Take a greener holiday this year

The Man in seat 61 taking the Euro City Train to Belgrade

Green Tourism

If you are just starting to think about where to head of on a summer break, you may be interested to hear that the 'green tourism' industry is growing and taking a greener holiday may not be as difficult and inconvenient as you first imagined.

Green tourism sounds a little like an oxymoron - how can travel of any kind really be considered green when the likelihood is you are increasing your carbon footprint as soon as you step foot on a plane, or fill your petrol tank to the brim for the 300 mile journey ahead.

If you want to be freaked out by Carbon emission stats take a look at website 'the trillionth tonne' - it makes our individual attempts seem a bit petty to see the numbers clocking up in huge red typeface, but it's all about changing the culture so we all get on board and accomplish that 2-3% reduction per year.

It's not about guilt tripping individuals for 2 weeks in the sun once a year, so rather than locking the front door and never leaving the house again, we suggest that holiday makers simply work greener options into their holidays, hotel choice, destination and also modes of travel -  the overall effect would be a big reduction in our collective carbon footprint for not a great deal of extra expense or effort.

Here are some useful links to help kickstart your research into a greener holiday this year - green tourism isn't just about cutting or offsetting your carbon travel footprint, it's about respecting the destination and not trampling on it's culture or all over the beautiful environment you came 1000's of miles to see!  

http://www.greenstop.net Directory of Green Travel companies
http://www.travelocity.com/TravelForGood/index.html - Directory of Green Hotels
http://loco2.com/ - Travel Europe by train, Loco2 is committed to Low Co2 (clever name!)
http://www.seat61.com/aboutme.htm - Help finding Train routes across Europe
http://www.leaplocal.org/ - Connecting local travel guides to the global travel market

It's companies that should really be looking much harder at ways of cutting their enormous frequent flying carbon footprints.  Is that 3 hour meeting in New York really necessary, or could you use video conferencing instead!?

If you are a company looking to reduce your carbon footprint, try the 'One in Five' challenge from WWF, it could save you money too.

Are you off on your hols this summer?

Where would you love to go away on holiday this year - have you ever considered using green travel companies or travelling to Europe by train?  Many green options can lead to an altogether more exciting adventure abroad.  We'd love to hear what you have planned (or what you wish you had!)