Travelling without moving

Claire McGowan shares her interesting tips and ideas for how to have an ethical holiday.

''If you’re rather unlucky you might take away even more, such as malaria.'' ''No doubt there is plenty of water for the tourists, in their drinks and in their swimming pools and showers.'' ''Wouldn't it instead be a more viable option to limit our total carbon output? To save it up all year, then splurge it on an atmosphere-rotting flight to paradise?

There’s a well-known saying that when you visit a place you should take nothing away but memories, and leave behind nothing but footprints. In reality it could never be possible. Every time we visit another country we leave behind traces: our waste, the carbon output from our car or tour bus and our air conditioning, not to mention the fuel pollution from our flight there. Nor can we avoid using up the water, the food, the air, the resources. If you're rather unlucky or careless you might take away even more, such as malaria or food poisoning.

It’s so easy to book a holiday now. A few clicks of the mouse and you can be virtually halfway round the world. You can book a week in Africa and you can leave the next day. Of course, the ease is also virtual - it doesn’t exist. You’re travelling thousands of miles, and you’re stepping into another world. The country you visit may be suffering shortages of water or food. The people may live in grinding poverty or under constant oppression. You can shelter from it in luxurious hotels and private beaches, but there’s no escaping the fact that you’re in the same country.

Recently, dreaming of a holiday, I found a week in Gambia that was outrageously cheap. Feeling guilty I looked it up on the foreign office website and learnt that the Gambia, while one of the poorest countries in the world, has a reasonable stand on human rights and corruption. You could easily convince yourself that your tourist money will be good for the country. I did wonder, though, how anyone could make the right health preparations at such short notice. Also, I couldn’t help noticing an equally cheap holiday in Kenya, where I’d seen the pictures of livestock dying in a raging drought. No doubt there is plenty of water for the tourists, in their drinks and in their swimming pools and showers.

Despite the recent debate on the environmental impact of air travel, we have not yet been seriously asked to give up our sunshine holidays. It would be a brave government minister indeed to try. Various schemes have been proposed to offset the carbon emissions from air travel with tree planting, but wouldn’t it instead be a more viable option to limit our total carbon output? To save it up all year, then splurge it on an atmosphere-rotting flight to paradise? In the near future carbon rationing may become a possibility, so it could be wise to develop good budgeting skills now.

There is of course an alternative for ethical travel. When you go, you could try leaving behind something more useful: school supplies, an old laptop, money for local NGOs, even your old glasses. You could research beforehand what’s most needed. And when you leave, you could take away something of the language and culture, and a better understanding of what it’s like to live in such heat and dust with no swimming pools or showers, or to face malaria and other diseases without free healthcare. Get something more from your holiday than sunburn and a collection of blurry photos. Have an ethical trip.