What is responsible tourism?

First of all, we’d like to wish everyone a great World Tourism Day!

World Tourism Day was created thirty-nine years ago to celebrate the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, economic, and political contributions. But today, a completely different type of tourism is being honored by HomeExchange. Faced with the saturation of tourist sites, the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, inflation, and other negative consequences, a new type of tourism has developed: responsible and sustainable tourism.

We have been talking about it for a number of years and the term has become commonplace, but what is responsible tourism?

Responsible tourism is another way of traveling, practiced to combat the effects of mass tourism. Also known as sustainable tourism, it is defined as "Tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities,” by the World Tourism Organization ^[1].

Respectful of the planet and its inhabitants, it therefore has three main objectives: to preserve the environment, to support the local economy (preference for local rather than imported products), and to promote total immersion in the local population (go to meet them and become familiar with their culture). It is tourism based on exchanging and sharing values that are important to us at HomeExchange.

World Tourism Day builds awareness of tourism’s impact for tourists and lets them know that they can change this. Let's commit to responsible and sustainable tourism together!

Find out why HomeExchange has all the necessary elements for being one of the most responsible ways to travel by clicking here.