Is travelling still sustainable in the long term?
Or the least glamorous aspect of travelling
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Traveling seems like an unlimited pass of our modern society, but is it for real, or is there a price tag behind it? In today’s article, we’ll try to understand the price we pay and how long we can still have the pass.
As summer slowly fades away and September arrives, I find myself reflecting on my travel experiences thus far. Over the past three years, even though I've been moving from one place to another on a monthly basis, I've remained within Europe. From the European islands to the mainland, I've been continuously exploring this continent, yet three years later, I still sense there is so much more to discover.
We often perceive Europe primarily through its major cities and popular tourist destinations. This perspective made sense a couple of years ago when travel was beginning to take off. These destinations undoubtedly offer a wealth of sights to see and historical heritage worth experiencing at least once in a lifetime.
However, is this approach sustainable in the long term?
Lately, I've been reading numerous articles about the impact of tourism on specific cities and how our well-intentioned efforts to do good can inadvertently lead to harm.
In 1950, there were 25 million international tourist arrivals. By 1970, the number had surged to 166 million. Jumping to 1990, the figure had grown to 435 million. From 1990 to 2018, these numbers more than tripled, reaching 1.442 billion. Projections estimate 1.8 billion tourist arrivals by 2030.
This phenomenon of doing harm in an attempt to do good was best explained in one of Cristian Lupsa's articles- a Romanian writer, you can check his Substack here- in which he delved into this very topic, exploring personal stories that can mislead us into thinking we are doing good by actually doing harm.
This behavior is notably apparent in travel, as we often begin with the assumption that travel is inherently beautiful and harmless, and our primary role is to relish it.
Yet, beneath every journey lies a myriad of implications, much like the choices we make.
I've touched upon this topic several times before, and I'll continue to do so, as words cannot adequately convey the significance of this aspect. My belief is that the rise of low-cost flights across Europe prompted us to prioritize destinations based on flight prices rather than the inherent value of the location itself.
This has led to throngs of tourists flooding Venice during peak seasons, where a single ticket costs 50-60 Euros, or swarms of visitors descending upon Lisbon or Paris year-round. I'm not asserting that this approach is entirely wrong because we all engage in it. However, the real impact of tourism on these cities is far more complex than the decision to choose them as destinations.
Tourism can potentially inflict more harm than good upon a specific location in various ways, and managing the daily influx of hundreds of people through a city can prove an immense challenge for any government, regardless of its competence.
While I don't anticipate refraining from visiting these cities after reading this article, there are measures we can all adopt to minimize our impact on each new destination we select:
Research is cool
My consistent recommendation for short and extended travels is to take your time and avoid overwhelming places already swamped with visitors, such as major cities and well-trodden tourist spots. Investing time in research and uncovering lesser-known locales marks the first step toward becoming a more considerate traveler.
Over these past three years, I've come to realize that for every major city, there are at least ten other towns and cities within each country that are worth exploring. So, by visiting off-grid places, you can help them start to thrive and give some space to breathe to the other destinations where tourists suffocate.
This is one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is that we focus so much on researching tourist destinations that we forget that each country has a story to tell and things to learn from.
What are their customs?
What are their struggles?
Here are some insights into some European struggles that started or were influenced by the surge of tourism that you might’ve heard about or are worth checking out:
Curiosity and openness to understanding behavior and way of things can make us more present in our own experience and more mindful regarding how we treat that city. By understanding the struggles, we can start to empathize more with that country and to start to make shifts in our mindset.
That leads me to our second point.
Knowledge is Key - Don't Remain Ignorant
Our contemporary travel culture often centers around immediate gratification and living in the moment during our holidays. Once we reach a destination, the role of a tourist naturally takes precedence.
This can yield personal benefits, but it doesn't necessarily serve the interests of the country we're visiting.
During my recent stay in Denmark, what struck me as an Eastern European residing abroad was their meticulous recycling system involving ten distinct categories for waste disposal. I reference my Eastern European background because recycling education in my home country is considerably lacking. Adjusting to a recycling system with ten categories required personal effort and research. However, when we're tourists, we often opt for convenience and overlook what we already know.
Do we truly consider our water consumption at the hotel or how we dispose of trash?
These may seem like minor examples, but countless ways exist through which our simple holiday choices can impact the environment around us, potentially affecting the city's prospects for welcoming future generations of tourists.
One resource I find very insightful on this topic is The Carbon Almanac by Seth Godin, a book that dives deeper into how we can reduce our negative impact on the planet.
Before being tourists, we are all people with different backgrounds, education, contexts, and resources, and it is normal to have different perspectives on this and different knowledge about them. The perk of traveling and being able to access the world with ease comes with a shared responsibility of preserving or even enhancing it. Traveling might mean fun and leisure, but it is again a huge opportunity for growth if we stop using countries as pitstops or pins on virtual maps.
So the question remains, how much do we consider these things when traveling rather than live in the moment and forget about the consequences?
This month’s destinations are designed for those who want to enjoy late autumn (October and November) in places that are still warm enough not to worry about winter weather. Türkiye, Spain, and France are three countries worth visiting in this period if you’re not 100% into winter temperatures and still want to enjoy the sun.
Nomad Listing's recommendations:
Don't forget; if you're interested in understanding the criteria I use to create these recommendations, you can check them out here.
📌Discover Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
📌Enjoy sea and mountains in Corsica
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