What is “Responsible Traveling”?

This is the first of a series of posts which include infos which help you understand the principle of responsible traveling and tips to finally become a responsible traveler!

Responsible traveling…uh, what is that? 

In my previous blog post I talked about the term sustainable tourism. Today the story continues and I will explain what responsible travelling is all about. Getting excited? That’s good. I like you already.

Tourism is the largest industry on the planet and employs more people than any other. Millions of families rely on a tourism-generated income every day to satisfy their daily needs, especially in developing and third world countries.

Responsible travelling is related to sustainable tourism but more a behaviour than a form and can be seen in the light of how someone is engaging with tourism. How? In a responsible way! Simple! Tourists are often seen as invaders and stories from the past have shown how tourism, if planned and developed badly, can destroy a destination, its nature, its reputation and can lead to mistrust and cultural misunderstandings between locals and tourists. Therefore, not only sustainable tourism is needed to plan and develop tourism in a way that everyone and everything involved benefits from it in the long-term. It is equally important that individual travellers contribute something while travelling. Responsible travelling helps to maintain the natural beauty and diversity of our planet, encourage understanding among nations and to minimize prejudices.

So, what is responsible traveling exactly? 

Nowadays, more and more travelers want their trip to be less invasive and more beneficial to the destination’s nature and local community. A responsible traveller behaves like a local while spending time in a certain destination. Generally speaking, he takes care during his stay. Simply by making use of his common-sense: Treating others as he would like to be treated, showing good manners and being mindful while visiting a destination which is, after all, always someone else’s home. Sounds quite logical, doesn’t it!? Well, still too many tourists behave in the opposite way during their travels.

So, in order to be a responsible traveller you do not only need to be respectful, curious, open-minded and adaptable towards a new place, its people and their culture, but most importantly you need to be convinced by this idea. Live it, support it! And one day you will inspire and convince others, too.

Advantages to you: In return, you will receive good hospitality and treated with respect. Also you will find yourself involved in conversations with locals much more quickly. Moreover, you will find out lots of insider tips and information, which through behaving wrongly or just ignorance, you would never have found out about. Locals will start liking you.

Responsible traveling is your your key to finding out and learning about new things in a more authentic way as well as getting inspired and enriched by people and places on all your journeys driven by your curiosity. Do you like the principle of responsible traveling? If so, I would be delighted if you would like to support this idea, too. 

The next posts includes tips on how to become a responsible traveler!