Make Travel Fair

Cost vs Environment

2008-04-01T01:19:00.005+01:00

It's been over two months now since I left the UK with my backpack, bound for New Zealand. Last time I took a trip of this length my camera would only take 24 photos before it needed a new film, everyone travelled on round-the-world tickets, internet cafes used dial-up connections and carbon offsetting didn't exist. How things have changed. Now I can take a virtually limitless amount of photos, book one-way tickets on low-cost airlines whenever I decide on a date, wireless internet connections are everywhere, and the environment is everyone's concern.

This trip was always going to be made on a tight budget, but I had the best of intentions to minimise my carbon footprint as I travel. It turns out that the best intentions just aren't enough when faced with cheap air travel with proliferant low-cost operators. The UK has Easyjet and Ryan Air. Australia and New Zealand have Virgin Blue, Tiger Airways and Jetstar. Malaysia has Air Asia. My next flight will be from Jakarta, Indonesia to Kota Kinabalau, Malaysia and will cost less than US$30.

Along with reducing the number of flights I take, Carbon Offsetting was also high on my priority list when I left the UK, but as my funds have dwindled it seems less and less likely that I will voluntarily pay money to do this. When I booked my flight from Sydney to Bali with Jetstar last week I even opted not to pay the extra $7 to offset my emissions. That's 2 hrs of internet time in my new cost-conscious world. I've found it remarkably easy over the last year or so to write about our need to offset carbon emissions, travel slowly and shun short-haul air travel, but in reality budget travel decisons are much more driven by cost than environmental concerns. It takes a very hard headed individual to reject travel opportunities in favour of 'doing their bit' for the environment. It is on this basis that environmental concerns must be addressed by corporate and government bodies and not left open to consumer choice.

Carbon offsetting fees should not be optional, they should be included in the cost of a ticket.

How To Feel Like A Kid Again

2008-02-08T19:21:00.000Z

It's almost time to leave the comforts of a home behind and head off on our travels. I actually left home two weeks ago but my girlfriend's house here in the U.S. is a home from home these days, and the surrounding area is pleasantly familiar.

I love that 'novelty' feeling of arriving into a new country, all your senses are heightened and your awareness is raised to new levels. It's like being a kid again. Your mind works frantically to absorb everything about your surroundings, even the most mundane objects like road signs and pricing labels in supermarkets command your attention and become fascinating.

How often have you laughed as a tourist takes a photo of the sights you see everyday on your way to work? If travel teaches you nothing else it can certainly remind you to open yourself up again to your surroundings at home. The longer you spend somewhere the harder you have to work in order to really appreciate it and really see things. Over the years that i've been travelling here i've felt my familiarity with the U.S. grow. Each time I visit, something else falls off my radar and becomes just another part of the scenery.

I'm not sad that my 'childhood days' in this part of the U.S. are over, I'm lucky to have the opportunity to feel so at home here but I cannot wait to see new places next week and be a kid again - San Francisco, The Cook Islands, New Zealand... - i'll be snapping away with my camera like any other tourist.

TV Ones-To-Watch: Monday 28 January 2008

2008-01-28T17:38:00.000Z

You can watch these programmes around the world anytime in the next 7 days on BBC i-player.

Panorama
Alex James in Colombia
8.30-9.00pm BBC ONE
www.bbc.co.uk/panorama

Alex James, bassist of hugely successful Britpop band Blur, goes to Colombia to report on the effect the cocaine industry is having on the country that supplies 80 per cent of the world's cocaine.

Paradise or Bust
Episode Two
9.00pm-10.00pm BBC TWO
http://www.tribewanted.com/blogs/tribal_gatherings/1056

The Island of Vorovoro is open for business, and the first 13 members of this 21st century internet tribe are living and working alongside an ancient Fijian tribe. Led by 26 year old Ben Keene they are now working together to tackle their first major construction project - building a traditional Fijian house, which will be one of the biggest in Fiji.

The Convenience Of USB

2008-01-21T19:45:00.000Z

We won't be travelling with a laptop on our travels so pay-per-use internet will be our connection whilst we're away. There are steps you can take to minimize the security risk to your personal information. If you have a USB Memory Stick (it doesn't need to have a huge capacity) plug it into your computer before you go, download the Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition and the free anti-virus software ClamWin, and install them onto your memory stick.

Every time you use a public computer whilst you're away simply plug in your USB stick, open the Portable Firefox Browser from your folder, and all of your personal data will be confined to your USB stick. There are lots of different tools that you can download from PortableApps including the popular Thunderbird email client. You can also easily customize your portable firefox browser with your favorite links and add-ons, saving you valuable time when you log on.

Recommended add-ons: Gmail Manager, Facebook Toolbar, New Tab button, Meebo Toolbar, PicLens.

An SD or CompactFlash memory card reader is also a great idea to save carrying computer cables and fumbling around with your camera. You can pick one of these up for about £10.

Carbon Offsetting

2008-01-17T15:21:00.000Z

A growing number of us find it difficult these days not to look at the bigger picture that surrounds our lifestyles, and the internet ensures that there is no excuse for ignorance or 'gaps' in our knowledge. Information on anything that interests you is at your finger tips. Environmental issues can be notoriusly difficult to relate to, but in the Cook Islands global warming has hit home in a big way. In 2005 five devastating cyclones ripped through the islands in the space of five weeks - traditionally the Cooks could expect one such cyclone every 20 years. Coral bleaching, changing seasons and rising sea levels are all evident - many of the Northern Group barely rise 5m above sea level.

Blue Ventures is an award winning, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to marine conservation, education and sustainable development in tropical coastal communities. Their research and observations on the changing environment around Andavadoaka, Madagascar inspired them to setup their own carbon offset projects to address anthropogenic effects on the environment.

BV Carbon Offset is currently running an energy efficient and solar stove programme in Andavadoaka, Madagascar, and hoping to replicate it in other rural villages in the region. Their projects are sustainable, independent, verified, not for profit, and benefit communities in the following ways:

Economic improvement - job provision and reduced fuel costs.
Health improvements - reduced smoke related illnesses.
Environmental improvements - reduced deforestation and reduced carbon emissions.

We will be using Blue Ventures to offset our own carbon emissions generated by our travels this year. The journey from London to Auckland will emit a total of 2765.312kg of carbon.

Equivalent to 92 Televisions being left on standby for a whole year (Rainforest Concern).
A 25 year old forest of 405 pine trees would need a whole year to absorb our total emissions.

Blue Ventures Carbon Offset

Auckland > Cook Islands
3010.4 Km using 0.125 Kg of Carbon per Km.
A total of 376.300 Kg of Carbon
At £12 per 1000Kg that will cost £4.52 per flight

Cook Islands > San Francisco
7647.3 Km using 0.14 Kg of Carbon per Km
A total of 1070.622 Kg of Carbon
At £12 per 1000Kg that will cost £12.85 per flight

San Francisco > Washington D.C.
3926.8 Km using 0.125 Kg of Carbon per Km
A total of 490.850 Kg of Carbon
At £12 per 1000Kg that will cost £5.89 per flight

Washington D.C. > London
5911.0 Km using 0.14 Kg of Carbon per Km
A total of 827.540 Kg of Carbon
At £12 per 1000Kg that will cost £9.93 per flight

Away From The Humdrum Life

2008-01-12T11:59:00.000Z

I've read a couple of fantastic articles lately that really inspire feelings of what the personal experience of travel is all about, and just how good a period of wandering is for the soul. The descriptive tag of Spiritual Travel is a fair association but is by no means a reference to hippy, hemp-wearing, flower-waving, soft, fuzzy experiences. It's about a philosophical approach to adventure and taking the time to discover what you want for yourself away from the material trappings, media bombardment, peer pressures, and prescribed achievements of everyday life. It's only when we know what we want for ourselves that we can set goals and begin to achieve, allowing good fortune to follow. A period of travel isn't just about the immediate experience, its endurance can provide you with focus and stability for the rest of your life.

11 Jan 2008 - Finding Yourself Is Your True Destination - Brave New Traveller
11 Jan 2008 - How Do I Bring Vagabonding Home - Vagablogging
5 Dec 2008 - Forget The Destination, Focus On The Journey - Brave New Traveller

CREATING A BLOG

2008-01-08T18:55:00.000Z

Last week I started to think about how we would document our trip so that friends and family could stay in touch with us and vice-versa. There are countless sites that offer 'travel journals' or 'travel blogs' online, and upon joining you become a member of their community/archive of travellers and have a very user friendly template to record your trip in.

Personally I prefer to have greater control over the layout and tools I use which is why I have setup a blog. I've used blogger in the past, and currently use it for the Make Travel Fair Blog so it was an obvious choice to use it to record our travels. WordPress is another of the more popular platforms and I had intended giving it a go until I discovered that you cannot edit the standard templates without paying a small fee, and it is only a small fee but enough to send me back to Blogger where I can customise appearances for free.

I used the 'minima' template and just customised a few elements of it. Once the structure is established it is extremely easy to alter the layout using the widget functionality. I found 'Recent Comments' and 'Recent Posts' widgets at Beautiful Beta. An itinerary widget is fed from my 30Boxes Calendar (Google Calendar does not have a decent widget that displays content like I wanted), photos are uploaded and stored in my Picasa Web Albums (I was going to use Flickr but Picasa works just as well and has no limit to the number of albums you can create, Flickr charges an upgrade fee for more than 3/4). A 'Where We've Been' widget makes use of Google's 'My Maps', all in all I guess it is a Google dominated setup, except for the Calendar but it works well, or atleast I hope it will.

Of course there is also Facebook and i'll probably start importing these notes to my profile once we get on the road, but truth be told i'm getting a little bored with the habit and revealing nature of it all. Back to basics for me, where nobody knows and nobody cares. Our new travel blog will be as much a record for us as it will be reading for friends and family.

I'm also using Google Docs to create a Budget Sheet and a repository of info. Creating the budget sheet has not been a happy time.

CREATING A BUDGET

2008-01-08T18:52:00.000Z

I've had the sobering task today of setting out a budget for our trip. I'm using Google Docs to create a spreadsheet that we can check whilst we're away. I started by noting down all of our known costs so far, flights, transport, hostel reservations and then filled in the blanks with predicted expediture. Adding a daily budget for food and the odd activity/tour is easily forgotten. It is not supposed to be a precise, rigid document just an outline to assist with managing our finances and to give us the best chance of doing everything we want to. As we travel we'll subtract from our funds what we've actually spent so that we know exactly how much is left, and whether we need to tighten the purse strings if we want to do everything we intend to do.

I feel a bit subdued after dealing with this side of things but if we make all our decisions based on how they look on paper then I'm not sure we'd end up doing a great deal.

SPENDING MONEY ABROAD

2008-01-08T18:49:00.000Z

These days it is easy to find an ATM in even the most obscure places and to withdraw cash with the same convenience you have at home. Even if there's no ATM it's often possible to pay for goods or services with a credit card. It seems having the right plastic cards though is extremely important and is cheaper than any other method of spending whilst you're away.

Debit Cards
When using a Natwest debit card in an ATM abroad the bank will add on a transaction fee of 75p, an exchange commission of 2.65% and a cash withdrawal fee of 2.25% (max £4)

The Nationwide Flex Account Visa Debit card doesn't add an exchange commission anywhere in the world, is free of interest (unless you're overdrawn) and doesn't charge any transaction fee. Being able to withdraw cash from ATMs when travelling without any hidden costs is fantastic and removes the burden of carrying huge sums of currency or travellers' cheques around.

Credit Cards
When using a Natwest credit card abroad the bank will always add on an exchange commission of 2.65% and if using the card in an ATM they will add the cash withdrawal fee of 2.25% (max £4) and a huge rate of interest (whether the balance is paid off in full or not).

A Nationwide credit card does not charge an exchange commission on purchases made abroad. The right credit card is also a great way to make purchases since if something goes wrong with the goods you've bought (over £100 worth) then the credit card providers are jointly liable with the retailer, so you can complain to them and they'll refund you directly.

"There's a growing trend when spending abroad for the retailer to do the conversion to Pounds itself, giving you a poor exchange rate you've no control over. Always check that you won't be charged in pounds. That way, assuming you're using one of the top cards, you'll get the best exchange rate possible."

moneysavingexpert.com

HOW FAR HAVE WE COME?

2008-01-08T16:22:00.000Z

The New Year is a customary time to be retrospective and prospective, even a little bit introspective. A quick glance back over our shoulder and a squint forward to the horizon looks like this for Make Travel Fair.

2007 Achievements

- Had our first go at web design and built a site for Make Travel Fair.
- Won the Travelmole Web Award for 'Best Online Education Site'.
- Won a place at the Striding Out Big Leap Business Plan workshop.
- Awarded Courvoisier The Future 500 One-to-Watch accolade for Travel & Leisure.

Our first year has been very much about establishing Make Travel Fair, gaining recognition within the travel industry for our message, and networking to establish a good contact base within the industry.

2008

This year we will be building on what we've learnt and taking Make Travel Fair on a trip around the world for 6 months to talk with those who have most contact with the sort of issues we raise online - The family-run guesthouse, the tour operator, the fisherman, the conservationist, the large hotel, the traveller...This trip will also allow us to reconnect with the experience of travelling on a tight budget, from planning travels, to buying tickets and finding accomodation to actually being on the road. We hope to better understand how we can reach out to the traveller through Make Travel Fair as a result. We will also be writing a book about our 6 months of travel and the conversation we have along the way.

A major goal of 2008 is to setup a bursary for young people who have a passion and desire to travel the world but can't quite afford to make it happen, or know how to.

I'LL BE ON MY WAY

2007-12-13T23:54:00.000Z

"Don't fly, it's bad for the environment". But I love to travel, I have done ever since i can remember. I love the excitement of an airport, watching those huge planes defy all realms of possibility and climb skyward full of passengers and their luggage, flying off to exotic destinations all across the world.

The idea that we should forgo the experience of travelling in favour of staying closer to home to reduce our carbon footprint is distressing for me and a real conflict of interests. Travel to far of lands may seem environmentally indulgent and against the current status quo but as with most things it's a much bigger picture than that. Where you can't take the slow route and 'live the journey' think about what else you can do.

Environmental concerns are one side to a triangle of considerations comprising social, environmental and economical concerns. Travel often discretely exposes us to global issues raising our interest in ecology, geology, anthropology, geography, economics and politics. All these subjects that although taught independently in schools and universities across the world, are all part of the same fabric in reality. Many places, the world over rely on tourism to sustain their lifestyle. Tourism is a livelihood that requires an international market for its products and services. This market may be the tourist that's travelled from far away, but can equally be the consumer that stays at home filling their shopping basket with colombian coffee, and their wardrobe with Primark clothing - they may have reduced their environmental impact by staying home, relying on freight carriers, but without any connection to the world that produces what they consume, their economic and social impact goes unnoticed. I'm not suggesting that we all go to Peru to buy Alpaca jumpers, but travel certainly helps us to think about where products come from and what lifestyle they support.

In this ever shrinking world, cultural integration is happening everywhere, often destroying traditions and customs at the expense of a more progressive and popular culture. Anyone who's travelled to parts of the world where material possesions are thin on the ground will have learnt that there are other, often longer lasting cultures than our own with plenty to offer that could improve our lifestyle. Protection of cultural diversity and the encouragement of cross-cultural exchange is of the upmost importance if we are to integrate succesfully and live in peace with one another, especially with immigrant populations the highest they've probably ever been.

Next time you think about the carbon footprint of your travels spare a thought for how your visit can help magnify and assist an existing local economy, providing an incentive for places to conserve the environments, wildlife and culture that attracted you in the first place. It's not always about throwing money at the problem, just changing your frame of mind can be enough.

If you are looking to offset you carbon emissions visit our page for more information, or visit our friends at Blue Ventures Carbon Offset - one of the best, well researched carbon offset projects we know of.

ONE-TO-WATCH IN TRAVEL & LEISURE

2007-11-26T22:02:00.000Z

Stephen Chapman, Founder of Make Travel Fair joined the exclusive members only network of 'Couvoisier The Future 500' this week as One-to-Watch in Travel & Leisure.

Read and watch an interview with Stephen at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/cvtf500/story/0,,2215248,00.html

A personal press release is available for download at http://www.courvoisierthefuture500.com/admin/guestEntry.php

UNNECESSARY CONFUSION? A NEW DAWN?

2007-11-20T14:04:00.000Z

Have attempts to categorise and define a 'new' type of tourism over recent years simply led to confusion amongst tourists and travellers? As a niche enters the mainstream is it really necessary anymore to speak about the social, environmental and economical concerns of travel from a platform called responsible travel?

The terms responsible tourism, responsible travel, pro-poor tourism, green-travel, eco-tourism have all been used in recent years to reference growing concerns over the impact of the travel industry. This year saw the first World Responsible Tourism Day coincide with the World Travel Market on 14th November 2007. The day featured some interesting, thought provoking seminars and the responsibletravel.com award ceremony. Unfortunately it felt a lot like an attempt by the ICRT (International Centre for Responsible Tourism) and its related projects to dominate and act as custodians of the responsible tourism movement. It would have been great to see more grass-roots initiatives being offered the spotlight, and less of an attempt to control and dominate a movement that is ultimately about small scale projects and about celebrating progressive initiatives around the world.

It seems that conflicts of interest and some people with fingers in a lot of pies mean that it feels as though the Responsible Travel movement in the UK has been branded and nutured by a small group of people, making it difficult to use the phrase to describe a form of travel anymore.

Grass roots initiatives being led all over the world are the future of travel, they aren't talking about responsible travel but simply working with the right concerns in mind. Conservation organisations are working worldwide in the travel industry without referencing responsible tourism, they are responsible tourism. It seems to be definition for the sake of definition.

Wild Asia is based in Malaysia and led by Dr Reza Azmi, they run perhaps the most credible Responsible Tourism Awards today. They honour companies and organisations on the basis of scores achieved in an extensive, painstakingly devised checklist of requirements. They don't brand a winner as 'responsible' based on a nomination and the judgements of a remote panel, they geniunely work to promote best practice, determined by guidelines devised and distributed by them. The winners pick themselves with their commitment to sustainability.

Let's put some meat back on the bones of travel, celebrate progression and all of those passionate people making it happen without a spotlight on their efforts.

DON'T LET IT BE A LUCKY ESCAPE

2007-11-11T22:59:00.000Z

On the afternoon of Thursday, 22nd June 2000 I left the backpackers' hostel in Childers, Queensland, Australia and headed south aboard a bus for Brisbane. I'd spent the previous three nights in Childers, sleeping in the ground floor dormitory and a small room on the first floor.

I awoke in Brisbane the following morning to 5 missed calls on my phone and a frantic voicemail message informing me that the Childers hostel had burnt down in the early hours, killing 15 backpackers. Within a matter of hours the small, quiet, one-street town and non-descript hostel that had felt such a world away from home was now international news.

The Hostel had been refused a fire safety permit 17 months prior, and the fire alarm system had been turned off. Escape routes had been blocked by beds and there were bars on windows.

Look after your own safety. Always know your fire escape, and always let someone know where you are (someone who cares).

Download the fire safety guide from gapyear.com »

BBC NEWS - Hostel fire victims remembered

NARCO-TOURISM IN LAOS

2007-10-28T15:56:00.000Z

I was surprised to discover recently that Rough Guides directly refer to Vang Vieng, Laos as a centre for narco-tourism in their 'First Time Around the World' book. A comment that seems grossly irresponsible for such a mainstream publisher.

"This hangout, a modern-day Manali, is one of the budding centres of narco-tourism. Discount opium and weed beckon travellers (over 35 guesthouses full of them) to this otherwise easily missed hideaway. Muang Sing, another Laotian centre for delirium, gets plenty of narco-traffic as well."

Although this may be true, is it helpful in anyway to the development of tourism in Laos to refer to it in this way?

I visited Vang Vieng back in 2000 and remember it as a small, quiet, laid back town of two streets with a sprinkling of guesthouses. The Nam Song river borders the town, separating it from small rice fields backed by towering limestone karsts on the otherside. For a few dollars you can hire an inflatable tube and float down river through the countryside surrounded by tranquility and nature. Across the river from the town a small tractor and trailer carries groups of backpackers along a dusty dirt road to the fabled turquoise stream, and the entrance to some of the many cave systems that extend beneath the karstic landscape are guarded by locals, requesting money for a guided tour through the limestone labyrinths. Provison of a leaking wet cell battery powered headlamp was indicative of the amateur nature of business and the embryonic stage of tourism development. Places and activities not yet scarred by disaster or subject to external scrutiny have no reason to implement health and safety measures. This apparent lawlessness is perhaps the greatest attraction of places like Vang Vieng for western backpackers who are stiffled back home by endless restrictions and legislation.

Inevitably perhaps, with all its charms Vang Vieng may have spiralled into another 'backpacker utopia', much like many other destinations that have come before it. Impressively enterprising residents eager to profit from a growing market open cafes that screen back-to-back Friends episodes, serve refreshments laced with narcotics and fill the air with Bob Marley tunes, creating a liberal travellers' nirvana. A nirvana with no sense of place. Unfortunately such unmanaged, consumer driven development often dominates any commitment to conservation, and the eradication of another once sleepy backwater ensues. The darker side of tourism also always manages to find its way in, be it sex-tourism, human trafficking, environmental exploitation, or in the case of Vang Vieng narco-tourism. Opium production and distribution in Laos has a long history. It is part of the Golden Triangle, and is the world's third largest producer of opium - the parent product of the heroin sold on streets worldwide.

The ethnic Hmong people are the largest producers of opium in Laos. They became an integral part of the CIA-trained militia during the Vietnam War in the fight against communism, helping rescue downed US pilots and disrupting North Vietnamese use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The huge importance of opium trade to the Hmong economy was recognised by the US and they took advantage of this by paying them for their work as mercenaries by purchasing opium. Air America aircraft would set-down on local landing sites, buy the opium for cash and fly off to distribute it.

The Americans weren't the first though to exploit the opium economy of the Hmong. In the last few years of the First Indochina War (1946-1954) the French were desperate for a way to finance their clandestine operations and decided to use military aircraft to link Laotian poppy fields with opium dens in Saigon, Vietnam. The mountainous landscape makes the transport of opium through the country extremely difficult, and once the war ended in 1954 the French withdrew, the aircraft stopped flying and Lao's opium trade fell away.

There is a strong drive by the Laotian and U.S. government to eradicate opium production. The Lao Government often accuses the Hmong of being the cause of the country's problems, with the high levels of deforestation their slash and burn lifestyle causes, and the widespread cultivation of opium. Narco-tourism contributes to an already complex problem, encourages the spread of opium addiction amongst villagers, and a whole range of social problems.

Since the end of the Vietnam War the Hmong have been subjected to a campaign of genocide by communist Laos and Vietnam. The Hmong general (Vang Pao), who led the secret army in 1961 against the communists fled to the US at the end of the war and now resides in California where he leads the United Lao Liberation Front (ULLF), demanding democracy and a reinstatement of the monarchy in Laos. Plans for a coup in Laos organised by the ULLF were recently uncovered by the US Government. The charge being brought against them is laudable - conspiracy to violate the federal Neutrality Act by planning a military invasion of Laos, a nation at peace with the United States. They're also charged with conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim and injure people in a foreign country.

An article in the Herald Tribune, March 1999 - Drug Tourism/In Laos, English Menus and Opium Dens: Westerners Flock East for an 'Asian Trip' - however says:

"The venues catering to foreigners are concentrated in a handful of towns and the amount of opium smoked by foreigners is still very small compared with total national production and export, but international drug control officials say they fear a serious drug-tourism problem has taken root."

An article in Time magazine, July 2001 - 'Pipe Dreams' - tells the story.

"...in a little bar where two Vietnamese men sit drinking bottled Bia Lao beer, smoking A-daeng cigarettes and spitting onto the concrete floor, there is plenty of opium. Several foreigners are already in the back-room den, crashed out on dank mattresses having puffed their way through half a dozen pipes each."

South East Asia online guide specialist Travelfish say this about Vang Vieng:

"Every other property in the town is undergoing some kind of building work, and the development is now starting to take its toll on the special environment which has created the tourism. Rocks are quarried from the limestone mountain range and gravel extracted by the truckload from the Nam Song river bed to feed the demand for building materials. Unscrupulous or ignorant -- take your pick."

Wikitravel says:

"Be prepared to listen to a lot of Bob Marley (it's as if someone bought the complete Friends box set and Bob Marley Legend and burnt copies of them for the entire town)! If you get sick of it there is a "Jack Johnson" bar which plays something else."

At article in the New York Times, March 2006 - Laos: Out From Under an Opium Cloud - however says:

"Just four years ago, a stop in this tranquil town was de rigueur for drug-touring trekkers. Local weed and Burmese speed were sold openly on the street, and by some accounts the opium dens outnumbered the guesthouses. The backpackers flocked, and haughty fans of the writer Paul Theroux, whose travels are held up by purists as the "right" way to do it, announced that Vang Vieng was over...with development moving ahead — six new guesthouses are opening this year, bringing the total to nearly 70 — hotel operators and tour guides see a brighter future in inner-tube rentals than in opium dens."

A rebuttal to this article was posted by The Akha Heritage Foundation - New York Times Prints Pure Stupidity About Opium in Laos.

An Article by The World Rainforest Movement - Laos: US War on drugs is leading to increased Poverty.

"Opium can have devastating effects on communities, families and individuals, especially when opium use becomes widespread in a village. But when opium addicts lose their home-grown supply, they are forced to buy it from neighbouring villages. They are often tempted to buy cheaper and more dangerous alternatives such as methamphetamine derivatives. “This has had consequences far worse for local communities than opium has ever had and is leading to severe impoverishment and cultural disruption,” says the anonymous development worker."

A paper written in the Journal of Third World Studies - Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos, 1942-1992.

An article written by the Media Awareness Project - Laos Becoming Druggie Tourist Stop.

WHAT NEXT FOR TOURISM IN BURMA?

2007-10-12T15:26:00.000+01:00

Make Travel Fair commented on a Guardian Unlimited Travelog article 'What Next for Tourism in Burma' by Tony Wheeler, Lonely Planet posted today.

Comment:

Tourism is an economic lifeline for many people around the world but equally a source of hope, inspiration and knowledge that fuels dreams and ambition. The Burmese people need tourists to visit but they also need tourists to stay away. They need a particular type of tourist - the small scale, low-budget independent traveller who will put money directly into burmese hands and who won't entertain 'manufactured tourism' created at the expense of burmese people. To know whether this is possible requires a visit.

It's a damaging decision for anyone who hasn't been to Burma to attempt to offer advice or an opinion on whether or not tourism is good for the country, but I believe it is if it can be done right.

John Pilger made the documentary Burma: Land of Fear at the end of the 90s. His website contains this information:

"The SLORC has also been careful who it encourages to visit Burma. From the start, the regime encouraged up-market package tourists, not independent back-packers, and watched for any foreign pro-democracy activists....The rapid expansion of Burmese tourism since 1996's 'Visit Myanmar Year' has had terrible implications for the people of Burma. That the success of their policies has relied on the willingness of foreigners to indulge in the luxuries the SLORC has laid on makes the abuse that the Burman people have endured even more abhorrent."

Comment 2:

Is it fair and indeed sensible to refer to the entire tourism industry as a monoculture when in fact it represents an entire spectrum of forms? Low-budget backpackers and high-end luxury resort hotels are at opposite ends of a huge divide that correspond to equally different forms of tourism, with equally different impacts on a destination.

When an independent travel orientated company speaks out with an opinion they talk from a very different point of view about a very different industry to that of an international tour company or resort hotel chain.

Is this a new debate about the difference between travellers and tourists? maybe that's not a vanity issue after all. Maybe Burma doesn't need tourists, maybe it needs travellers.

Comment 3:

The question about whether people should be travelling to Burma obviously raises some strong and contrasting views. I would ask the following question to some of the opposition:

Is it better to sit idylly by in the western world speaking about a political situation we have only been introduced to through media coverage than it is to visit the country as an independent traveller and see for ourselves? It may be true that travel to Burma is not the best thing that we can do but neither is it the worst, just like sitting at home exchanging views on a news website. It seems that with tourism numbers just a 'drop in the bucket' compared to neighbouring Thailand we are obviously not providing the ruling military with a great deal of worldwide support in this sense. The future of Burma lies in the hands of the Burmese and the political and economic policies of the rest of the world.

I very much doubt that staying home and watching the news in defiance of a military regime in an effort to 'help the people' is the primary reason many of us haven't been to Burma...we've never had the opportunity. If all countries were visited on the back of such strongly debated issues as this perhaps more people who do travel would do so with their eyes open much wider to the positive and negative impacts of tourism, environmentally and economically as well as socially.

Burma may be in the spotlight here but it's certainly not the only place in the world where abhorrent policies are 'approved' by tourists.

OUR BRAND NEW RESEARCH SERVICE

2007-10-10T22:47:00.000+01:00

Make Travel Fair is launching a brand new research service designed to help you maxmise the time you spend planning a trip away and gathering up-to-date travel information.

The last thing any traveller needs is another guidebook on the shelf to choose from, another travel forum to sift through, another commission based travel agent, or a single dominating authorative travel resource; we need a way to quickly pull specific information from across all of these sources and give us the best chance of being a well informed traveller.

Our dedicated team of researchers are familiar with the best places to gather travel information on the internet and are surrounded by an extensive library of travel books. We leave no stone unturned when meeting your requirements, even utilising an extensive network of international travel industry contacts and people on the ground.

The best and most reliable travel information is taken from a wide range of sources - authorative and amateur. We don't just deliver homegrown material resulting from our research and experience but provide extensive links and suggestions for other material so that you know exactly where to turn to find out more on your own. We'll let you know which books you can read that might be of interest, which films to watch and what music to listen to.

We are waiting to harvest your information and deliver it to you fresh from the vine.

We are not aiming to remove the novelty and excitement of planning a trip abroad. The learning and research involved in the weeks/months leading up to a trip away is extremely important and needs to be carried out by the traveller themselves. Don't waste your time trawling through travel forums and blogs, hopping backwards and forwards from bookshops, let us do that for you but still with a human touch.

Do you need to know about border crossings? the route travellers are taking through specific countries? the historical importance of a place? why a volcano exists where it does? the best time of year to travel? events occurring when you want to visit? All of our information is designed to give you a sense of place and emphasises the social, environmental and economical aspects of a destination.

Whether you already have a detailed itinerary or simply a destination in mind, provide us with some questions and areas you'd like to find out more on and we will get to work harvesting exactly what you need.

We are not interested in booking your flights, accommodation or tours. We want to give you direct access to the information you need and provide you with a sense of place, making it easier for you to plan your travels and understand the bigger picture.

HOW WE ARE PLANNING OUR TRAVELS

2007-10-07T20:38:00.001+01:00

Ever since we set up Make Travel Fair in 2006 we've been busy scratching at our itchy feet, eager to get back on the road for more experiences and lessons in the 'unreported world'.

A while ago we decided that we'd take 6 consecutive months out of 2008, pack a bag and put some wind back in our sails. It's been a few years now since any of us planned a long trip away so we thought we'd share with you how we are going about it.

Decide how long you've got.
List the places you'd like to go and things you'd like to see.
List any time constraints you have to factor in. Do you need to be somewhere at a particular time? Are there any festivals/events you want to experience?
Which places on your list (probably long list) of destinations are most easily linked in terms of travel in the time you have available? - don't try and do too much.
How do you want to travel? Land, sea, air? combination?
What is the best time of year to be where you want to go? remember that southern hemisphere seasons are opposite to the northern hemisphere. This may dictate the direction you travel in or the activities you can expect to do.
A plan is always a rough sketch to be altered as you progress but it is essential to structure and manage your time.

Useful online tools:

Google: My Maps - Stick a pin in places you'd like to visit and draw on your route.
YouTube - Useful videos about journeys and places all around the world

Other research methods:

Guidebooks are gold mines of information, especially on little known destinations and border crossings. Spend a few hours in a bookstore having a thumb through relevant guides and take some notes.

THE OLD MINES OF OLD SOUTH WALES

2007-09-12T14:26:00.000+01:00

Once out of London, a 2 hour drive west along the M4 brings you to the Severn Bridge, gateway to South Wales - a region transformed during the industrial revolution by the coal and iron mining industry. Privatisation of coal mines by the conservative government in the early 1990s led to widespread closures and had a catastrophic effect on the local economy. Several old mines now provide visitors with a glimpse of an industry and way of life still fresh in the minds of many.

When the Industrial Revolution began in the 1700s coal extraction grew from small scale, easily accessible surface mining, to large scale workings that followed the coal seams deep underground. Originally one of the main uses for coal mined in South Wales was to feed furnaces used in the production iron from the abundant seams of iron ore in the region, but coal soon became the main primary energy source for industry and transportation in the western hemisphere.

As the industry grew the miners began to form unions to fight for better wages and working conditions. The main union was the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), founded in 1888, which had 600,000 members by 1908. Much of the 'old left' of British politics can trace its origins to coal-mining areas. Mine workers went on strike in 1926 in a bid for improvement of working conditions, and again in 1984 in opposition to increased job losses as a result of mechanisation.

The coal industry in Britain was nationalised in 1947 after the importance of maintaining coal supplies had been realised in both world wars, and it remained in public ownership until the 1980s.

The emergence of alternative energies supplies such as oil, and natural gas in the late 1950s brought competition to the coal mines, and as time went by the industry began to contract making many pits uneconomical to work. The National Coal Board was eventually privatised by the conservative government, and throughout the 1990s many pits were sold off, virtually closing down the industry.

Big Pit Mine in Blaenafon closed in 1980, the site is now a mining museum and guided tours by headtorch are led by ex-miners through a labyrinth of passages 90m below ground. It is part of the National Museums of Wales and entry is free.

Carreglwyd campsite is located in Port Eynon on the Gower Peninsula, overlooking the village and bay. Westerly facing fields provide pitches that are flooded with sunlight on a clear morning. Facilities are basic but the showers are hot and clean. At £9 per person for a tent pitch the price seems a little expensive but not unusual for the Gower Peninsula. Rhosilli Beach is a 10-15 minute drive away and a great example of the sort of coastal treasures that exist in the UK, so often sought by taking holidays abroad.

INDEPENDENT TRAVEL TO LAST A LIFETIME

2007-08-21T13:45:00.000+01:00

Leaving school is a milestone in all our lives, a time of liberation from structured days and a temporary end to intensive learning. Finally we are left to walk unsupported, bestowed with the burden of unrelenting decision making.

Travelling the world was never presented as an alternative when I left school, just before the idea of gap-years had really taken off; everything had to have structure and a clearly defined purpose whether it was university, a placement on an overseas program or a proper job. I left the UK five months after my final A-level exam bound for Australia with a working holiday visa, the sense of adventure and rebellion I felt was a real inspiration to me.

Independent travel is not something we all feel comfortable with but it was my salvation, a leap towards greater understanding of the world and the development of a healthy cynicism towards the media and politics. Often slated purely as an opportunity for hedonism and debauchery, it is not always the case and the eventual outcome is often an experience incredibly rich in life lessons, and an important period of time spent forming personal opinions and world views that can hold-fast for a lifetime. An education in the western world may provide strong academic credentials but it does not provide an alternative point of view on the world. It does not teach us the politics of Latin America from the point of view of a Guatemalan. It does not teach us about the stolen generation of Australian aborigines, and it does not teach us about the lasting impact of the Vietnam War over 30 years later. To really get away from it all and learn about history and politics from a new angle we must severe ties with all that is familiar, break new ground for ourselves and experience the world.

I spent two years travelling around Australia, South East Asia and South America, sometimes I'd be alone, sometimes I'd make friends and travel for extended periods with others, having different experiences as a result. The flexibility and freedom of being alone in foreign lands is a heady cocktail of possibility and opportunity, a fantastic asset to anyone's development. It is often a direct result of extended periods away from home that we return and decide to make changes to our lives. The recent rise in social enterprise is a likely outcome of the early 'gap-year generation' translating their travel experiences into ethical employment opportunites.

It was only after I started to travel that I began to eat better food, that I became interested in social and political affairs, and that I really learnt how best to deal with the multitude of decisions we have to make every single day. Travelling is far from an escape, and may even be the most challenging of options facing a school leaver but it is certainly jam-packed with rewards and lessons to last a lifetime. Despite the competition for employment opportunities that we all face; being able to impress on paper by qualifying all of our days with relevant experience isn't what we should be striving for. Self fulfilment and worldly wisdom will shine through on every occasion.

RELIEF FOR UK-BASED VOLUNTEER ORGANISATIONS

2007-08-17T16:36:00.000+01:00

First posted on our Facebook discussion board by Alasdair Harris of Blue Ventures in response to a recent press release fromVSO that was commented on in our post VOLUNTEERS BEGIN TO ASK QUESTIONS

The prominent coverage of the views of Jean Brodie, director of VSO UK, puts into relief a critical need for greater transparency and accountability amongst organisations operating within the UK's largely unregulated gap year and volunteer travel industry.

The proliferation of poorly-planned, spurious and increasingly profit-oriented gap year schemes poses a growing threat to the legitimacy of reputable UK-based volunteer organisations, large and small, working throughout the sustainable development sector.

We represent two non-profit organisations, dedicated to promoting marine conservation in the world's tropical oceans. Year-round our teams work in partnership with governments and local NGOs within resource-dependent coastal communities in Africa, southeast Asia, the Caribbean and Pacific, developing research and conservation programmes to safeguard some of the world's most threatened and biodiverse marine environments.

Amongst other lasting achievements, our projects have trained and employed thousands of scientists, conservationists and volunteers worldwide; empowered local communities in over 10 countries to manage their own natural resources; and succeeded in developing some of the largest networks of community-run marine and coastal protected areas in the world. Projects initiated and led by our organisations have been recognised by the United Nations, the World Conservation Union, and governments worldwide for their efforts to conserve biodiversity and alleviate poverty.

Our work is heavily dependent on support from gap year students and volunteers of all ages from the UK, and we are proud to be associated with this important sphere of the development movement. In light of VSO's remarks, we welcome and encourage closer public scrutiny of all voluntary aid and development projects; such attention is necessary in order that the reputations of truly philanthropic organisations are no longer compromised by projects that claim to benefit communities and environments, but in fact benefit no one other than the travel companies that promote them.

Alasdair Harris, Founder and Research Director, Blue Ventures Conservation

Pete Raines MBE, Founder and CEO, Coral Cay Conservation

INSPIRING SOCIAL CHANGE INTERNATIONALLY

2007-08-17T10:27:00.000+01:00

If you have an idea or a passion that you hope will be of benefit to others and the world we live in then i-genius can help. Through their online social network i-genius seek to stimulate partnerships between members and support them by developing relationships with established organisations.

What is i-genius all about?

"In our community we seek to stimulate fresh thinking and bright ideas, and inspire a new generation to become 'social entrepreneurs'. Social entrepreneurs are individuals who create or develop businesses (whether commercial or not for profit) where the primary focus is on social change."

-Tommy Hutchinson, i-genius Founder & CEO

The i-genius team and members have been a huge source of help, inspiration, publicity and partnerships for Make Travel Fair since we setup, and we are now helping them with planning their first ethical event - A world summit for a new generation of social entrepreneurs. In March 2008 i-genius are holding their first world summit in Thailand.

Why is i-genius having a world summit?

"The core purpose of the summit is to enable people to share great ideas and find exciting ways in which they can work together. The more people who work together from from different locations and cultures, the better the world will be."

-Tommy Hutchinson, i-genius Founder & CEO

Environmental sensitivity, the social and economical inclusion of local communties and businesses in the event are all of great importance to i-genius. The planning has been lengthy and is far from over, but with the right concerns in mind we hope that the event will be a great success.

Why has Phuket, Thailand been chosen as the location?

"After considering a variety of options we chose Thailand. Why? Because Thailand has a wonderful deep culture and history. It is perfectly placed economically and geographically to both benefit from and feel the affects of a rapidly changing world. Thai people have a wonderful sense of art and design which can be truly inspiring. And for practical purposes, it is pretty accessible and cost effective for most to attend. The summit will be held at the Indigo Pearl resort which is an amazing location nestled on a national park along the shores of one of Phuket's most beautiful beaches."

-Tommy Hutchinson, i-genius Founder & CEO

Conservelopment

2007-08-16T17:11:00.000+01:00

Conservation and development have long been seen as arch rivals, neither accommodating the other in a bid for the upper hand. In order to conserve barriers must be erected and access controlled to the resources that are to be preserved. To develop, areas are bulldozed to make way for the infrastructure that accommodates growing populations. It is clear that you can’t have one with the other, or can you?

Is there a way to enhance the social situation while conserving the natural environment? Can people find a way to co-exist with nature and still increase standards of living? Since the Industrial Revolution it has been accepted that where there is development there is environmental degradation. Take China’s massive growth phase – it is already the second most energy consuming nation on earth and looks set to increase these demands by 5% each year (http://www.eia.doe.gov/).

We cannot feasibly ask these developing mega-nations to forsake the short-term benefits of rapid growth to ensure we minimise environmental damage. Afterall, a report in publication from the IPCC shows those forecast to be worst effected by the effects of climate change will be developing nations anyway, so a little unfair perhaps to start blaming them for the damage underway. Developed nations were not called to account during their era of major industrial expansion so neither can we impose sanctions on others. It does mean, however, we should lead by example.

Money does make the world go round and to ensure the environment has a chance of fighting back against the insult of industrial development we need to show that environmental protection itself enhances economic benefits. It takes a lot of lateral thinking to work out how this can be done and even more consumer power. As soon as consumers start seriously demanding more environmental responsibility from their producers, multi-national corporations will start to listen. But the words have to be translated into money talk or no one will care.

Tourism is the largest industry in the world, bar the arms trade, and doesn’t look to be subsiding any time soon. Even with the recent publication of the IPCC’s report about climate change, human behaviour will not be immediately influenced and people will continue to fly for business and leisure, perhaps though with more guilt.

So what is ‘responsible travel’ (RT) and what does the term even mean? RT is basically a way of travelling that is both socially and environmentally respectful. An oxymoron I hear you say! Travel and tourism is all about flying and flopping, buying fake DVDs and generally making a nuisance of yourself in another country, isn’t it? I agree; until recently the travel industry has been held to relatively little account for the impacts it has on destinations, however sweeping generalisations are also too common.

The concept of RT revolves around ensuring you maximise social benefits via travel and minimise the environmental damage. For example, money spent by travellers goes straight to the local people providing the services travellers demand, anything from accommodation and meals to excursions and treks. Money spent locally, brings social benefits that lead to development. What about the conservation aspect?

The term ‘ecotourism’ has lost much of its meaning as it is now used to communicate a host of different travel-related ideas. But taking it now as meaning travel that involves an appreciation of nature, perhaps in visiting reserves, ecolodges, conservation projects, working sustainable farmsand similar ‘ and it begins to offer the conservation element of RT. Suddenly the natural environment becomes a valuable commodity as travellers will pay big money to have the ecotourism experience. Whether it’s silverback gorillas or a rare orchid species, someone will pay money to see what that destination has to offer. It it is in the interests of the community to preserve their most treasured natural possession and ensure it is available for the next group of travellers.

If you can plant the seeds of environmental responsibility in the thoughts of the traveller you can open their minds to the challenges faced by the countries they visit, even encourage them to take an interest in community projects. An ancient Chinese proverb gets this point across much better than I can:

“Tell me, I will forget;
Show me, I may remember;
Involve me, I will understand.”

Until you experience first hand the catalytic effect of introducing a visitor to a local person who wants to share their knowledge and thoughts can you appreciate how much there is to gain from cross-cultural interaction - and responsible travel. Travel is all about seeing new places and cultures, and how better to do that than through local eyes. When you stand in someone else’s shoes you can’t help but gain empathy for their situation. This is why when travellers meet and interact with local people they gain such a different experience and always a more rewarding one if that person is reliable and hospitable. This is the foundation of responsible travel – equality, awareness and participation: involving travellers in local efforts that enhance their social and environmental awareness and involving local communities in the benefits of global tourism. You remove the middleman and suddenly many more benefits – social, environmental and even economic – are yielded.

Exciting? It is, and the fact it actually makes good economic sense to support these efforts makes it even more interesting. The smart money for those in travel is to join these efforts now and be a leader. It offers a way to differentiate within the biggest industry in the world and gain access to a larger, more sustainable customer base. But this is not something the huge industry leaders can do easily, It’s an opportunity for those at grass roots level to implement projects and initiatives that offer travellers new experiences, communities sustainable futures, and the environment the protection it deserves. It also stimulates equality in an industry controlled by global corporations and across cultures.

So yes, there are ways to stimulate development with conservation and they are practical solutions that are being put in place all over the world in small settings. 2007 sees the first World Responsible Tourism Day on November 14th and promises to be revolutionary year for travel and RT in particular. But the smart ones already know that and are leading conservelopment to new heights.

VOLUNTEERS BEGIN TO ASK QUESTIONS

2007-08-14T21:53:00.000+01:00

International development charity VSO recently cautioned young people taking a gap year abroad that it may be better to travel rather than to take up spurious voluntary work in developing countries.

The escape from structure and routine that travelling provides is such an important breath of fresh air for young people who have just left the education system. There are so many life skills to be developed and experiences to be had from the independence that travelling provides. We all need time to develop ourselves and our skills before we attempt to help others develop, so is volunteering really the best option for school leavers? Is it perhaps better suited to a more mature demographic with more skills to share?

Has volunteering become a means for young people to spend time away from education and work, without the feeling of compromising their employability? Every job is so competitive these days that many would class a year spent travelling as a literal gap in their CV or resume. In an effort to maintain their 'edge', a period of time spent 'doing the right thing' has become more favourable for young people than simply travelling and seeing the world for what it is. As a result, volunteering has risen in popularity and led to an explosion of companies looking to capitalise on the consumer, tainting the sector with some poorly established programs, and requiring the more responsible organisations to draw up guidelines to assist people with choosing a worthy company.

Perhaps volunteering has come to be seen too much as a rite of passage, and not enough for what it actually is. Similar neglect on utilising the skills of volunteers effectively has contributed to the almost devaluing of volunteer placements.

INTERNATIONAL PETROL CONSUMPTION

2007-07-12T15:26:00.000+01:00