"Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time." I think this sums up what a responsible traveller should be.
While browsing through the internet, I stumbled upon a link on "The Responsible Tourist and Traveller". Apparently its brochure has been approved by the World Committee on Tourism Ethics (WCTE) in May 2005 and endorsed by the UN World Tourism Organization (WTO), a United Nations agency in charge for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accepted tourism, and adopted at Dakar, Senegal in December 2005, by which the General Assembly recommended the dissemination of this text to the travelling public worldwide.
In April 2010, the "Practical Tips for the Global Traveller" was prepared by the WCTE for its 9th meeting which was held in Luxor, Egypt. This was done to facilitate the understanding of the principles of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism by tourist, a more user-friendly text and format of the above leaflet. The new brochure highlights those principles of the Code directly related to tourists, to help guide travellers in making their behavour more responsible.
While the old adage is still true and in fact included, the new leaflets/brochures, published by the WCTE, urges tourists and travellers to be more pro-active. Things like supporting the local economy by buying local products and practicing fair trade, understanding the culture and learning a few words of the country one is visiting, and a lot more tips we can use in our travels.
4 comments:
It's not only about traveling and living footprints but how responsible a one can be to protect the places you've gone thru.
you are right mitch. i guess this is one of the reasons they published these brochures as guide to all travellers. not only for international but domestic tourists too.
i think we should treat the places we visit the same way we treat our homes. ;)
or when visiting a friend's house? kasi makalat ako sa bahay namin eh, he he he
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