Green travel is in, and so is ‘greenwash’

With environmental advocates rocking the world, the travel industry has to be up to the challenge. With the growing demand for green travel, hotels, resorts, tour and travel agencies, and other related businesses are busy creating travel packages aimed at satisfying these demands. Some are authentic, but others are just masquerading. The latter are referred to as ‘greenwash’. Therefore, if you want to travel sustainably and responsibly, you need to validate your bookings if it is green travel or greenwash.

Most of the time it is a disappointment to end up in a vacation where going green just makes it too hard – hotels changing sheets and towels daily, hotel-provided toiletries in miniatures, no recycling program, etc. If you are planning your next travel, how can you make sure that living and traveling green will be a breeze? How do you tell the difference between the real thing and a greenwash? How can you ensure that your travel is contributing to local development?

If you want to know if your vacation is green travel or greenwash, ask the right questions. Here are some of the relevant questions that can help you assess whether the tour operator you are dealing with is offering a genuine eco-friendly package or not:

Questions To Ask About Your Planned Green Vacation

• Do you employ locals in your company? Many international hotels and tour operators still employ people from the West especially for managerial positions. A green and proactive management sees the value of hiring local professionals and experts. A greenwash company will just claim to be green, but still outsource managers. In local tours, the best guides that can show visitors with better insight are those who grew in the place, and know the terrain and history by heart.

• Do you conduct trainings for green travel? What are your sustainable and eco-friendly tourism practices that hotel staff or guides practice? Only tour operators who are interested to provide authentic green travel to their clients will ensure that every employee understands what green travel or its related concepts – responsible travel, ecotourism, sustainable travel – really mean. Generally, these companies have something in their vision, mission, goals, or policies that would clearly state their position insofar as green travel is concerned.

• Do you have projects where the beneficiaries or part of the network is local groups in the community? This can be a testimony of involvement in the local development. They can be allocating a certain percentage of their income on a worthwhile project in which some marginalized groups in the community can benefit. A true-blooded green company must be working with the local charities or conservation groups.

• Do you have a ‘green’ purchasing policy? Where are you buying your needs? Green hotels and tour operators buy locally and those products that can’t be supplied by local vendors can be purchased from the nearest suppliers. They patronize the local produce that strengthen local economy and minimize the carbon footprint of the products they buy.

There are other questions you can ask to ascertain whether the vacation you are about to have is green travel or greenwash. At this stage, you need to do this because there is a great deal of impostors out there that prey on green travel advocates. Do not fall into their trap.