Responsible Tourism

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).

100% Pure New Zealand

New Zealand was a good ride. One week and a half of short trips and sightseeing. Before that, I was living in Australia for a long while, and, my apologies to all, I thought both countries would be the same. I mean, there is a sense of community between the two nations, and it caused me to think they were one.

Of course, they are not the same. Different history, different politics, industries… Different mentality. Yes, it does make a difference. Not staying as long there as I did in Australia, I could not say whether there was a huge difference between societies or not. It is too short a time to tell.

What I could see was the sightseeing, and the difference was there. Auckland – the city that I stayed the most – has billboards displaying reasonably good ads. They were quite intelligent and cheeky. There was something inside of me telling 'I kinda knew it'.

Billboard near Halminton, NZ.

What I’m saying is, Australia's advertising industry compared to New Zealand's is creatively poor ( not only New Zealand ). I wanted to stay In Australia for good, but thankfully I did not. My aim was building a career in marketing and advertising. I do not think I would be happy there. On the other hand, I heard about New Zealand’s advertising, and I liked it.

                               Billboards near Beach road,in Auckland,NZ.


It is not only me saying Australia does not make good advertising. The British media coverage website, The Drum, reveals that in 2009, the ASB, the Australian Advertising Standards Bureau, received 4000 complaints in relation to bad ads. In 2008, the same association in the United Kingdom, got 2500 viewers complaints.

Australian tourism campaigns turn out to be known for bad taste, instead of good publicity. This opinion is also shared on the Truth.Travel website. There is also a channel on YouTube on bad Australian ads called Badaussietelly. No need to say anything else perhaps.

New Zealand ads are fun and witty, and this is something Australia is finding hard to be. In this sense, only an alternative Aussie TV program about advertising, The Gruen Transfer, would bring the discussion on prime time, and talk about it. Nonetheless, it pokes its jealous finger on NZ’s ads.