Responsible Travel Report Blog

Who is doing it?  How are they making it happen?

Nominated for Best Tour Operator in the 2006 First Choice Responsible Tourism Award, STI member Terra Incognita Ecotours is based in Tampa, Florida, and operates tours to Belize, Borneo, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Galapagos, India, Madagascar, New Zealand, Peru, Rwanda and Tanzania. Gerard “Ged” Caddick founded Terra Incognita Ecotours in 2004 after more than fifteen years of working in expedition travel. 

The fictional Ace Ventura may be tops when it comes to pet detectives, but the real animal gumshoes are those of the nonhuman sort. More and more, we are recognizing the incredible powers of observation and deduction our fellow creatures possess and are using them to help us discover what’s going on in our environments.

A funny thing happened on my way to Kilimanjaro...

As a child, I could read Where The Wild Things Are in an infinite loop without boredom.

Many cultures the world over have a form of goulash—typically a mix of beef, vegetables, paprika and other seasonings. It was an Italian goulash, perhaps containing some rancid meat, that sent my friend shouting through the halls of a Bologna emergency room, “Che un dottore, che un dottore,” as I lay passed out at the hospital entrance. A Hungarian goulash from my grade school days held a flavor I am still trying to recreate. This blog will be a goulash of conundrums that challenge the thoughtful traveler who wants to explore the world in a way that is socially, environmentally and economically sustainable. Below are a few of the issues I'll raise in the coming months. Chew on them for awhile.

Women in developing countries have it pretty tough.  Sometimes very tough.  Often viewed as 2nd-class citizens, commonly marginalized to very limited activities and privileges, some women struggle to earn even very basic rights.  One of the biggest challenges preventing women from rising to equal status is  dependence on their husbands, as men are the traditional breadwinners. Particularly in rural communities, the only paying work available is manual labor, leaving women unable to earn even the smallest wages.  It's an unfair cycle – no work, no money, no power, no decision making, no work, no money,...  

We’re in danger of losing the Serengeti. Once more, the cry “Serengeti shall not die” is being raised. 

This recent interview with my friend Hitesh provides a fascinating glimpse into the life and work of a unique travel professional who has written a compelling new book (which he refers to not as a “coffee table” book but as a “chai table” book). It is a perfect gift for anyone of any age who loves to read about the sustainable designs of exotic, eco-friendly lodgings and see state-of-the-art photography of amazing architectural spaces from all over the world. The product of a 2 ½ year, 46-country, six-continent journey to document and illustrate what truly makes an ecolodge an ecolodge, Authentic Ecolodges was published in September 2010 and launched worldwide in November, with an array of book signings and other events scheduled for the next few months on several continents. 

There are some statistics that you hear that knock your socks off, and you just can’t quite believe them. You think they’re concocted purely to get attention and for shock value. Here’s one I recently came across that fits that category: there are more tigers in American backyards than there are left in the wild throughout the world.

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