Columnist and travel expert Andrea Mandel-Campbell helps provide clarity.
It’s safe to say that the term “sustainable travel” is overused, vague and easy to hide behind. It pops up in corporate marketing materials and travel blogs, and yet many (if not most) people don’t have a clear sense of what it is. Carbon offsets for air travel and donations to social or environmental causes are what usually come to mind. But these measures are only a small part of the story. Truly sustainable travel is much more holistic: It considers the individual traveller, the places and
communities they visit and the planet. In short, it’s travel that both does good and is good for you.
To help you navigate what sustainable travel is and why it should matter, I’ve put together a checklist of what I see as the
core elements.
1 Planning active experiences
Doctors and researchers agree that exercise is the single most important thing you can do to enhance your health span — the number of years you remain healthy and disease-free. Rather than sitting on a bus, driving a car or banging around a cruise ship, build hiking, kayaking and biking into your travel plans.
2 Spending time in nature
Like exercise, time in nature is linked to lower rates of disease, decreased anxiety and depression and enhanced cognition. Doctors are now “prescribing nature” as part of their treatment regimens for patients. If regular life keeps you in the city, then travel can be a great opportunity to reconnect and destress in the wild.
3 Connecting with community
Sometimes we just need to go for a long walk on our own. But more often than not, we thrive on human connection. It’s actually biological — group activity has been shown to double the release of oxytocin, the hormone associated with social bonding. The connections you make travelling with friends or on a small group tour are often the best part of a trip.
4 Staying longer and diving deeper
Have you ever been on a trip where you spent more time driving than you did actually experiencing a place? You are ticking off
things you’ve seen, but it’s all pretty superficial (and not particularly environmental!). Stay in one place longer — you’ll be richer for it.
5 Taking the road less travelled
Over-tourism is to travel what plastics pollution is to the ocean. Not only is the travel industry booming, but 80 percent of the world’s travelers are visiting just 10 percent of the world’s destinations. The results are devastating, with once-magical cities like Barcelona, Lisbon and Dubrovnik heaving under the weight of over-tourism.
Stop reading travel listicles summarizing the ten best vacation spots and instead do a little research to discover new places to go. You won’t be disappointed.
6 Experiencing local
Travel can be a powerful economic driver for jobs, prosperity and cultural empowerment — especially in smaller communities. You can make an impact with your travel dollars by opting for locally owned hotels and prioritizing Indigenous-owned enterprises. Leave behind the homogenized experiences you’re used to and expand your perspective.
7 Respecting nature and biodiversity
While much of the environmental emphasis is placed on carbon footprint, the rapid destruction of the planet’s biodiversity
is just as urgent. For example, every year, cruise ships travelling through the wildlife-rich waters of the British Columbia coast fatally collide with humpback whales. You can have a much richer, more nature-positive whale-watching experience by kayak.
8 Limiting your footprint
There are many ways to limit your carbon footprint, starting with avoiding the most egregious forms of travel. A seven-day cruise emits three times more carbon than flying to the same destination and staying there for a week. That’s on top of the sewage dumped in the ocean, the impact on aquatic life and the damage to coral reefs. Flying first class emits nine times more
CO2 than flying economy. How you travel on the ground — more place-based hiking and biking versus driving and multiple flights — is another consideration. And then there is the food you eat — is it sustainably produced and locally sourced? As for carbon offsets, they are no magic bullet but they are still worth exploring, from Indigenous-led offsets to new carbon capture and storage technologies.
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Andrea Mandel-Campbell is the founder of karibu adventures, Canada’s newest and coolest people and planet-positive travel offering. A former foreign correspondent, television anchor and best-selling author, Andrea brings a unique journalist’s lens to karibu, taking you on a journey to unexpected places and introducing you to people you won’t otherwise meet.
