Travel Topics
Jane Rees-Baynes, Chair of Visit Pembrokeshire explains how the Welsh tourism organisation has been developing a more sustainable approach to tourism. Pembrokeshire, on the south west corner of Wales, has…
Jonathan Hiltz argues that the commitment to sustainable tourism in Costa Rica makes the Central American country a must-see destination for those of us with itchy feet who don’t want…
The Tourism Strategy Agency of the Balearic Islands (AETIB) celebrates five years since the launch of the sustainable tourism tax in the archipelago…
Jonathan Morris explains the importance of rewiliding and regenerative travel in the rebuild of the travel and tourism sector post Covid. It is impossible to predict quite how tourism will…
Switzerland as a destination has countless sustainable tourism offers, and always ranks top of international sustainability rankings. However, this has hardly been used…
Pauline Ronnet ponders whether the post-Covid shape of tourism in Venice will be more sustainable. Venice is a microcosm of many of the global sustainability challenges facing the world today…
Mark Bibby Jackson looks into how the aviation industry can reduce its CO2 emissions. My favourite Disney film of all time is Dumbo. As a child, I loved to see…
For many years Costa Rica has rightly been regarded by many as leading the way in sustainable tourism. In an exclusive interview with Travel Begins at 40, and as part…
As Boeing announces its plans to produce planes that can fly on 100% biofuels by 2030, Ciaran Wark explains why Sustainable Aviation Fuel is beginning to take off. Sustainable aviation…
Aleksandra Maksimović, Managing Director of Communications, National Tourism Organisation of Montenegro, explains how responsible and sustainable tourism are key to the country’s development plans. In Montenegro we are extremely committed…
Emiliano García, Councillor of Tourism for the Valencia City Council, shares his thoughts on why sustainability is so important for the Tourism of Tomorrow, and the actions the Spanish city…
Travel Begins at 40 Founder, Mark Bibby Jackson, argues that the travel and tourism sector should move towards a clean and green future as it recovers from a calamitous 2020…
Green travel can mean much more than simply carbon offsetting the emissions from your flight. In many ways travel can be good for the environment with many countries and tourist…
Mark Bibby Jackson travels to the Swiss canton of Valais to walk along the Aletsch Glacier, only to encounter a million-dollar view, a dish of cholera and cowbells that drove…
Hastings has the biggest beach-launched fishing fleet in Europe, and its iconic Net Shops. Travel Begins at 40 chats with Stella Landau, Fish Festivals Organiser, about the sustainable Hastings Fish…
On his UK staycation, James Clark travels to the Somerleyton Estate managed Fritton Lake, Norfolk, between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft to discover all about rewilding. As a child, Fritton Lake…
Irene Caswell looks forward to a world where we can travel internationally once more and explores the delights of traditional food in Slovenia. Slovenia is less than a tenth of…
The world has changed over the past couple of months – so drastically that many predict it will never be the same again. Change can be bad, but it also…
Thanks to Greta Thunberg, it’s all the buzz at the moment in the aviation world, but is effective carbon offsetting more complicated than it sounds? Travel Begins at 40 walks…
Travel Begins at 40 looks at how to optimise your carbon footprint reduction when travelling by plane is unavoidable. The aviation industry is increasingly painted as the black sheep amongst…
Travel Begins at 40 looks at the relationship between climate change and tourism by comparing various modes of travelling to your next destination. Asking yourself what’s the greenest way to…
Johan Smits discusses abandoning flying with flygskam or the No Fly movement in the UK and Sweden. Have you heard yet of flygskam, Swedish for ‘flight shaming’? It’s the No…
Instead of blaming others for a lack of genuine ecotourism, we should take responsibility for making our own travel sustainable, eco-friendly and respectful of local cultures, argues Johan Smits. The…
As destinations around the world complain about the negative effects of overtourism as well as the industry’s contribution to climate change and global heating, increasingly the question is being asked whether the nature of tourism needs to change. At the forefront of this is sustainable tourism.
The World Tourism Organisation, now the UNWTO, provided a sustainable tourism definition that stated that it needs the participation of all stakeholders, and is a continuous process that needs a constant monitoring of impact, including corrective measures where applicable.
It should also involve tourist satisfaction and increased awareness of related issues. In many respects Costa Rica has been at the vanguard of the movement. Allied to ecotourism this has been central to the country’s tourism drive. Tourism in Cosa Rica has thrived due to its preservation of the environment and sustainable management of tourism. Other sustainable intiatives include campaings to stop the use of single use plastics.
The term has come in for some criticism as being a bit confusing, but fundamentally in essence the effect of the tourism initiative should benefit the local community as well as future generations, as should all sustainability initiatives. Other similar terms include responsible travel, community-based tourism and regenerative tourism.
You can follow our #SustainableSunday series for more about keeping your travel sustainable. You can also read more about Travel Begins at 40’s stance in our view of Travel and Tourism: a Clean and Green Future.
