Lately, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the idea of responsible tourism. What’s “responsible tourism” you ask? Well, that’s one of the questions. There are lots of organizations out there with their own definitions, but the one I’m going with for now is the idea that we, as world travelers, should try to ensure that our visits to various places help to maintain the many sights and cultures we’ve come to see, and do not, however indirectly, contribute to their destruction.

You see, as much as I love my adopted home here in Thailand, I’m often dismayed at the rather careless ways some tourist sights get developed. Forests are cut down, big hotels are built without ensuring adequate fresh water supplies or waste water treatment, and little or no attention is paid to maintaining the sights that actually make people want to visit a destination in the first place. Web sites promoting responsible tourism almost always suggest that “responsible tourists” should stay in locally owned accommodations, yet these are almost always the worst offenders. The often railed against big international chains tend to think long term, and thus in more sustainable terms. It’s the locals who tend to think in terms of making a quick buck, no matter what the long term costs.

Now, I’m not for a moment suggesting that really responsible travelers only stay in the big chains. Responsible tourists should get as close to the local culture as possible. They should stay in small, low impact accommodations, if desired. Therein lies the conundrum: How are we, as independent travelers, going to know if the little five bungalow resort on the beach we’ve picked out is acting responsibly? Did they cut down half a virgin jungle to build a road to the place? Do they pump their sewage out into the ocean you’re swimming in? How are we to know? This isn’t exactly the kind of thing resort owners are going to be forth-coming about.

Of course, I’m going to start paying a lot more attention to these things as I visit places in the future, and I’ll be working my findings into AsiaForVisitors.com as they develop. In the meantime, all comments on this topic are definitely welcome.