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How 'Tourism Cares' Helps Us Travel Responsibly

Travel is typically associated with feelings of both relaxation and exploration. Traveling has been proven to enhance personal growth and connection with the world around us. While we understand both the desires and needs to travel, it is also important to consider how to advance sustainable travel and support popular destinations.

Tourism Cares, a nonprofit organization within the travel industry, is focused on creating and maintaining sustainable, economical, positive, and environmentally friendly travel initiatives. Through the non-profit, Tourism Cares is able to support members, host communities, and educate travelers and organizations about the vitality of preserving the ecosystems in the places we travel to. It is able to help communities and travelers become educated on their footprints through events, summits, webinars and classes to assess how to become a more responsible tourist.

While traveling has its obvious benefits on society, it also has its drawbacks. With major contributions to carbon emissions and overcrowding in certain destinations, there is a need to educate travelers and work towards lowering the industry’s carbon footprint and impact on cultures and communities. It is all about responsible tourism. It is about finding ways for destinations and visitors to work in harmony, towards preservation for generations to come. Tourism Cares is dedicated to finding that connection.

Paula Vlamings, the Chief Impact Officer for Tourism Cares, is dedicated to “making travel a force for good.” She has an extensive political background under her belt, so she truly understands the importance of “community engagement and multi-sector collaborations.” Her goal is to connect sustainability leaders with community-based tourism to ensure that travel is helping, not hurting, communities.

Tourism Cares both works preventatively and in partnership with cities facing disaster. Whether it be overcrowding at tourist locations hurting culture, or the lasting effects of the hurricane in Puerto Rico, Tourism Cares is dedicated to supporting communities in times of need. This allows for the growth and reconstruction of cities and countries, which will positively impact the immediate community and future travelers.

As traveling continues to soar in terms of popularity – largely impacted by the effects of social media – it is more timely than ever to protect and preserve all destinations for locals and travelers. Travel does not have to have such negative effects on communities. When people work together to become educated through seminars, expositions, teachings, word of mouth, or numerous other forms of learning, we step closer to net-positive effects of travel on people and the world.

Link to Article: https://www.tourismcares.org/