Travel Turkey Magazine: Why ‘sustainable tourism’ is the next tedious travel trend, invoked to alleviate woke wanderers’ guilt

As airlines, hotels and others try to tout their services as sustainable, it is worth remembering that saying something doesn’t make it so
Aviation is a particularly prominent environmental despoiler, leading to questions about whether it can ever be truly sustainable

Tired of reading about overtourism? Well, get ready for the next newsfeed-clogging travel trend: sustainable tourism. Of course, the idea itself is not the issue; travellers and the industry that orbits around them must work harder to limit their impact on the Earth and its resources if they wish to continue exploring the world. Rather, the tedium will come from hotels, airlines and other industry players trying to sell their services as “sustainable”. Saying something doesn’t make it so.

A case in point is AirAsia’s new “Sustainable Asean” livery. That’s right, one of the region’s biggest budget carriers, which has played a fundamental role in making air travel more accessible, thus contributing to the harmful carbon emissions associated with aviation as well as overtourism (there’s that term again), is promoting more environmentally friendly ways of moving people en masse with a new design on the side of its newest plane.

Tony Fernandes, the founder of the Malaysian low-cost carrier, called the artwork “beautiful” and “courageous”, according to report by online platform The Asean Post. Fernandes hopes it catches “people’s attention and sparks a conversation about the benefits and impact sustainable travel has on the 650 million people who call Asean home”.

And because nothing says sustainability like dirt-cheap air travel, AirAsia announced that it would be celebrating the new livery by offering promotional fares from 39 ringgit (US$9) one-way for members of the airline’s loyalty programme and from 45 ringgit for non-members.

As Malaysia’s biggest airline and a dominant player in Southeast Asia, the carrier is well positioned to lead damage-limitation efforts in the region. “Fuel comprises one of our largest operational costs, and the consumption of fuel by our aircraft is responsible for most of our carbon emissions,” noted AirAsia in its 2017 Sustainability Report, before detailing the initiatives it had implemented to keep its costs and carbon footprint down.

These included maintaining a “relatively” young fleet of more fuel efficient aircraft, 30 per cent of which were fitted with Sharklet winglets to reduce drag and save fuel and cut emissions. AirAsia lightened its load by swapping paper manuals for tablets and cutting down on the amount of water carried on board, as well as by addressing fuel-wasting operations involved in taxiing, take-off and landing. According to the report, though, these drives succeeded in lowering carbon emissions only “minimally”, from 2,667,469 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2016 to 2,666,866 the following year.

Speaking to The Asean Post after the livery launch, Fernandes said that although passengers couldn’t control the aircraft’s weight or fuel efficiency, “the public needs to know that sustainable tourism isn’t just about reducing greenhouse gases or CO2 emissions – it’s also about not littering or defacing sites which have historical or cultural value”.

However, when it comes to airlines, the environmental impact should be of paramount importance, and while it is far from AirAsia’s burden to shoulder alone, the industry needs to do all it can to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels – just marketing something as “sustainable” does little but alleviate any guilt felt by the woke passenger.

Sadly, it seems unlikely there will ever be such a thing as sustainable (“conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources”) tourism, especially if flying is involved.

In the meantime, choose direct flights where possible, fly on newer aircraft and spend longer at your destination. Or forgo air travel altogether and opt to take the train – after all, it’s about the journey as much as the destination, right?

Thailand gets a new old temple thanks to extreme drought

Ah, climate change. In Lopburi, central Thailand, extreme drought has exposed a temple that was lost to locals when a dam was constructed and the Buddhist site and surrounding villages flooded, Reuters reports. Former residents, monks, tourists and pilgrims have been flocking to the temple, Wat Nong Bua Yai, to pay their respects amid the ruins, which were revealed when the reservoir reached less than 3 per cent of its capacity.

According to the Thai Meteorological Department, Thailand is experiencing its worst drought in a decade, with some regions drier than they have been for 50 years, which is having a devastating effect on rice farming during what should be the Southeast Asian nation’s monsoon season.

Many of those returning disciples are, presumably, praying that the temple will soon be submerged again.