Traveling as a tourist means enjoying things rapidly. Escaping from routine is like a relief for the mind and soul, though. People book accommodation, transportation, tours - if they have chance to do in advance - but sometimes forget to be responsible. That is the fact of caring about the environment at the destination.
Travelers should notice that it’s not only them that will remember the trip. The locals will remember it too. Whenever people visit different places than their own, there are positive and negative effects.
Responsible tourism tackles challenges in tourism nowadays. It started as a demand that ecological organizations would ask from societies. It grew up to guides and manuals edited by companies interested in the wellbeing of the planet.
Tourism is a lucrative business, generating almost six billions dollars in Brazil alone, in 2008. It’s going to be as lucrative as there are things to see. It makes sense to promote responsibility in tourism. All sides need to understand how to minimize their impact/actions – the tourists when bringing lots of packaging to remote areas for example, and the businesses owners, whose facilities don’t comply with energy saving rules.
Things are slowly changing. There are documented stories, like the ones at the InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel. It recently minimized its effects in the neighborhood by composting food scraps, and recycling different materials. The business is just following other hotel steps.
People are accepting these attitudes more and more. Tourists are probably going to include good deeds in their ‘to do’ lists in a future not too far (hopefully).
