Tourism represents around 11 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, expected to double in the coming decades. It’s also a huge source of jobs. The industry is taking baby-steps to address its footprint.
How and why we travel must change
If you haven’t seen it already, I strongly recommend watching The Last Tourist. Halfway through I was ready to commit to never, ever travel again. But then the movie reveals how we can help communities and reverse environmental destruction.
Set new goals
After 18 years of relative inertia since the tourism industry made its first climate promises, 300 initial signatories, including the United Nations World Tourism Organization and the World Travel & Tourism Council, committed to the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism in 2021 to halve tourism’s emissions by 2030 and eliminate them to near zero by 2050.
Choose a different denominator
Tourist destinations market themselves to the rest of the world. The Netherlands is planning to choose their target market based on how much money the travelers bring vs the carbon footprint to get them there:
Income/greenhouse gases
Educate travelers before they book
Just as calorie counts might help you choose healthier meals on a menu, Booking.com is planning to make transparent the climate impacts of your travel options.
Booking.com, powered by climate-tech platform Chooose, will soon show carbon emission listings on flight and hotel results, allowing travelers to filter lower carbon emission results from a range, for instance. “It is to take it one step further and include individual travelers, who are the bookers, to understand their carbon footprints early on in the decision process,” says Andreas Slettvoll, CEO of Chooose.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-14/how-tourism-can-hit-net-zero-by-2050-an-unrealistic-but-not-impossible-solution
What you can do
- Stay close to home. Just because you have a week or two of vacation doesn’t mean you have to travel far. Get to know your own region intimately.
- Choose climate friendly transportation options. If you can drive there in a few hours, it’s probably better than a short-haul flight. Europe is starting sleeper trains between popular destinations. Choose non-stop flights because a lot of energy goes into taking off.
- Avoid long-haul flights or if you must, stay a long time and see everything you want to see in that region.
- Choose local guides, hotels, shops and restaurants.
- Volunteer. Find opportunities to work with the community or local nonprofits. (Note the cautionary tale in the Last Tourist about orphanages.)
- Never participate in exploitative or harmful activities like petting tiger cubs or attending captive marine mammal shows.
- Pay for carbon offsets. It’s not perfect, but it helps.
- Act like a guest (because you are one.)
Darcy Hitchcock 
It’s a long way to Chile from out Florida where I live and I know little beforehand about how Chileans live? How can I travel most environmentally efficiently to visit your country? Happy Holidays.
I don’t know much about Chile either. You might check the Responsible Travel website. They’re a good source. https://www.responsiblevacation.com/.
Thanks. What is your opinion of this travel company?
My understanding is that they aren’t a travel company as much as a filter for companies that meet their standards. It’s one box to check off but likely not the only source of info you’d want to make a final decision.
Another source to look at is Sustainable Travel International. https://sustainabletravel.org/. Decades ago I worked with them to help them develop a scoring system. They help destinations become more sustainable so if you look at their projects, it might give you some ideas of places to go and what to look for. They have a number of projects in Chile.
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