a reusable bag. A Water-to-Go bottle will also mean that
you are lowering your carbon footprint and reducing your
plastic waste. Going local also helps reduce the environmental impact of
travel while at the same time helping the local community
create a better life for themselves.
Respect The Culture Of A Community Give Back To The Community
If you are already lowering your carbon footprint and
reducing your waste, you are already respecting the area
that you are visiting. However, it is also important when
travelling to learn about the culture, flora, fauna of a com-
munity. This will allow you to experience the real essence
of the place you visit and you will appreciate the diverse
world we live in. A holiday you will remember will take
you out of your comfort zone and educate you about dif-
ferent lifestyles. When travelling you should adapt to local
way of life and not the other way round. A good way to do
this is with an eco-friendly travel company such as Steppes
or Wild Frontiers who have links all over the world. You
may be surprised about what you discover if you do this
and how much of a better person you become. For a start,
a new language will make you a more well-rounded per-
son, more respected in business and very appealing to em-
ployers.
Go Local
To respect the local community, the least you can do is
eat locally produced food. This in turn will have an impact
on the local economy and the living standard of the local
people. The world would be a boring place if we constant-
ly ate McDonald's or KFC. Don’t buy from chains or mul-
tinational companies as this will only benefit only a few.
TRAVERSE
Going local with regards to food and resources is great
but sometimes that isn’t enough for families in under-
privileged areas to get by. A great thing that we can do is
take part in charity work and give back to the community.
If you are travelling with the eco-friendly travel compa-
nies mentioned earlier, they are just a few that work with
charitable causes that do life-changing work in neglected
communities. As a traveller, it may sound silly but buying
souvenirs at full price could help that person no end. It
is important that resources go straight back into the com-
munities and an easy way is giving it straight to the people
who need it most.
We are naively unaware about the consequences of our
actions especially when travelling and in this current cli-
ate, it is important that we educate others about respon-
sible travel. As this has highlighted, there are some easy
ways to become a more responsible traveller which in turn
will make us better people and make a better planet. Be-
coming a responsible traveller and choosing to bring this
attitude as a tourist means travelling in a way that’s ethical
and pays a lot of respect to the local people, culture, envi-
ronment and economy by bringing a positive impact on
the community. DS
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