Tis the Season the Sustainable way

I just read an interesting article on luxury travel but keeping it  sustainable at the same time. What better way to be conscious, impactful and make a difference in the most  superficial way while travelling the world, exploring new cultures, food and drink. Travelling to countries like Albania and having a great mystery behind not knowing what to expect is an adventure in itself. But what many people don’t realize that behind these “off the beaten path” destinations there is a bustle of work by the local government in placing new-found tariffs, standards, and infrastructure in place.  Mega NGO’s hunting after grants for training the locals on how to compete in the tourism industry. Local  tour operators attending MEGA travel shows spreading the word about their country and why you should visit. All this preparation and hope for the “big rush” of travellers to come visit; ultimately making these remote locations not so remote anymore. This is the tourism cycle, exploit unknown destinations to the maximum, damage the environment, raise prices than one day ‘back pedal’ to reduce the amount of visitors  and bring back the ‘good old days’. “The cause of over tourism has been identified as a lack of government understanding about the negative impacts of tourism or planning it well; the growth of the middle classes globally and growth of the Chinese market. All these things are true but they completely miss the real cause of over tourism, which is the collusion between airlines, cruise ships and Governments to create artificially cheap flights and cruises at the expense of the taxpayer and the environment.” Responsible Travel article...