"Responsible travel": are you ready?
The "Responsible travel" consists of three levels. The first level is to determine how to minimize the negative impact to the environment and make contribution to local biodiversity. The second is how travelers communicate with locals and respect the local culture. This communication is likely to affect their lives and future. The third level is how the travelers' consumption can have positive return on the local economy.
Actually, with the development of tourism, how to maintain the local environment as well as local culture has raised wide concern. When the irresponsible travelers come to a scenic spot, they may scatter the rubbish and bargain with the local residents in their ways, which will change local customers. Sometimes, the travelers even fraud the local residents, leaving an impression on them that there are full of cheaters outside their hometown.
The self-serviced travelers usually prefer to some obscure ' route as they would like to see some primitive and naive scenery and culture, but still they can't keep up with the speed at which the scenic spots have been "occupied".
This occupation indicates that at the travel destination, there are packed with all kinds of group travelers, or commercial taste was too strong and souvenirs all goods manufactured in the factories but rather home-made specialties. Should the business tourism development be blamed for the change in culture that tourism has brought about? Today, there are many travelers choosing to reflect from themselves. They maintain that they should bear reverence for nature and respect for local culture. A seemingly comprehensive concept which challenges the traditional concept of tourism, "responsible travel " has been becoming more and more popular, and this include respect for the protection of the environment, local cultures and thinking on sustainable development.
There is an old saying says, to let the Himalayas to change you, rather than to change theHimalayas. There is no doubt that tourism has affected the area and surrounding communities to a large extent. Some of these effects are good and others are bad, and they cannot be generalized. However, when we say that the locals have changed a lot, we seem rarely to reflect on our own responsibility we should take as a traveler. A rather ironic truth is: the reason why we are not willing to go to those scenic spots which have been developed precisely because, as one of the tourists, we inadvertently have destroyed the original beauty. We do not want to repeat the others' routes but we do not have the courage to develop our own; we want to experience traditional culture, but are we are unwilling to give up the comfort that we have been used to. When we see the houses, transport and clothing in traditional villages tending to be modernized, we tend to be disappointed, but all this happened to our own culture and we have never questioned whether this modernization is appropriate or not.
Actually, with the development of tourism, how to maintain the local environment as well as local culture has raised wide concern. When the irresponsible travelers come to a scenic spot, they may scatter the rubbish and bargain with the local residents in their ways, which will change local customers. Sometimes, the travelers even fraud the local residents, leaving an impression on them that there are full of cheaters outside their hometown.
The self-serviced travelers usually prefer to some obscure ' route as they would like to see some primitive and naive scenery and culture, but still they can't keep up with the speed at which the scenic spots have been "occupied".
This occupation indicates that at the travel destination, there are packed with all kinds of group travelers, or commercial taste was too strong and souvenirs all goods manufactured in the factories but rather home-made specialties. Should the business tourism development be blamed for the change in culture that tourism has brought about? Today, there are many travelers choosing to reflect from themselves. They maintain that they should bear reverence for nature and respect for local culture. A seemingly comprehensive concept which challenges the traditional concept of tourism, "responsible travel " has been becoming more and more popular, and this include respect for the protection of the environment, local cultures and thinking on sustainable development.
There is an old saying says, to let the Himalayas to change you, rather than to change theHimalayas. There is no doubt that tourism has affected the area and surrounding communities to a large extent. Some of these effects are good and others are bad, and they cannot be generalized. However, when we say that the locals have changed a lot, we seem rarely to reflect on our own responsibility we should take as a traveler. A rather ironic truth is: the reason why we are not willing to go to those scenic spots which have been developed precisely because, as one of the tourists, we inadvertently have destroyed the original beauty. We do not want to repeat the others' routes but we do not have the courage to develop our own; we want to experience traditional culture, but are we are unwilling to give up the comfort that we have been used to. When we see the houses, transport and clothing in traditional villages tending to be modernized, we tend to be disappointed, but all this happened to our own culture and we have never questioned whether this modernization is appropriate or not.
