Why sustainable travel isn't just about carbon footprints

Flying harms the planet, yet tourism can drive positive hange. Here's how to travel smart, by Juliet Kinsman

- Juliet Kinsman

WE’RE gently swaying at the door of my two-berth train cabin on our overnighter from Hanoi to Hue, enjoying a bucket-list travel moment. We’ve woken up to dawn gilded scenes of banana-tree-framed paddy fields, Buddhist pagodas, motorbikes stopped at rail crossings, a beautiful blur in the early morning light.

Tu, our Vietnamese guide, later reminds me and my travelling partner, podcast editor Jon Weeks, that as idyllic as the passing landscapes are, many here might have risked their lives to try to illegally migrate to perceived greener pastures if it weren’t for visitors like us.

Jon and I are in Vietnam to explore exactly this for the Standard’s latest sustainable travel podcast: how connecting in a more meaningful way with the places we go to and the people we meet there is a win-win for everyone.

International tourism means more Vietnamese can stay in their home villages, since trips such as ours are putting money in local pockets. You might ask what this has to do with sustainable travel, but sustainability is not just about carbon footprints. Despite the enormous pressure that emissions from flying place on the environment, travel is one of the most effective tools for climate solutions, driving positive change by helping communities such as the ones we’ve met in Vietnam to thrive and prosper. And this very human win-win sits alongside the importance of tackling global warming.

As you read this, symptoms of the climate emergency are everywhere — extreme heatwaves in India. Wildfires in Canada where smoke crossed the Atlantic to choke holidaymakers on the beach in Portugal. Catastrophic floods in Brazil, Kenya — even the UAE. And yet we’re seeing sustainability slip down the agenda. Booking. com’s survey of more than 31,000 holidaymakers found that while 75 per cent of respondents want to travel more sustainably, 49 per cent see sustainable options as expensive.