The Happy Planet Index as Travel Guide
This article appeared on Your Travel Choice by TIES. To view the original article, click here. February 2011.
Ethical tourism is not just about travel choices made on the road or steering clear of the over-capacity beaten path. It’s also about choosing destinations based on where tourism is most needed and deserved. In the past, calls for boycotts have tried to discourage travelers from visiting certain places, with mixed results. Perhaps a more effective approach is positive reinforcement – rewarding destinations that are making progress and doing things well.
The Ethical Traveler’s 10 Best Destinations
Each year, the Ethical Traveler comes out with a list of The Developing World’s 10 Best Ethical Destinations. The organization, which hopes to “empower travelers to change the world,” uses three main criteria. They consider environmental protection, social welfare, and human rights in developing countries, paying close attention to how they have recently changed and improved.
The lineup for 2011 is: Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominica, Latvia, Lithuania, Palau, Poland, Uruguay.
Photo by Zanastardust (Flickr.com/zanastardust)
In this rating, countries make the list by demonstrating growth in all three areas. For example Costa Rica returned to the list after being omitted last year because it took real steps in addressing human trafficking issues. Meanwhile, Belize did not make the cut because of a growing problem with child sex tourism.
The Ethical Traveler does a great job thinking about tourism as economic clout that can influence policy and planning in a destination. But for longer-term travelers who live abroad for awhile, impact reaches far beyond spending money.
To continue reading this article, click here.
