Ethical travel in Vietnam involves making conscious and sustainable choices that minimize negative impacts on the environment and support local communities and economies. Here are some tips for ethical travel in Vietnam:
- Respect local customs and traditions: Learn about the local customs and traditions before you travel and be respectful of them during your visit. Dress modestly when visiting temples or other religious sites, and be mindful of cultural differences in behaviour and etiquette.
- Look for accommodations that have environmentally friendly practices, such as using renewable energy, reducing waste, and conserving water.
- Support local businesses. Eat at local restaurants, buy locally made souvenirs, and book tours and activities with locally owned and operated companies. This helps to support the local economy and create jobs for local people.
- Reduce plastic waste: Bring a refillable water bottle and a reusable bag to reduce the use of single-use plastics. Avoid using plastic straws and utensils when possible and dispose of waste properly.
- Choose responsible tour operators that have responsible and sustainable practices, such as minimizing carbon emissions, supporting local communities, and respecting local cultures.
- Support conservation efforts: Visit national parks and other protected areas, and support conservation efforts through donations or volunteering.
- Engage with local communities: Take the time to engage with local people and learn about their way of life. This can include homestays, cultural tours, and community-based tourism.
- Do not be part of the mass tourist crowd: Mass tourism refers to the high volume of visitors, often arriving in large groups phenomenon at popular destinations, and can result in overcrowding.
Ethical travel in Vietnam involves making mindful and sustainable choices that benefit both the environment and local communities, while also enriching your travel experience.
Generally speaking, it is difficult for a traveller to do enough due diligence on a tour operator and be informed about the operator’s sustainability credentials. In these days of “greenwashing”, big corporations go to great lengths and expense to convince consumers of their “goodness”. Well, it’s very hard for a giant to tread gently through a forest and not stomp on a few forest animals and devasted large swaths of the forest. Even the gentlest of giants. So, avoid the international brands and go local. That applies to everything you spend money. Big food chains and franchises will engage in bulk purchasing and aggressive contracting to squeeze their suppliers and ship food great distances. Big consumer goods, big hotel chains are the same. So it is with big brand tour operators. They use the leverage of their big volume to squeeze the suppliers to barely making a living Collude and set anti competitive prices to block out other players, use anti-competitive, trade restraining contracts to strangle all the local suppliers, contractors who do the real hard work without much rewards. It’s the equivalent of the slave labour sweatshops in the rag trade, all the while getting on their high horses on morning TV making claims about how they are saving the world and provide employment for the masses. Well employment for payment below the poverty line is hardly payment. And economic leakages from third world countries into the pockets of first world capitalists is just a new form of colonialism.
Go small. Go local. Even if these locals appear to not be “sustainable”, their carbon footprint, and yours, will be way smaller than a corporate giant making pretences about being your BFG.
