ANNIKA S. HIPPLE

Today is World Responsible Tourism Day, so how appropriate that it’s also my first day as News Editor for Ethical Traveler, a Berkeley, California-based nonprofit organization that seeks to make travel a force for positive change.

Ethical Traveler is the first grass-roots alliance uniting adventurers, tourists, travel agencies, and outfitters — everyone who loves to travel, and sees travel as a positive force in the world. We feel that all travelers are, in effect, freelance ambassadors. We also believe that we have the ability to join our voices, and to use our economic power to strengthen human rights and protect the environment.

I’ll be taking charge of the news team, which delivers original stories about responsible travel developments and issues, as well as links to related content from other trusted providers.

Check out www.ethicaltraveler.org

World Responsible Tourism Day is an initiative of World Travel Market, with support from the United Nations World Tourism Organization and leading travel industry associations. It was first celebrated in 2007.

November 11th, 2009 | Category: News, Projects | Comments (1)

[caption id="attachment_471" align="alignright" width="350" caption="Kayaking on the St. Lawrence River near Les Bergeronnes"][/caption]

Last month I had the pleasure of attending the Adventure Travel World Summit in the Charlevoix region of Quebec. It was exciting to meet with tour operators and other travel specialists from around the world, including places as far afield as Patagonia, China, Ethiopia, and Iran. I came away energized and eager to follow up with all the interesting people I met at the event.

Before the Summit itself, I had the opportunity to participate in several days of adventures in Quebec province. I had visited Quebec City and Montreal on several previous occasions, but this was my first opportunity to explore further afield. I participated in a three-day excursion along the so-called Whale Route, which follows the northern bank of the St. Lawrence River through the Charlevoix and Manicouagan regions. On the first day, we drove from Quebec City to Tadoussac, a small town located where the Saguenay Fjord meets the St. Lawrence. The region is one of the best whale-watching spots in the world, and even this late in the season, we were lucky enough to spot minke, humpback, and beluga whales in the choppy waters of the river.

Later in the trip we spent a morning sea kayaking a bit further up the coast before driving to Baie-Comeau, an industrial city that is home to the newly opened Jardin des Glaciers, an exploration of the region’s glacial past. After experiencing the multimedia show at the Glacier Exploration Center, we had the opportunity to visit an ancient seashell deposit in the heart of the boreal forest, followed by ziplining at the adjacent adventure park.

On the first day of the Summit, I participated in a single-day excursion to Les Palissades, an adventure park where we scaled the highest via ferrata (a pre-set climbing course with cables and ladder rungs set into the cliff face) in North America, crossed an adrenaline-inducing suspension bridge high above a canyon, and rapelled down a 210-foot rock wall. I’ll be writing more about my Quebec adventures in my Seattle International Travel Examiner column over the next week or so.

At the Summit itself, I was particularly pleased with the emphasis placed on sustainable and responsible tourism. Among the issues discussed were sustainable tourism in emerging destinations, climate change and its effect on tourism, voluntourism and community-based development, and the role of tourism in conservation. Specific topics of presentations included employing indigenous people in rainforest tourism in Guyana, creating a transfrontier network of peace parks in southern Africa, protecting the rivers of Fiji through a tourism and conservation partnership, preserving the cultural heritage of Kurdistan as the region establishes itself as a tourist destination, and creating voluntourism programs driven by local community needs rather than traveler desires.

During one of the sessions, a prominent sustainable tourism expert said, “We are well past the question of does sustainable tourism work. The question perhaps is how far we can take it.” Judging by the ongoing projects discussed at the Summit, the possibilities for responsible tourism development are far from exhausted.

Over the next several months, my Crossing Time Zones blog will be featuring  reports about issues and participants from the Summit, including news about ongoing developments as well as interviews with travel experts and responsible tour operators.

November 3rd, 2009 | Category: News | Leave a comment