We are big supporters of responsible travel and sustainable travel, which have the same basic goal.

What exactly is responsible travel?

Responsible travel is the concept of having a positive impact economically, environmentally and socially on the places you visit including respecting the local people, the community, and their culture and customs. Some organizations prefer the term responsible tourism other use responsible travel and sustainable travel pretty interchangeably.

How do we support the responsible travel/sustainable travel philosophy?

We travel in small groups, which has substantially less negative impact on the environment and communities we visit than large groups of traditional mass tourism.

We employ residents of the places where we go. We use local providers such as accommodations, restaurants, transportation and guides. We don’t patronize the huge international, multi-national chains – only locally owned and operated. Our goal is to ensure that the money we spend stays in the local communities to benefit the people and places we visit.

We strive as much as possible to be environmentally-friendly through recycling/reusability efforts and energy conservation practices. We are respectful to minimize our footprint as we explore the local communities and natural environment. We seek to partner with local providers who follow these principles.

We emphasize experiences that involve connecting with the local people and understanding the local culture. We build in opportunities to interact with the those who live where we travel rather than just being in the bubble with only other tourists. We focus on learning about the places we go rather than snapping pictures to simply document the boxes being checked off the proverbial list.

Gen X Travel Club is a member of Sustainable Travel International and on the leadership team of the Washington DC chapter of Impact Travel Alliance.

 

                            

 

When you join us one our trips, you’ll know you are traveling responsibly and supporting sustainable tourism principles to have as positive of impact as possible. We strive to go about our regular lives at home responsibly & respectfully and we should do the same while visiting the home destinations of others.