Australia Responsible Travel

Your tourist dollars can make a big impact on the destinations you visit. The choices you make during your trip can have powerful effects on local communities—for better or for worse. Travelers who care about the destinations and environments they explore should make themselves aware of the social and cultural implications of their choices. Simple decisions such as buying local products, paying fair prices for products or services, and attempting to speak the local language can have a strong, positive effect on the community.

Community-based tourism aims to channel money into the local economy by emphasizing tours and cultural programs that are run by members of the host community. This type of tourism also benefits the travelers themselves, as it often takes them beyond the traditional sites of a given region. Visitors to Australia should consider visiting some of its seventeen World Heritage sites. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated these landmarks as essential pieces of the universal human heritage, and as such, entitled to protection. However, nature preserves are expensive to maintain, and pressure from developers can threaten efforts at conservation. The more revenue these locations can generate from tourism, the more plausible it is that they will continue to be protected. Luckily for the environmentally-concerned, the World Heritage list includes some of Australia’s most popular tourist destinations, such as the Sydney Opera House and the Great Barrier Reef, but visitors should also consider visiting less-frequented spots, such as the Gondwana Rainforest, Fraser Island, Purnulu National Park, and Kakadu National Park. See http://whc.unesco.org for a complete list.

Visitors should also consider the social implications of their activity choices. Indigenous Australians are some of the most economically disadvantaged people in the country; socially conscious travelers will probably want to support any tours or adventure trips run by the local tribe. The Ethical Travel Guide (UK£13), a project of Tourism Concern (☎+44 20 7133 3330; www.tourismconcern.org.uk), is an excellent resource for information on community-based travel, with a directory of 300 establishments in 60 countries.