Thoughts on Respect

Responsible travel means self-aware travel. No matter how hard we try, and how much we might like to think of ourselves as integrated into any place we visit, travellers inherently see things through their own perspective and influence the places they visit. Being aware of this can help us to have a more positive influence on cross-cultural understanding and may help us reduce the impact we leave on the places we visit. Responsible travel is caring for the places we visit through thoughtful interaction considering socio-economic, environmental, and political situations.

The social and economic impact is one inherent product of travel; there is no doubt about it, hotels and hostels often dislocate local people away from their homes. That’s not to say that any single traveller is going to cure the economic disparities of any one place, but that the traveller should be aware of the local cost of them having a place to stay and learn and understand from these processes. Of course travellers also bring economic advantages, but these should be considered as well, who is getting money and how does it affect a place.

Environmentally travel almost always causes an impact on our world and the places we visit. Again, the solution probably isn’t that we should all just stay home, but that we should strive to be aware of the impact we are making, and consider how we travel based on our impact. Whether it means bicycling instead of flying or helping to preserve or enhance the local cultural and environmental fabric through volunteer work or showing simple respect by leaving things as we found them, even a single traveller take responsibility.

Political issues can be a further area of concern for responsible travellers. It’s important to consider the interactions one takes, as a traveller, in the greater context of cultural understanding. A responsible traveller has to take care not to make assumptions about the people in any place they visit, and to understand individual actions, points of view and cultures. Respect also means taking note of what is culturally normative and appropriate and trying to keep one’s own actions within this framework, unless there is a determined reason not to.

Responsible travel is taking care of the places visited; being aware of socio-economic, environmental and political impacts can enable travellers to decide how.