20 ways to be a perfect tourist
Many of you, going for a trip, wonder how to be a perfect tourist. How to be a responsible tourist? Welcome? The one that the local community will greet with a genuine smile, not with a headache? How to implement the rules of sustainable tourism, how to take care of good experiences during the trip and at the same time preserve the natural, cultural and social values of the places that we visit? Take care of the nature 1. Try not to leave any marks of your presence. The nature gives us life – it gives us oxygen and food, it gives us entertainment and unique aesthetic experience. Try not to hurt it in a direct contact. Don’t damage plants, don’t flush animals out, don’t leave any trash behind. A plastic bottle may stay in the ground even thousands of years, a cigarette butt poisons up to 1m3 of soil and up to 100m3 of water. Take your garbage with you and throw them into adequate containers. My geography teacher, on a way to the geography competition, played me and my colleagues an eco-song: “Separately paper, separately glass, separately plastic, remember that.” I did remember that. The planet will be grateful for waste segregation, and our grandchildren will have a chance to see what we can see, not just deserts of concrete. 2. Walk only on marked trails. It happens that local companies, trying to provide tourists original experience, take them to protected areas, where endemic vegetation is in danger of extinction. The protected areas are protected due to some reason. Human’s presence is not neutral to the nature, growing number of people in a place causes its deterioration. If you want beautiful and unique places to stay beautiful and unique, respect the nature and follow the marked trails. 3. Pay for the entrance to the natural heritage places. Very often there are entry tickets for the entrance to parks, nature monuments etc. Remember that this money is used for maintenance of those natural goods. Paying for the entrance, you acknowledge the nature for the fact that it exists and wish it many more years in unchanged conditions. 4. Choose environment-friendly means of transport. If it’s possible, walk or use a bike instead of a car, alternatively hitchhike (check before your trip if it’s accepted and welcome). Choose rather a train than a plane and rather a bus than a cab. If other ways to get to a certain place are limited (e.g. Terceira), check if the airline gives a chance to pay for the carbon dioxide emission. Usually this is symbolic money, but its influence on the environment protection is not only symbolic. 5. Pack your luggage rationally. Packing your luggage for a trip, try to think it over to make sure that you won’t leave garbage in the place where you’re travelling to. Single-use shampoos, tiny face cream packs may be convenient, but small reusable containers are much better for our planet. If you pour a bit of your shampoo into a 100-ml bottle, you won’t have a heavy luggage, and you will take the little bottle back with you and use it during your next trip, instead of increasing the amount of garbage in your dream destination. 6. Avoid disposable products. I already mentioned it above, but additionally: drink directly from a glass instead of drinking through a straw, go shopping with your own bag, and if you buy one apple, don’t use a plastic bag. It’s also applicable to everyday life, not only to travels, but during a travel it’s also very important. For example, imagine Terceira – a small island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. And now imagine piles of trash produced by us each year. And fish swimming among the garbage. Maybe there are better prospects. Get to know the local culture 7. Before the trip get to know as much as you can about the place that you’re going to. Read about its history, culture, customs. Check what the place looks like, who lives there, what are local festivities. Thanks to that, when you get there, you will experience it better, you will get to know this place even better. Using your knowledge, you will be able to ask better questions and look for the answers live. 8. Participate in local events. One gets to know a place by its people. Because a place it’s not just a place, it’s a way of living. Local events are one of the opportunities to see how the local community really lives, plays, what celebrates. Participate in a local festivity, go to a local cinema, see what makes people happy and what makes them sad. Don’t be afraid to ask a person standing next to you what you’re participating in, don’t be scared to ask a person in a tourist office or in a museum for a tip where to go, what to experience. Don’t be afraid to talk to the locals. If you’re a good tourist, they will willingly share with you their knowledge and boast about the local customs. 9. Eat locally. Food is a part of the culture, it’s an element of life. Try to choose local restaurants, so that you get to known real local cuisine and support local economy. In some cultures, food is more important, in others – less, but everybody has to eat. In each place it’s worth asking about local specialties and local products, and eat them during the stay. 10. Take care of the local heritage. Respect not only the nature, but also the work of human hands. Whether a place is on UNESCO list or not – it’s a heritage of the travel destiny, which you chose. It’s like with the nature – try not to leave any marks of your presence. 11. Respect local law. Before your trip, check the law in your travel destiny and obey it. In Singapore you mustn’t chew a gum, in Denmark you mustn’t cover your face