You may have heard about many different types of travels and sustainable travel might be a new thing for you. What is it and why it is important for India? I will try to provide complete information on sustainable travel and its benefits.

What is sustainable travel?

Are you worried about your environmental footprints? You are not the only one if the answer is yes. Many individuals feel guilty when they fly or travel to a beautiful holiday destination by other means of travel. They want to erase their environmental footprints, but sustainable travel is not just about preserving the environment. It is about maintaining tourism without causing any sort of harm to the cultural and natural environments of the destination.

When your travel effectively reduces the negative impacts of tourism and benefits the locals and the area where you go, it is called sustainable travel. You should consider it your duty to value the environment and the remaining natural resources on our plant. You must do some research to reveal how much pollution is caused by travellers. Try to reveal how it is going to affect the environment and the wildlife on your destination. Sustainable travel is when you consider the way tourism affects local inhabitants, their cultures, and business.

How you can travel sustainably?

Although changes do not take place overnight, as a traveller you must support more sustainable methods of tourism. All the major environmental issues are not going to resolve magically, but small steps can lead us towards a better future. Just like any other country, pollution is turning into a big problem in India. Sustainable travel can make some big changes. These changes can resolve some big issues related to environment and culture. This is how you can travel sustainably.

• How to travel?

In order to travel sustainably and reduce the negative impacts of air travel, you should try to reduce your flying hours and stay longer on your destinations. You can choose to travel tourist spots in the neighbouring countries. Thus, you will not participate in increasing pollution caused by flights.

When you reached your travel destination, try to reach your destination by foot or you can use public transportation to reduce your environmental footprints. The ride-sharing companies nowadays allow you to share your trips. So, try this new feature to save extra bucks and save fuel.

• How to accommodate?

When it comes to accommodation, you can choose to stay in local guesthouses and sharing economy networks. There are hotels in India which are committed to sustainability. They use power-efficient lighting, solar power, and follow an effective recycling routine to offer environment-friendly accommodation facilities. You should also ensure the hotel includes local staff and serves food grown by local farmers.

Many tourist locations in India are now featuring eco-lodges. These accommodation facilities are built to run in a sustainable way. Many hotels in this country are making their efforts to go green and you should support them in this initiative.

• Take care of the local environments:

India is an agrarian country and it features a variety of fresh food ingredients which you cannot find in other countries. You should eat food prepared from materials grown by the local producers. Many restaurants may feature food imported by global food chains. Eating such foods is not a feasible option because that is shipped and then served. It causes carbon emissions which you must try to avoid.

You must take care of the local environment and never cause pollution in the local surroundings if you want to travel sustainably. Use the garbage cans and prevent pollution as much as possible to maintain that fragile ecosystem on your destination. Do not be a part of wild-life tours which promise close encounters. Try tours that do not disturb the wildlife in order to take care of local wildlife environments.

• Support sustainable travel:

Although it is not your responsibility to maintain a sustainable travel model, you can at least support it. Local authorities in the host countries, airlines, and the local business owners want to support this model, but they are afraid that their clients may not like it. You should ask for sustainability and support every process that falls under the sustainable model of tourism. That’s how you can play a crucial role in promoting sustainable travel and tourism.

Why sustainable travel is important for India?

India features numerous tourist destinations. People from all across the globe visit different holiday destinations in India to be familiar with the cultural heritage of this country, enjoy local cuisines, and see some remarkable places on this planet.

Nobody cared a lot of environmental pollution when travelling to India, but the growing number of cars and carbon-emitting machines is a serious concern. Now the Indian government is also committed to promoting greener ways of travel, some major changes can occur in the future. The Taj Mahal is one of the world’s 7 wonders and it is losing its charm because of pollution. The use of carbon-emitting vehicles is prohibited around this world heritage site. Similar rules can be applied to other destinations too.

Even though authorities employ some tough rules, there is always a risk of losing tourists. You should support good initiatives to support sustainable travel in India. If you will prefer local cuisines over foods supplied by international food chains, the local restaurants will rely more on local food producers. India has a rich culture that is slowly vanishing because of western influence on modern society. Many tourists, however, embrace that rich Indian culture to show how precious it is for the world and also for the tourists, who are unfamiliar with it.

Conclusion:

Sustainable travel in India is possible. This country has everything to support this new initiative. It just requires a traveller’s support to encourage local service providers in offering greener solutions. Tourism generates about 10.7% of the world’s GDP. It can make a great impact if every traveller will support sustainable travel. It will be a big step towards saving our environment and rich cultures across the globe.