Travel Tips: What Is Ethical Traveling And How Do I Travel Ethically?

Ever heard of ethical traveling? Do you want to learn specific ways to better incorporate intentionality in our wanderlust? If yes, this post is for you!

What Does It Mean?

“Ethical Consumption” simply means making use of a thing or place in a way that ensures the sustainability of said thing or place. Full Stop. In the context of travel, ethical traveling means exploring a travel destination in ways that ensures sustainability of the destination and its people. 

In this blogpost, i share seven (7) tips i have learned over the past few years of travel documenting, as well tips gathered from my ever knowledgeable travel community. 

1. Support local businesses

Patronizing local franchise/services boosts local tourism in the places you visit. 

It is one sure way to contribute directly to the financial sustainability of the people in our travel destination. Booking a local tour with a tour guide for instance, will directly translate into paying said guide who will in turn have some added resource to cater for himself and his dependents, etc.

Other ways to support local businesses can be visiting local markets for souvenir shopping and spending time in a local hotspot for food or drinks. These enrich your experience of a country while helping its local tourism industry as well!

2. Be environmentally conscious

You have probably heard a million and one times from environmental protection campaigns, asking to reduce flying to save the planet, encouraging environmentally-friendly travel practices, among other very crucial advice on how much more care we can extend to the environment. These are all great and valid! 

While declining flying altogether may not sound feasible to you as a traveler, a few relatively simpler ways you can contribute to sustaining the planet includes reducing waste while traveling, opting for paperless ticketing and check-in and wearing coral friendly SPF when going swimming.

It helps to remember that as travelers, we have everything to gain when the environment thrives and green travel is one sure way to get there. Every little contribution counts!

3. Learn a few expressions in your travel destination’s local language

This is my absolute favorite thing to do when making plans to visit a country/destination. I find that as human as we are, language remains one of our most endeared connectors. A simple hello, please or thank you in your host’s tongue can work wonders for your trip! It signals respect, care and a genuine effort to connect with a place and its people. 

11/10 your guide, host, driver, hotel staff will light up when you attempt this and who knows? That might just lead to even more lessons in vocabulary for your stay!

4. Lodge with eco-friendly/ environmentally conscious facilities

Making it a point to lodge only with eco-friendly hotels/ lodges/ resorts can be tricky in the sense that different travelers have very different travel styles and preferences— lux, budget etc.

However, it is imperative (as an addition to point 2) that we endeavor to lodge where the wellbeing of the environment is prioritized. In ceramics, in woodwork, with less wool, etc. We can take an added next step of inquiring from the accommodation facilities we intend to book with and get a sense of their environmental protection efforts, prior to our visit.

5. Respect the culture/traditions in your travel destination

What better way is there to thoroughly enjoy a travel destination than to immerse yourself in the culture of the places you visit? Researching appropriate dressing, greeting, gesturing and general preferred conduct in your travel destination can take your trip from just another stop to an unforgettable memory! 

6. Photograph Responsibly

It's the days of active travel journaling and sometimes, we get carried away (I’m guilty too) by a desire to document for later use. Especially as travel bloggers and content creators, we may be tempted to quickly sneak capture a photo for our blogs or instagram page.

It is important that as much as possible, we must try to photograph adults responsibly (with consent and in ways that humanize them) and not kids, without permission from an adult, caregiver or parent present.  

7. Keep an open-mind 

Ultimately, this ties it all together really nicely. Keeping an open-mind ensures that we embrace each new place with the care and respect it deserves.

As my friend rightly puts it, what’s the point in journeying to a place, only to criticize and judge it based off standards *you* are projecting unto it. Keeping our minds open and away from stereotyping and prejudices enriches our experience of places and it’s people.

It makes every travel experience even the more richer, as we learn more about the world, people, cultures and ourselves in the process!

Happy travels! As always, if you find these pointers useful in your travel planning or documentation, drop a comment below or send an email to info@shesuthman.com with your feedback /experience. I love reading all of them!