ECOTOURISM: Are You a Tourist or a Traveler? Confessions of a Reformed Tourist
by LaTaYea
I confess. I’ve lived most of my life seeking comfort, and LUXURY—wherever, whenever, and however I could get it—especially when traveling, because after all, I was “on vacation,” and that meant everything was supposed to be just how I wanted it. Talk about a self-centered, thoughtless viewpoint! (It’s embarrassing...).
While travelling, I spent all the money I could—staying in some very pampering hotels and resorts; I loved the luxury: the plush terry cloth robes, the elegant decors, the private limos, the $500 dinners-for-two. When abroad, I loved having all the familiar amenities of America right at hand, including the upscale boutiques, replete with the name-brands I adored (lest I forgot to pack just the “perfect” items). I took the tours, visiting all the “right” places to see and be, and came home with fists full of one-hour-developed photos to show off. Back then, the closest I came to an indigenous person in the areas I visited was if one served me drinks or unpacked my things at the hotel. (Ahh, my embarrassment continues...)
However, for the last ten years, I’ve changed my lifestyle dramatically—shifting my focus onto learning to serve God and my fellow brothers and sisters across the planet—and in the process I’ve gotten a whole new education, including about traveling and the needs of the world (instead of the desires of my “self”). I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned.
There’s quite a difference between a “tourist” and a “traveler.” I’m guilty of having been a tourist. Which do you consider yourself to be? How we respond as we travel is an important thing to ponder, for perhaps we each need to do better in our future travels. Mother earth and her peoples are very fragile and need to be treated with genuine love, care, and respect. I’m discovering it’s hard to have a good time when you begin to realize the negative impact you have on others and their environment.
Tourists generally consume. Their mindset is to enjoy themselves, unfortunately often without regard for their impact on their surroundings. Travelers, in contrast, tend to stay off the beaten paths. Travelers are usually more free-spirited and seek to mingle with the local peoples—desiring to experience the culture, including the region’s unique cuisine, music, housing, dress styles, and more. Travelers often stay in humbler settings—hostels or little out of the way rooms-for-rent, or they backpack and camp, with little or no “conveniences of home.” They tend to respect local customs, be more conscientious of their impact, and often seek to give something in return for what they receive. Many travelers often bring a bit of the spiritual into their viewpoints and travel habits as well, providing room for the sacred and divine within their experiences. (Boy, I now regret that I sure missed the boat on this one in the past...)
I was stunned to find out just how huge traveling’s impact is; tourism is big business. “Overall, tourism-related spending accounted for some $4.2 trillion of global economic activity in 2002,” according to Lisa Mastny’s article, “Tourism Growing But Still Shaky” published in Vital Signs 2003. She noted, “International tourism increased 3% in 2002, to 715 million arrivals....” According to the Internet posting titled Tourism trashes ecological hotspots... (adapted by Phil McKenna and Suzanne Ubick, California Academy of Sciences), “In just ten years, world tourism rates have skyrocketed 200% to 500%. Now Conservation International and the United Nations Environment Program report that rubberneckers bring with them long-term ecological devastation. Consider Cancun, Mexico. Only 12 families lived on this forested island until the 1970s. Then the tourist industry arrived. Today, 2.6 million people visit each year, and the island is naked, its forests long gone. Local facilities can process only one-quarter of the sewage; the rest goes straight into the sea.”
So, how do we enjoy the world—all of its beauty and diversely wonderful cultures—without destroying the earth and people’s lives in the process? To help address travel’s tremendous impact, the concept of EcoTourism has developed over the last couple decades. EcoTourism focuses on traveling in a more environmentally-friendly way, causing minimal impact on natural environs and local cultures, while creating sustainable tourism-related businesses that in turn give back to the local economy and improve residents’ quality of life.
There are many wonderful companies and individuals who provide eco-friendly services—from “green” hotels and hostels, to tour companies and personal guides who seek to ‘leave no trace.’ One local example is a Sedona-based tour company, Spirit Steps Tours, that offers enlightening experiences for the seeking sojourner. Tours are customized to each soul’s needs, and all the guides are members of a local spiritual-based EcoVillage and intentional community. There are many other like-minded EcoTourism providers worldwide, and I encourage everyone to make an effort to find them.
Still, EcoTourism, like any good idea throughout history, is in some ways exploited by those seeking the profit-margin above all else. Today you can search the Internet for “EcoTourism” and find an initial 300,000+ sites! According to Ron Mader, author of Exploring Eco-tourism in the Americas, “In Latin America anything and everything ‘Eco’ boomed in the 1990s—particularly after the 1992 Earth Summit which was held in Brazil. In Costa Rica the most questionable example is the country’s ‘Eco-Rent-A-Car.’ Mexico boasts ‘Eco Taxis,’ ‘Eco Cines’ and ‘Eco Estacionamientos’—or ‘Eco Parking Lots’ because of a few trees planted around the perimeter.”
But Mader points out that determining the genuineness of any eco-related business gets tricky and often depends on your point of view. For example, “Membership in groups such as The International Ecotourism Society (TIES)...requires only the payment of a membership fee. ...TIES does not certify a member’s compliance.... Instead, the society requires members sign a pledge stating that the member will be a ‘responsible traveler or travel-related professional who conserves natural environments and sustains the well-being of the local people.’” Mader adds, “Eco-tourism’s success or failure depends on the eye of the beholder. Conservationists will measure the merits of a project by its contributions to local environmental protection. Travel agencies will focus on the bottom line—are they making a sufficient profit? And travelers each come to an ecotourism destination or provider with their own personal experiences and expectations.”
In Sedona, Arizona—at the entrance to Los Abrigados, a prestigious spa & resort (the kind of place I used to go to)—a new Institute of EcoTourism (IET) opened in early September this year. Although the Institute is nonprofit, it is an original project of ILX Resorts Incorporated, the corporation that owns and operates this world-famous resort (and nine other premiere vacation club properties in the U.S. and Mexico). The Institute of EcoTourism plans on providing a variety of educational programs, focused on local schools and visiting tourists, according to the Institute’s Executive Director, Jonathan Duncan. I must admit though, I am suspicious. Is this just a marketing ploy of ILX Resorts to get another piece of the tourism pie—an attempt to cash in on the “EcoTourism trend?” I do hope, though, that the EcoTourism Institute achieves its goals and simultaneously can carry ILX Resorts along to make genuine and significant changes in achieving the ideals of EcoTourism, lest the impact on Sedona—a resort town that already hosts approximately 5 million visitors annually—should only magnify rather than improve.
As planetary citizens and travelers of this beautiful world, we need to notice what’s happening around us and across the globe. And we need to begin to take action, to speak out against injustices happening—to indigenous cultures, to Mother Earth, to endangered wildlife, and to all our sacred planet’s environs—because if we don’t, who will? We are the stewards of this amazing planet, and God is entrusting us to take care of it well. When traveling, we need to get off the tourist track, and freely journey about, letting our spirit evolve us into a true sojourner. So many people today seek escape from their fast-paced lives, with cell phones, beepers, and long work weeks—but peace and relaxation in traveling is a choice that begins within persons, long before they leave home. The ambiance created by any environment you can travel to is only icing on the cake; inner relaxation and peace come from finding one’s true destiny and in service to humankind, serving all our planetary brothers and sisters. When we begin to view all cultures not as “foreign” but rather as “different” and seek to understand and enjoy the uniqueness and beauty found in each other as souls, then we can begin to truly EcoTravel as a global community.
Perhaps Hector Ceballos-Lascurain—the Mexican architect, environmentalist, and international ecotourism consultant who is widely credited with coining the term “ecotourism”—said it best in his definition back in 1983: “Ecotourism is that tourism that involves traveling to relatively undisturbed natural areas with the specific object of studying, admiring and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals, as well as any existing cultural aspects (both past and present) found in these areas. Ecotourism implies a scientific, esthetic or philosophical ap-proach, although the 'ecotourist' is not required to be a professional scientist, artist or philosopher. The main point is that the person who practices ecotourism has the opportunity of immersing him- or herself in nature in a way that most people cannot enjoy in their routine, urban existences. This person will eventually acquire a consciousness and knowledge of the natural environment, together with its cultural aspects, that will convert him into somebody keenly involved in conservation issues.”
LaTaYea is a minister of Global Community Communications Alliance Church