There are some types of holidays I don’t offer due to my beliefs about social and environmental impact.
Large Group Tours
I avoid promoting group tours with more than 25 people. Smaller groups provide a more enjoyable experience for travellers and are also kinder to local communities and the environment.
Snow Cannons
Many ski resorts use snow cannons to extend the natural snow season from Christmas to Easter, but this is extremely damaging to the environment, especially due to the massive amounts of water required.
I focus on holidays that align with natural snowfall seasons and encourage activities like snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. These take place in natural settings, using real snow, with much less environmental impact.
Orphanage Tourism
Children should never be treated as tourist attractions, especially vulnerable children. Allowing tourists into orphanages raises serious concerns. Visitors are not background-checked, but may have access to children. Vulnerable children often form bonds with tourists, only to be abandoned repeatedly.
Worse still, orphanage tourism has become a business in some places. For example, Siem Reap in Cambodia has 35 orphanages for a population of just 100,000 people. Many of the children are not orphans but were given up by families under false promises of a "better life."
I believe in offering holidays that respect both people and the planet.
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