Ecotourism and Conscious Travel

I love to travel.  It’s been a part of my life since I was little.  My parents loved exploring random new routes to my grandparents’ houses.  We drove all over the US, and visited state and national parks constantly.  When I went off to college, I joined study abroad and was fascinated by living in Cambridge, and then London.  I’ve lived in Tokyo, Paris, and various places around the US.  Every home base is a jumping off point to explore the world around me.  And sadly, at 40 years old, I have just now realized how important my travel decisions are.

This video was taken in a moment when I was feeling sad about the state of the world.  We had just come back onto our cruise ship from Nassau, in the Bahamas.  And although I was positive there must be an ethical ecotourism and conscious travel option to visit that day, we struck out.  I even went to the top ranks of the Disney tour planners, and they knew of nothing.

I mean seriously… how can it be possible?  So many people, like me, must want to support conscious options when they travel to the Bahamas, yet there was nothing that I felt honestly did that.

I know it’s not easy to run a service for tourists that puts ethical animal treatment and conservation above income.  Tourism is the livelihood of so many people on this earth.  It made me question whether there’s anything anywhere that puts the earth, and especially animals, first.  Is that even possible any more?

In that moment I promised myself to look for an animal or wildlife sanctuary, or conservation area, every time I travel.  I want my money to support the people who work so hard to keep these places alive.  I want ecotourism and conscious travel to be a part of my life.

But I’m not exactly sure how to find the good ones.  It’s not that easy when you’re scheduling a trip from your computer, and counting on Google to show you the ethical options.  Am I right?

So with each trip, I’m researching, and capturing the resources that I find here.  I hope you’ll share the resources that you find too.

The International Ecotourism Society defines ecotourism as this:

• responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment,
• sustains the well-being of the local people,
• and involves interpretation and education

Seems broad enough to be easy to find right?  Well maybe…  I had a hard time.  BUT one of my friends, Jade, is a travel blogger (at Vagabond 3) and runs an influencer marketing agency.  She said that there are over 500 ecotourism and conscious travel bloggers out there!  I found about 50 so far, and my favorite ones are below.

So I did learn my lesson in Nassau.  PLAN AHEAD.

You’ll not only save yourself from not finding options, but you’ll choose more ethical options for your housing accommodations, as well as your tours and activities.

Here are some of my favorite resources from Jade’s list and my ongoing research.

Booking Engines:

• Audubon International – https://directory.auduboninternational.org/directory
• Better Places Travel – https://www.betterplacestravel.com/
• Book Different – https://www.bookdifferent.com/en/
• Eco Hotels – https://ecohotels.com/
• Eco Luxury – https://ecoluxury.com/en/
• Natural Habitat Adventures – https://www.nathab.com/
• NuMundo.org – https://numundo.org/
• Transat – https://www.transat.com/
• Wayaj – https://wayaj.com/

Lists of Hotels:

• Charlie on Travel – https://charlieontravel.com/
• Chasing Travel – https://www.chasingtravel.com/explore/
• Ethical Traveler – https://ethicaltraveler.org/journeys/
• Girl About the Globe – https://www.girlabouttheglobe.com/
• Green Globe – https://greenglobe.com/members/
• Green Global Travel – https://greenglobaltravel.com/
• Green Hotels – http://greenhotels.com/members.php
• Green Loons – https://greenloons.com/green-vacation-collection/
• Green With Renvy – https://greenwithrenvy.com/
• Justin Plus Lauren – https://justinpluslauren.com/
• Smarter Travel – https://www.smartertravel.com/destinations/
• Soul Travel Blog – https://soultravelblog.com/
• The Planet D – https://theplanetd.com/destinations
• The Uprooted Rose –https://theuprootedrose.com/
• Travel for Wildlife – https://www.travel4wildlife.com/
• Verde Mode – https://www.verdemode.com/

This is an area where I feel like as simple human beings we have the ability to make a big difference.  If we fall in love with a sanctuary, and we share it with everyone we know, someone will probably visit based on our recommendation.  Then one of their friends will visit.  And so on.  Our money is all going to a good place, keeping their work alive.  And eventually if enough people ask for these options from tour planners, we’ll change the face of tourism.

If you found a good spot, and you’re willing to share your experience, please email me, and let me know.  I would love to help you spread the word through our blog.  And I would love to try your resource if I travel to the same place in the future.

I’ve only discovered one of these so far.  But Animals Asia has a petition that you can join to help influence Trip Advisor to take cruel animal tourism options off of their site.  It’s a start.  Please share any other resources like this that you find.  ..xx

https://www.animalsasia.org/us/tripadvisor.html

And… an inspirational article about my favorite booking aggregator Booking.com ;-)

https://www.peta.org/media/news-releases/booking-com-drops-seaworld-ticket-sales-elephant-rides-after-peta-appeal/

And… a blog that I think is filled with a lot of great discussion about ecotourism, if you’d like to dig in more:

https://www.cayugacollection.com/cayuga-sustainable-travel-blog/