Responsible Travel and Tourism
According to the Center for Responsible Travel, “Responsible tourism includes many types of travel, all of which aim to minimize tourism’s negative impacts on the environment and local communities while maximizing the positives. Traveling responsibly does not mean staying home. It means planning trips carefully and thoughtfully so they can both enjoy the experience they seek while also having a positive impact on the destination, its people, environment, and wildlife.”
I’m not new to the concept of cultural intelligence, which is an important part of what I do, but I am new to booking travel and the travel industry at large. Based on my experiences traveling, I am eager to learn more about how I can support and encourage people to travel responsibly. I have seen the damage tourism can cause in parts of the world, but I also know that the connections and experiences that are made abroad can bring healing. How you travel matters.
Recently I read some articles that talked about how Greece is thinking of limiting cruise ships to their most visited islands, like Mykonos and Santorini. I visited Greece last year for work, and my visit included a ferry that dropped us off on Mykonos for a 3 hour visit. I did not enjoy the visit. We were dropped off at the old port. The streets were absolutely packed. It was 100% commercialized with gelato shops, tourist traps and restaurants. My running joke was that every person was either a European retiree or some sort of influencer. People were taking selfies and making videos everywhere. It was wild. It felt like a sanitized (yet grimy), commercialized, fast-paced spot that lacked personality or distinctivness to identify where we were. I suspect other places on Mykonos are probably slower and more beautiful, but the Mykonos experience was disorienting for me.
I took 3 photos on the island, including this one. Luckily, I think we beat the biggest crowds of the season, but I can imagine this entire open area gets filled with people each summer, taking pictures with the windmills. But honestly, I don’t know anything about these windmills. Responsible tourism learns about and honors the place, the people and their history. There weren’t any plaques for me to read. I knew this place was famous, but only because of Instagram pictures, and not because of its historical significance. That’s a real failure for me as a traveler and the tourism industry on Mykonos.
