Ethical travel with fair-trade tourism

If fair-trade coffee is the most ethical, most humanitarian way to enjoy your morning beverage at your local (or nationally-owned) cafe – than shouldn’t fair-trade tourism be an equally popular menu item at your local travel agency? The people at Tourism Concern think so. They lead the way in promoting fair-trade or ethical travel, and their organization is committed to bringing fair trade principles to the forefront of the global tourism industry.

What exactly is fair-trade tourism? Like other tourism terms: ecotourism, sustainable travel, alternative travel – it can be a somewhat ambiguous, hard-to-define term. What are the guidelines to determine what makes for an “ethical” trip? We know when we are drinking fair-trade coffee, but how do we know when we are fair-trade traveling?

For starters, you can check with the Ethical Travel Guide published by Tourism Concern. This guidebook not only gives the reasons why fair-trade is so important for tourism, but it also gives basic guidelines and ideas for planning ethical trips. When you’re traveling, check to make sure that you follow some of the basic tenets their Travel Code:

• Learn about the country you are visiting. Translation: Do your homework. Know something about the history, geography, economic and political situation of a new land before you enter into it.
  
• Know about the cost of your holiday. Translation: Think about where exactly your money is going – is it going directly back to locals, or is it maybe filtering out to multinational corporations?
  
• Haggle responsibly. Translation: Consider the price you would be willing to be for something, and keep in mind that you are most likely wealthy compared to local people.
  
• Open yourself to culture. Translation: Try to learn about the customs and beliefs of the local people – and expect that they are different than your own. Be prepared to adapt the way you dress, talk, and behave.
  
• Think about you footprint. Translation: Consider the kind of ecological mark you are making on the land – think about your waste, take biodegradable products, bring a water bottle, and conserve resources as much as possible.
  

Along with following this Travel Code, you can use the Ethical Travel Guide’s advice on specific destinations. The guidebook’s regional directory offers specific lodgings, tour operators, and local groups that meet with their fair trade principles. You can find anything from eco-lodges and village tours to homestays and nature reserves.

The sound advice offered in the guidebook can help anyone plan an adventurous and exhilarating trip while at the same time protecting the rights and welfare of local communities.