The World Exhibitions' "Responsible Travel" event is designed to educate travellers about the importance of travelling responsibly by stimulating discussion about issues like why orphanage tourism is a no-go, how to ensure your animals encounters on holiday are not harmful to the animals and how to ensure you're not an unwitting contributor to contaminating our agricultural industry and natural environment.
Panellists will include experts from a range of organisations including: 10 Pieces, International Institute for Peace through Tourism, Leave No Trace, Porter Protection, ReThink Orphanages, South Pole Group and World Animal Protection. Register to attend the event – or submit a question to the panel by visiting the website.
Organisers expect topics to include:
- Environmental sustainability: Why it's important that travel has an overall positive impact on the environment.
- How an individual's decision to travel carbon neutrally can help us from being fossil fuel dependent to a world reliant on renewable energy?
- Litter minimisation and management: What are the best tips to ensure you leave a place as you found it; how to minimise your environmental footprint?
World Expeditions began hosting Responsible Travel events back in 2013 and this is the first year the event has taken a Q and A format.
According to World Expeditions Responsible Travel Manager, Donna Lawrence, the major objectives of the event are to provide quality information and guidance on best sustainable travel practices and to inspire attendees to become stewards for travelling sustainably and responsibly.
"We felt the Q & A format would offer greater opportunities for attendees to engage with presenters and get answers to the questions they want to ask," Ms Lawrence said. "Also, the Q & A format is also ideally suited to video, allowing us to use individual clips of answers subsequently to broadcast the messages more widely."
"We also want to stimulate a snowball effect of discussion around topical issues after the event through print and online media and have other travel companies get involved," she said.
This article has been edited for length. Read the original article on ETB Travel News here.
