amazed to find that even with such extensive travel, to so many varied locales, you have not managed to shake off gloom and heaviness from your mind? As if that were a new experience! You must change the mind, not the venue.” (XXVIII.1)
Trying out a new experiment: I’ll be creating an AI-generated cover image with every newsletter title as a prompt. Imagine the collection of images that we’ll get! I think it will be an interesting visual complement to my writing. The first one was generated with DALL-E (scroll down to see it).