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Jul 415 min read

From Tourist to Steward: The Journey to Sustainable Travel

Updated: Sep 25



As global travel rebounds to pre-pandemic levels with 1.4 billion international arrivals in early 2024, the environmental cost is increasingly apparent. From Mount Fuji swarmed by tourists to over-crowded buses in Barcelona, we discuss over-tourism and measures to address it. Join us as we examine global signals, like Spain's proposal to ban short domestic flights and the rise of tourism taxes around the world. We also explore how aligning incentives can promote sustainable behavior. Tune in for a thoughtful discussion on being responsible travelers and balancing exploration with respect for local communities and the environment.





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Episode Transcript:

Sue: Welcome to Signal Shift by Horizon Shift Lab. We’re your hosts, Lana Price, Raakhee Natha, and Sue Chi. Each episode, we explore the latest signals—in technology, culture, and society—uncovering insights that will impact our daily lives in the future. Join us as we shift perspectives, explore possibilities, and delve into real changes in our world. Curious to learn more? Go to horizonshiftlab.com.


Hello, and welcome everyone. This is Sue, and I'm joined, as usual, by my fabulous co-hosts Lana and Raakhee. Well, summer holidays are upon us, and so we decided to dive into the topic of sustainable travel. 


According to UN Tourism, which is a specialized agency of the United Nations, the latest world tourism barometer shows that global travel is booming again. We have 1.4 billion international tourist arrivals just in the first quarter of 2024. So it looks like we're going to be back to pre-pandemic levels this year.


Y’know, but the opportunity for travel also can come with a hefty environmental price tag, and some reports say that global travel and tourism contribute to 8% of greenhouse gas emissions.


But we're understanding this more and more as a population, and we want to do more. But where do we start? There's so much involved from the travel, from modes of transportation to get to a place. Once you get there, how do you get around? Where do you stay? What types of activities are there? The list can continue on and on. And that's just to name a few.


So Lana and Rakhee, I'm really curious, where did this week's theme of sustainable travel take you? What signals have you picked up?


Raakhee: It's Raakhee here. I think, yeah, I saw so many of these signals recently. I felt like I had to bring this one up.


But most recently, I saw an article by Time Magazine about how a resort town called Fujikawaguchiko in Japan, where you get a really beautiful view of Mount Fuji, has just been overwhelmed by tourists, and particularly, oddly as these things happen, it's a convenience store with a parking lot, like has these amazing views of the mountain. And people came to know about this through social media. And so, you know, this random thing that people shouldn't have known and spread to tons of people. So you had, you know, tons of people swarming and flocking there, to the extent that it's not tenable for the residents there -- you know, people jumping on the rooftops of shorter buildings to get views, and it's just the litter increased and all those things. It just changes life for people there, very quickly and suddenly.


And you know, this comes within numbers, like in Japan itself, I think, March this year, their tourism for that month hit about 3 million, which is their highest record yet. So they're grappling with over-tourism overall. And so this town has decided to erect a barrier, which is going to be about 20 meters long and about eight feet wide, which will completely wreck the photos and taking pictures of their view. They see it as a temporary basis, but they are doing it because they want these tourists gone.


And you know, in a similar vein, I saw a couple of things that were like disturbing the last few weeks. One was somebody who was hiking the Himalayas, who fell. And then I saw the line, the queue of the amount of people that queue up to hike the Himalayas. And it looks like a line to buy tickets or something somewhere on a mountain. And I was like, I had no idea that's what it looked like. And that's a crazy visual, like you queue up to climb a mountain. Like, that's how many people are climbing the Himalayas, right? It doesn't add up.


And Venice, we know, has continuously struggled with this, but they are continuing to add new measures, like they've banned things like loudspeakers, you know, and I think they're capping something, some of the group sizes as well. So they're implementing more and more rules.


Anyways, I see a lot of signals that to me point to the fact that for travel to be sustainable, we're going to have to see more limits and quotas and regulations from, I think, coming from towns and cities themselves, because residents are going to call for it.


So I do, yeah, I think, I think that's going to lend itself to tourism becoming more sustainable. But I think it's just not, it's not tenable. It's not livable for residents, I think. And I don't, you know, it's not going to come from tourist companies themselves. It's not going to come from, you know, travel companies, it's going to have to come from the people living in cities to say, whoa, this is hurting the very places that people are visiting because they're here and then they're gone, but there's a bigger impact.


So I think we're going to see more limits and quotas and I don't know to what extent in the future, but I think they're going to have to take that pretty seriously to prevent the kind of, yeah, I think, destruction we are seeing, unfortunately, with the number of feet crossing paths.


[5:27]


Lana: So that's really interesting. I know there's something similar here in Barcelona, where I am, where there's a bus that goes to Park Güell, which is a popular tourist site, and the residents asked the city council to get the bus route removed from Apple Maps and Google Maps because too many tourists were taking the bus and the residents were not able to get on the bus. And so they're trying to limit the ways that tourists can find out how to use public transportation to and from the park.


So it's interesting, yeah, these ideas of taxes on tourists or different ways to curb over tourism, maybe, and some of what you're talking about.


Sue: Yeah and that intersection between what the residents are expecting of the place that they live in and maybe some of the unwritten rules of what they might expect from people visiting a particular place. And when that doesn't meet expectation, then walls can arise like that. Interesting. Lana, what's your signal for the week?


[6:37]


Lana: So I also had another signal from Spain, which is that Spain just followed, is following something that France did last year, which is banning domestic flights where you can take a train in under two and a half hours. So this is something that they're proposing, but it's going to take a couple more stages of amendments before it can be approved by their Senate and finally become law. But that's something that's in the works right now.


And so I think what's interesting about Europe is that, this kind of perversely actually impacts people with lower income because, I mean, it makes sense why they're doing this, right? Because flying is like 80 times worse for the climate than taking the train. So they're trying to incentivize people to take the train. But flights are way cheaper than taking the train. And so because flights are cheaper, it's easier for families to go to different places. It's easier for people to live in one place and work in another or send your kids to school in a different place.


So like, I guess basically low cost airlines have democratized travel, allowing people to have international experiences. But then when you take that away, those are the people that are that might be hurt the most by it.


So even though it is a step to try to reduce carbon emissions, you know, I think some of the critics are saying like the real offenders are private planes or those who who are the most frequent travelers. So like there's a small population of people who fly like over 35,000 miles or like 50,000 kilometers in a year. And the frequent flyers are the ones that produce the most carbon emissions.


That also, I think there's also been talks about how airlines with their frequent flyer programs, right, are incentivizing people to fly more. And so you get like this status, you get all these perks, but really you're doing like the most damage, right.


And so we need to better align our incentives.

Like I think those two examples are examples of how price as an incentive for behavior is not aligned with the behavior that we're trying to promote, right. So if we want people to take the train instead of flying, then we have to shift the price potentially, if that's possible.


And then, you know, I think similarly, if we want people to be very mindful about the number of miles that they're flying in a year, we can't like give them all kinds of perks and incentives the more that they fly. And so that that was kind of what sort of came up for me as I was looking around.


[9:38]


Sue: Thanks, Lana. Great point. So the signal I have is very similar to both of yours.

You know, you mentioned Venice, you also mentioned this tourist tax, and I found an article that said at this point over 60 countries now have some kind of tourism tax and we should be expecting more to come. 


And you know, there's one article that just outlined nine different countries and seven of the nine have implemented this tax within the past 12 months. So this is starting to speed up. And it's countries all over the world. And so it's not just in one hotspot. 


And so I think, you know, part of what you're all saying is, yeah, the tourism numbers are just continuing to increase. There's no way this is going to slow down. And as we do that, I saw some statistic that 80% of global travelers visit 10% of destinations across the world. It's extremely concentrated in where we're going.


And then on top of that, the irony is, you have all these tourists come like the Mount Fuji example, but then they might not be respectful of the place. They might, you know, there might be trash, there might be litter, all these things. And yet what they're going for is natural beauty.


And so you're kind of in a way just degrading the natural beauty you came for and probably what the residents are also living there for, right?


So I think for me, this is a signal that there is just now people are recognizing, especially local governments, local residents, that there is a cost to protecting and stewarding this amazing asset that they have.


And so as they pay taxes for this stuff, so should others who spend some time there. That's my guess. And like what's behind some of this. 


And so for me, the big theme that I'm picking up is this idea of stewardship. What does it take for travelers, but also local citizens alike, to steward a place and go from maybe back in the day, we just assumed natural environmental areas of beauty were just that and they just existed. And now we're realizing, no, we have to protect them. We have to grow them and more things like that.

And that comes at a price.


Is there almost like an agreement you can come to at a place where you have the city or a group of residents saying when you come to visit us, this is what we would love you to do. We'd love you to go see these sites. We'd love you to spend time here, but also we'd love you to pay attention to these particular things to make sure you leave this a little bit better than when you came.


And to that effect, I saw that UAE in the last couple of weeks announced the launch of a blue residency. And so it's a little bit different from what I was thinking, but they're basically giving a 10-year residency status to anyone who has expertise in environmental sustainability so that they can protect some of these areas. And so that's more of a professional visa.


But I was thinking, is there some kind of like sustainability green tourist visa that maybe you get a discount, or you maybe you get special privilege status when you visit because you're going to abide by some of the mutual agreements that you have with the people you're visiting. So I thought that might be an interesting idea for the future.


[13:01]


Raakhee: Yeah. I love that. I'm totally seeing the link to what Lana is saying there regards to the frequent flyers, right? It's like we can still have point systems, but what behavior are we rewarding?


And if it's your sustainability actions, like something like that, and that you could actually see that and how much you've contributed; whether it's, I don't know, you've got to have a composting facility and you get a coupon there or something, right? And it's like, oh, you composted so much this year. And those become your frequent flyers. So you're balancing your footprint really, right, by your actions. I think that would be so much better because right now, frequent flyers, they only just encourage materialism either way. So you've got to spend a lot to even get those miles, right?


And then vice versa. They kind of play off each other, and maybe that culture needs to shift as well. But I think that's a really cool way to change frequent flyer miles.


Sue: And I think that who is at this table when you're trying to align some of these incentives will be really important, you know. Can the country convene a body like that of both business and residents and travelers?


I think one thing I'm picking up between this wall, you know, some of the additional tax incentives and things like that is a lot of the cost has been born on individuals, whether you're the local resident or you're an individual traveler, now you're getting taxed, right?


But to be able to see at the table both as people, as organizations and governments, what can each entity essentially do to help? Because it's all of our problem. It's not just one particular person or thing.


Lana: I think what we're talking about in terms of sustainable travel and stewardship and just being a responsible tourist. I mean, I think about Hawaii, I think Hawaii does a really good job of sort of educating people on cultural norms and, you know, what it means to, you know, be a steward of the land and how incorporating their indigenous Hawaiian culture even in, you know, it's like aloha spirit, right, but also about Ohana, about the family.


But, you know, even when you go to the beach, like, I think there's a lot of signage about how to kind of like respect the beach and, you know, take what you bring with you or, you know, I think they really integrate and are very mindful about promoting sustainable tourism because it's very important for the economy, you know. 


Because I think there is also a potential that we can go too far, right, that if we discourage or tax tourists, it will have a financial impact as well.


And so trying to strike that balance, weaving in some of these, what might be the norms for your place that others might not be aware of, right, because they're not from there? And so how do we sort of really encourage and promote those, those practices?


Sue: This wouldn't necessarily apply to a lot of places, but the memory I have is when I was spending some time in Ghana, and my host there told me a story -- who's also not from Ghana -- told me a story of traveling through the African continent, especially sub-Saharan Africa, and she would go to these towns, and they would literally have a meeting with the village chief to get to know each other before she could be invited to stay for the night, right?


But once she was, then it was this huge party, right, then you're invited to dinner, and now you're friends with everyone and you stay the night and they protect you and they kind of show you around the place, and she had to do this every single place she stayed at. And you know that's not practical for global travel, but that's kind of the sense I'm hoping for when we hear about responsibility stewardship.


It again goes back to this relational piece of, you know, in a world of travel where it can be so impersonal, you're still going to someone's city, you're still going to someone where a lot of people live, how can we do a little bit more to have more mutual understanding of what it means to be in a place together?


[17:19]


Raakhee: No, that's such a beautiful sentiment, and yeah, I think you're right, it's at least on a values basis, right, or as a principle, it should be something like that that should be set in stone.


Whereas I think travel has become, and social media is probably spurred there as well, it's a very selfish me-and-my-photo journey, and it shouldn't be that, right. It's about connecting with the people you're going to, and it's much about leaving them richer, and yourself richer from that point of interaction or connection. And maybe changing that value system about how we talk about travel, and what that means. And even how kids in school are educated about travel, because that's where it starts, right, shifting the value, so. Because I think with all of us growing up, there's always about, oh, travel expands your views and travel, but it's always your, your, what is travel going to do for me?


So, yeah, I think I shifted in how we even educate and talk about travel and what it is.


Sue: Yeah, that's true, and that does require a mindset shift, it's not something we can easily do, right. Which is why I think we're talking about this level of tension that's happening and resulting in some of these actions right now. I'm curious with these signals: is there anything coming up for you in your own life when you're thinking about the next destination, or maybe how you're traveling in the future?


Lana: Well, I'm a tourist right now, because I'm in a foreign country, and so I am thinking about a specific instance where I'm having some communications with my landlord. And I guess as you were speaking, I was like, I think my approach was, you know, I've been requesting these things on my timetable, and so it did make me think like, okay, how can this be of mutual benefit, you know. Obviously I'm paying to stay here, but I don't want to have a relationship that reflects an attitude of, ‘Well, I'm a tourist, and I'm visiting here and I want these things, and where are they?’ right. And so it's more of that being, I don't know, representing my country, like I'm representing what it means to open your home to somebody else, and so like, can I take a different stance?


And so this is helping me see things from a different perspective in a very practical and pragmatic way.


Sue: Thanks for sharing that, Lana. It used to be that people open their cities to attract tourists, they come here, we will kind of roll out the red carpet, and that is also shifting, so that's an interesting conversation you're having right now. Raakhee, what about you?


Raakhee: Yeah, I think just an observation in our lives, and I think COVID sparked this for everybody, but really changed how we looked at travel, and what we're doing and how frequently. And because I think, yeah, I definitely had that travel mindset, and going everywhere every opportunity, you know, we could. And then just spurred with a lot of personal things like how I eat, being, you know, quite challenging, and trying to figure that out, but just, yeah, I think for us, we've also somehow just naturally, I think reduced that footprint of, oh well, we've been to this place so many times, let's go to other places. And really thinking about which businesses do we visit there, and things that I never thought I would have been interested before. But when I go to a place, I want to also go to the farms, and know the food that's coming from there, and maybe get some produce from there, and yeah, I don't know if it's just a shift that comes with age, right, and as we get older. But I think valuing different things about places, and definitely, I think less interested in the touristy stuff, that you know, we've all seen a lot of in that, but wanting to truly get to know the people, and where the produce comes from, and just the cultural norms, like how do you do things that are different, through interest in cultural practices, and language, and those sorts of things, so yeah.


Sue: I love that story, and I think for me, what some of this means is one, just letting go of a crazy itinerary. Because we all love planning, right, and so if there's just some things, or if we don't get to it, it's okay, just go slowly and observe. I think that's the key for me is just observation, which I tend to forget about sometimes when you're in such a race to do everything. 


All right, well, listeners, I hope you all are having a wonderful summer, and wherever you're traveling to, think about what sustainable travel looks like to you, and maybe some observations you're picking up along the way. And thank you for listening, and until next time, goodbye.


[22:29]

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