Rank Your Travel Options: The Second “R” of Responsible Travel

In my last post, I dove into greater depth on Research, the first R of Responsible Travel, before going on a trip. The second R (out of the 7 Rs of Responsible Travel) involves going a little deeper with that research and prioritizing our options based on our personal travel goals and the best impact for the destination.

The second R is Ranking.

The tourism industry abounds with companies that only care about selling tour packages that will pad their bottom line. Sadly, the chase after the almighty dollar even includes a few companies that appear on the surface to be “doing good” for the people in the destination, such as volunteer organizations. Some organizations are outright exploiting people, cultures, animals, or the environment for financial gain.

Check this out:

Asking a few questions while selecting your tour or volunteer companies, your accommodations, your activities and more, and then voting accordingly with your dollars, could mean the difference between making the world a better place, or causing unintended damage by keeping the money and power in the hands of those who exploit the host country. For an interesting exploration of these topics, check out the documentaries, Poverty, Inc. and The Last Tourist.

4 Questions to Ask to Help Prioritize Which Travel Companies to Support

I'm going to share 4 questions you can ask to help rank and prioritize the companies you should support while traveling.

The first question is, “What does their website say?”

Check out the descriptions of the itineraries and activities on the company’s website.

• Is there anything on the site that shows they care about environmental and social responsibility, humane treatment of animals, or whatever is relevant to their particular business?
• Do they match what you already know to be ethical, responsible, humane, environmentally friendly behavior?
• What are they doing (or at least claiming to do) to support the local economy, provide fair and safe working conditions for their employees, respect the culture, care for the environment, protect the animals, and ensure the safety of the travelers?

For example, if a company claims to be an “elephant sanctuary” and yet you see on the website that they offer elephant rides, elephant painting, and/or have their elephants do “tricks” for the visitors, is it a legitimate sanctuary? Maybe not. If you don't know much about the elephant industry, I recommend watching the documentary, An Apology to Elephants. Please do watch it before riding an elephant or going to a circus or any other activity that involves elephants.

Whether it is an animal encounter, an outdoor adventure, a cultural excursion or an entire tour, take a critical look at the website and make sure their ethics line up with what you feel right doing. If you have a nagging feeling about the company, perhaps it is best to move on.

Once you have a few good options collected, it's time to move to the next question.

The second question is, “What are the reviewers saying?”

Look for clues in the reviews about this company’s ethics, safety practices, and concern for doing the right thing. The company may claim one thing on their site, but after browsing a few thoughtful reviews from their past customers, ask yourself some questions.

• Do those reviews seem to match what the company is claiming?
• Are there credible reports of activities that may be harming the environment, jeopardizing the safety of customers or employees, etc?
• Are you seeing some red flags?

If the company claims to be environmentally and socially responsible, yet reviewers are reporting something contrary again and again, maybe this company does not deserve your business.

Maybe after these first two questions, you've eliminated a couple of contenders and narrowed down your list. There are a couple more questions you can ask to make the best choice among the remaining options.

The third question is, “Is the company locally owned?”

Whether you’re choosing a tour operator, cruise, hotel, volunteer organization or a place to eat or shop, ask yourself: is this local? Or is it a big international chain or based overseas?

The big plus to going local for YOU is that by cutting out the expensive middleman, there is often a significant cost savings to the traveler as well.

This was the case when my husband and I went to Africa for our honeymoon. We found a locally run, woman-owned Kilimanjaro outfitter who was able to arrange both our Kilimanjaro climb and a safari. A trip like that is expensive no matter how you arrange it, but I estimated we were saving at least $2,000-$3,000 USD by going local, based on the prices I saw for the companies with US and Europe-based offices.

No, it was not as convenient. But in the end, the extra effort made it worth it for both us and them. We had an excellent experience, and the money we paid stayed in Tanzania rather than going into the pockets of wealthy foreigners.

Tourism can indeed contribute to the economy of a developing country, but the benefits are not always as extensive as one might think due to a phenomenon known as tourism leakage. According to the UN Atlas of the Oceans, for every $100 USD spent on a vacation tour by a tourist from a developed country, as little as $5 USD actually stays in the developing-country destination's economy. By choosing locally owned companies, you can make a much bigger positive economic impact on the places you visit.

The fourth question is, “Is the company certified or vetted in some credible way?”

If you’re considering a carbon offsetting company, tour company, excursion, or activity, look to see if they have any kind of credible independent certification that demonstrates that they are sustainable and ethical, or that a trusted source has recommended them with no compensation to do so.

Of course, there are companies that claim to be certified that aren’t, and also there are plenty of bogus ‘certifications’ out there that don’t mean much, so try to determine whether the certification is legit.

While we were looking for an outfitter to climb Kilimanjaro, we learned many outfitters were not paying their porters fairly or equipping them properly for the conditions in which they worked, and as a result, porters were dying every year on the mountain. We learned about certification by the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP) and narrowed our search only to companies certified by them. That's how we found Gladys Adventure, the woman-owned local company I mentioned above.

While it's not essential for every company out there to pursue certification, if they do have any kind of credible independent certification, it demonstrates they are serious about caring for the environment and/or being socially responsible and not just greenwashing or spouting words without any demonstrable actions to back them up.

So if you're trying to decide between two different companies and one is certified and the other is not, go with the certified one.

I hope that on your next trip, you'll use the second R of Responsible Travel, Ranking, to select companies that will reduce your negative impact, boost your positive impact, and actively consider not only YOUR safety and enjoyment, but also the long-term impact you’ll have on the destination and on our beautiful and fragile planet as a whole.

Happy travels!

P.S. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of my affiliate links, you will be helping to support my work, at no extra cost to yourself!