How does sustainable travel work?
Oil pollution, coral destruction and displaced fish: In May 2022, the Thai authorities closed Maya Bay after 5 months of reopening the beautiful bay to tourists after 2 years. Nevertheless, such news unfortunately finds its way into the headlines again and again, showing how mass tourism takes place at considerable expense to nature. As a result, there is an increasing risk that mass tourism will destroy ecosystems and the environment in such a way that no generations will be able to visit these destinations in the future. Therefore, it is in the interest of locals, travellers and tour operators alike to advocate for more environmentally protective measures. Accordingly, hotels are increasingly using sustainability standards to make tourism environmentally friendly and sustainable. In this blog post, we tell you how you can travel sustainably and what can help you in your search.
Illustration: Maya Bay, Thailand. Beautiful bay, crowded with tourists.
Can tourism be sustainable?
Basically, man always intervenes in the environment with his existence and leaves his traces, also at home. Now, tourism thrives on offering travellers a contrast from everyday life, for example by spending their holidays in nature. But it is precisely the desire to travel to the distant and natural that can become a paradox. Because nature itself is disturbed by more and more masses of people travelling there. In a sense, nature is exploited for the tourists' own purposes and thus "touristified". This can be seen, among other things, in the popular trend of wanting to travel to places that are as undiscovered as possible.
However, the term sustainability must be understood asthat it is about the endeavour to reconcile social, ecological and economic dimensions.. After all, tourism helps regions to achieve prosperity and offers travellers a balance to everyday stress. The goal now is to create long-term structures to make tourism beneficial for all involved and with as little damage to the environment as possible. To this end, standards are increasingly being set and regulations adopted.
The popular holiday island of Mallorca is struggling to curb mass tourism. Only on 11.02.2022, a tourism law was passed that no more applications for new guest beds will be accepted in the next 4 years. Hoteliers are to focus on quality instead of quantity. In addition, the circular economy is to be implemented at all levels. Attention is paid to water and energy consumption, waste generation and the origin of food.
Sustainability is therefore not an end state, but a way of bridging different interests with a view to the future. In other words, sustainability means:
"Meeting the needs of current generations without compromising the needs of future generations."
How you can make your sustainable hotel choice easier
During your holiday, the hotel room becomes your second home. Thus, your sustainable journey begins with the active decision for a hotel that comprehensively implements sustainability. After all, hotels are the infrastructure for tourism.
Travel portals like faircations make it easier for you to search for sustainable hotels, which can save you a lot of time. You also support the development of the hotel industry towards a responsible future.
At faircations, you can put together your own individual holiday consisting of hotel, flight or round trip. In doing so, faircations pays attention to a fair CO2-compensation and sustainably certified hotels. In addition, 1% of the travel price is donated to a social or ecological project in your holiday destination.
You can find more information about faircations at: https://faircations.de/about/sustainableTravel
Tips for sustainable travel
So that you know what to look out for when travelling sustainably, we have put together a few tips for you together with the sustainable travel portal faircations we have put together a few tips for you.
1. transport / mobility
- Avoid flights if possible, otherwise prefer direct flights, fly economy class, offset flights e.g. via Atmosfair,
- travel light,
- travel counter-cyclically to relieve travel flows,
- use public transport on site,
- prefer to travel less, but stay longer at the destination.
2. energy and resource consumption
- Living in a resource-conserving way: pay attention to your own water and energy consumption,
- Do not have towels changed daily in the hotel,
- Choose hotels that use green electricity.
3. waste prevention
- Have your own water bottle / jute bag in your luggage,
- Avoid rubbish / collect rubbish at the holiday destination,
- Use sunscreen without microplastics,
- Choose hotels that implement recycling and composting.
4. regionality
- Choose hotels that source regional products and services produced locally,
- Prefer destinations with regional networks,
- Avoid mass tourism.
5. social compatibility
- Pay a tip,
- ask if it's OK before photographing people,
- Learn basic words in the local language,
- inform about and respect the culture and history of the holiday destination (e.g. adapt style of dress if necessary),
- inform whether attention is paid to the welfare of the population.
6. animal welfare
- No visiting animal shows / elephant rides / dolphin swims.
7. observe seals. The following seals identify sustainable hotels:
- BioHotels,
- TourCert,
- GreenGlobe,
- Green Pearls,
- European Eco-label,
- GreenSign.
What rezemo has to do with sustainable hotel business
With our rezemo wooden coffee capsule, we not only want to spoil our customers from home. We also want to show guests in hotels and holiday apartments that coffee enjoyment We also want to show our guests in hotels and holiday homes that coffee enjoyment is possible without plastic and aluminium capsules and that they do not have to forego quality or luxury.
That is why we are an official partner of the GreenSign sustainability label, which has already certified over 270 hotels in 15 countries. By the way, 5 sustainability levels distinguish how committed the hotels are in the three dimensions of ecology, economy and social issues.
It is especially important to us that the hotel industry thinks holistically.. By paying attention to the environmental compatibility of a small coffee capsule, we can already set an example.
Now we wish you lots of fun on your next sustainable journey! And until then, enjoy sipping your coffee!