The issue of “ethical destinations” is simple. When you travel, you are voting with your dollars. The places you visit are getting your votes. Yes, the world is complex. But some countries are doing great things in terms of protecting the environment and human rights. If this is important to you, you may wish to support these countries with your vacation spending.

We don’t tell people NOT to travel to places with horrible environmental or human rights records. For instance, we support travel to Burma, as long as it is done on an individual (not group tour) basis, so as to minimize the amount of money that goes to the regime. Supporting mom and pop hotels and restaurants will also give you a more authentic experience, no matter where you choose to travel.

Thanks to everyone for contributing to this constructive conversation!

Michael McColl
Co-Founder & Director of Communications
http://Ethicaltraveler.org
— Empowering Travelers to Change the World –

The one things articles like this does do is raise awareness to destinations, that they are more then just what the traveller wants to go see. Hopefully makes people stop and think about any destination as a whole and not just what they can possibly get out of the destination.

I just found your site and am looking forward to reading many more articles.

Cheers
Anna

At the time I read your post I admit I didn’t read the Toronto Star’s post. I now realize their article is covering EthicalTraveler.org’s publication, a website that I write for. So I appreciate your thoughts on the subject.

I’m with you, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go somewhere and as you pointed out there is a great deal of subjectivity in these reports and it is extremely difficult to accurately classify an entire country as more ethical than another. And I think that is an important distinction, just because a country doesn’t make the cut that doesn’t necessarily mean it is unethical, the point is that the 10 destinations or whatever that did make the cut are more ethical. And hopefully there is an explanation of what factors were taken into consideration that made these destinations the best, obviously every report weighs certain factors higher than others.

I think this is a very complicated issue. The reports are a just a guideline. Someone who considers themselves to be an “ethical” traveler can look at a report as the first source of information, not the last. It should be the beginning of research and hopefully spark a greater interest and concern about how one can use tourist dollars as a powerful force for change. Unfortunately, as I’m sure you know the danger is that many people with take these reports at face value and suddenly decide that such and such place is the most ethical with out looking into it themselves. Or they will think that because X didn’t make the list that makes it unethical.

Very interesting points you made. You brought up some ideas I hadn’t considered on the subject. Like you, I travel to learn about all things, good and bad, and so I will travel to countries that have little interest in the environment or human rights issues, but I’m a backpacker. I think those who are hitting up five star hotels and pouring a great deal of money into a specific location just for fun should pay more attention to the realities of the place they are traveling to and in that way these reports can be useful. Thank you for sharing.

I think the same question applies to “eco-friendly” destinations, too. I just finished an article for an in-flight magazine on this subject and while I was researching, I came across the most sweeping generalizations and stereotypes that left me wondering whether the authors had ever visited any of the places on these eco-friendly lists. Brazil as an eco-friendly destination? Really? Yes, it has the Amazon, but it also has some of the most severe deforestation problems in the world. I just think that making sweeping lists like this–whether they’re about ethical destinations or eco-friendly destinations–is a potentially misleading notion.