Recognising low-budget sustainable travel

Stuart McDonald, Travelfish

The myth that sustainable tourism must carry a premium price tag should be dismissed. Budget travel should receive the acknowledgement it deserves from both the industry and from destinations as a whole that it is the most sustainable and lowest impact form of inbound tourism, and the least prone to economic leakages and environmental damage. Smart destinations must cotton on to the value independent budget travellers bring, be it through longer stays, less environmentally damaging forms of transportation, and spending that places a larger proportion of revenue in the actual hands of small, locally run tourism enterprises rather than those of international conglomerates. Longer-stay tourist visas catering to this specific market should be brought on-stream as soon as possible.

Lastly, the curtain should be pulled on the purported sustainability panacea of luxury tourism, revealing much of this sector as the most egregious, leakage-prone, and environmentally rapacious sector of tourism’s many realms.

Travelfish.org is the leading independent travel guide for Southeast Asia

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