How to know if your travel choice is really better for the planet

Leigh Ann Pow Leigh Ann Pow
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Knowing that you are travelling responsibly can be a vexed proposition, but a clutch of organisations are determined to make it much easier to journey with a clear conscience.

Green. Sustainable. Organic. The buzzwords of our earnest efforts to do better as we finally start to understand the consequences of our collective global actions over the last few centuries are increasingly attached to everything from our morning coffee to the cars we drive to the energy being pumped into our homes.

They are also being liberally bandied about within the tourism industry, which, thanks to air travel and the over-tourism we were witnessing before the pandemic hit, has been left wanting when it comes to making substantiative efforts to adapt and change.

According to Professor Tim Flannery, whom we spoke with in late 2021, we haven’t reached the overall tipping point when it comes to climate change yet (scientists view climate change as a series of tipping points), but we are getting perilously close and need to act now, especially in areas like travel.

“We love [travel]. It enriches our life hugely, but it does have a big impact on the climate for what is a discretionary thing," he told us. “If I were you, I’d be looking at your messaging. What are the options for flying with offsets? What’s the future looking like for airlines in terms of flying on carbon-neutral fuels? Who’s doing any of this work? With cruising, who has hydrogen-powered cruise ships? Who’s developing them? The options are all there, but we’ve got to get serious about doing it now, as 10 years from now it’s going to be too late."

Two figures stroll along a beach in Australia
Sustainable tourism should make optimal use of environmental resources while respecting host communities. (Image: Central Coast; Destination NSW)

What is sustainable travel?

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), sustainable tourism should:

1. Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity.

2. Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to intercultural understanding and tolerance.

3. Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation.

How do we actually make informed decisions?

With the onus on all of us to do our bit, how do we actually make informed decisions about travel without getting swayed by buzzwords and being drenched in greenwashing?

It is all about doing your research when planning your travel, choosing operators that demonstrate a solid and accountable commitment to sustainable, conscious and ethical practices and rewarding operators, businesses and initiatives that are planning and striving to contribute to solutions that will make a real difference, even if it comes as a premium.

Ask questions, seek feedback and if you can’t find what you want immediately, agitate and advocate for something better in the future. And yes, it might take up more of your time, but considering that we are running out of exactly that when it comes to the health of our planet, how can you see it as anything but well spent?

A woman freedives along reefs in Australia.
The onus is on us to do our bit to make better travel choices.  (Image: Destination NSW)

Need tips, more detail or itinerary ideas tailored to you? Ask AT.

AI Prompt

Understanding Eco Certification

Certification is another buzzword becoming increasingly popular within the tourism industry, but certified by who and for what should be the first questions you ask yourself. With almost no standardised, universally recognised guidelines on the benchmarks above which eco credibility is reached, it can be hard to fathom what’s good and bad in this space.

But that’s no reason to be sceptical about everyone in the industry and do nothing. The good news here in Australia is that we actually have a number of credible industry bodies in tourism that evaluate and award certification and accreditation to businesses striving to do better.

A wooden bridge hanging in a lush, green forest in Australia
In Australia, a number of credible tourism industry organisations exist to accredit businesses striving to do better. (Image Source: Destination NSW)

The Australian Tourism Industry Council

The Australian Tourism Industry Council (ATIC) is the national representative body for tourism here, which manages national industry development programs including the Quality Tourism program, which includes the ascending Sustainable Tourism Accreditation and EcoStar Accreditation.

The first step in the process for businesses looking to have their eco credentials recognised is achieving Quality Tourism Accreditation, which confirms they have met specific criteria that ensure they are committed to exceeding expectations on customer service and meet the highest standards of business practice.

With this stage ticked, they can then move on to achieve ATIC’s Sustainable Tourism Accreditation, which guides businesses to provide quality offerings that “address this changing global trend of experiential tourism" by demonstrating sound sustainability practices.

For businesses that go above and beyond when it comes to environmental management, EcoStar Accreditation recognises a commitment to environmental management based on stringent criteria such as contributing to conservation and sustainability, establishing an environmental risk management strategy, supporting and benefiting the local community, and recognition of cultural and heritage issues.

Ecotourism Australia

Brisbane-based Ecotourism Australia (EA) is another organisation assisting Aussie travellers, one that has been much in the news of late having bestowed its exacting certification on a handful of regions including the NSW Central Coast and Western Australia’s Margaret River Region.

The non-government, not-for-profit organisation, established over 30 years ago, acts to promote and support the ecotourism industry in Australia, with its flagship ECO Certification holding the distinction of being the world’s first national ecotourism certification program.

Cape to Cape Walk in Margaret River
Walk the Cape to Cape trail in the eco-friendly Margaret River Region. (Image: Tourism Western Australia)

Internationally respected for its industry standards, it is also recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), a US-registered not-for-profit representing national governments, hotel groups, travel companies and NGOs including the likes of Switzerland Tourism and Singapore Tourism, Lonely Planet, Google, Airbnb and our own Intrepid Travel.

Ecotourism Australia uses the Green Destinations framework recognised by GSTC to assess destinations and tourism providers across 100 or so criteria including managing volumes and activities, climate change adaptation, community support, preventing exploitation and discrimination, protection of cultural assets and protection of sensitive environments.

What this effectively means is that credibility, as a result of its position as the national peak body for sustainable and nature-based tourism, underpins Ecotourism Australia’s programs, including its ECO Destination Certification, launched in 2018 to encourage and recognise operators and government working together to demonstrate a community-wide and entire-region commitment to sustainable tourism management practices including protecting the natural environment and bridging the gap between tourism and conservation.

Waves crash against Emerald Beach in NSW, Australia
Environmental management is based on stringent criteria focused on conservation, sustainability and recognising cultural and heritage issues. (Image: Emerald Beach; Destination NSW)

In addition to the aforementioned NSW Central Coast and Margaret River Region, which were certified this year, the Port Douglas Daintree region was recognised in 2019 followed by the NSW Coffs Coast in 2021.

EA is also committed to encouraging and assisting the tourism industry to take real steps towards acting in a way that both respects and reinforces the country’s unique Indigenous living cultures and rich cultural heritage through the Respecting Our Culture (ROC) Certification.

Designed by Aboriginal Tourism Australia (ATA) and administered by Ecotourism Australia, the program recognises tourism operators (including accommodation, tours and attractions) that are ‘committed to protecting cultural authenticity and integrity, developing sound business practices, environmental protection and acknowledging Indigenous peoples’ spiritual connection to the land and water’.

Dangar Falls in Coffs Coast, NSW, Australia
Dangar Falls, near Dorrigo on the Coffs Coast, has been recognised as an ECO Destination by Ecotourism Australia. (Image: Destination NSW)

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Join the B Corp movement

Many companies, including those in tourism and hospitality, are embracing the B Corp Certification movement, confirming themselves as operators that strive to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.

Aerial view of person stand-up paddle boarding
Accredited sustainable and nature-based tours are on the rise. (Image: Tourism Western Australia)

The Melbourne/ Naarm-based not-for-profit B Lab, which debuted in Australia in 2006 (an offshoot of a global not-for-profit based out of the US), operates according to a vision of contributing towards a more caring and accountable global economy, awarding certification to companies that are committed to balancing profits and purpose, and which are making real efforts to have a positive impact on the people they employ, the communities they exist within and the environment as a whole.

Here in Australia, companies such as Aesop and Intrepid Travel have achieved B Corp Certification. There’s even a university course, conducted by Torrens University Australia – Championing Organisational Change: Introduction to B Corps – designed for those wanting to find out more about the values, processes and standards that underpin this global movement for good.

For more tips and advice visit our guilt-free guide to sustainable travel.
Leigh Ann Pow

Leigh Ann Pow

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This scenic Victorian region is the perfect antidote to city life

    Craig Tansley Craig Tansley
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    Video credit: Visit Victoria/Tourism Australia

    The Grampians just might be the ultimate antidote for the metropolis, writes one returning Aussie ready to disconnect from the modern world and reconnect to the Great outdoors.

    There are no kangaroos back in Chicago: they’re all here in the Grampians/Gariwerd. In the heart of the Grampians National Park’s main gateway town, Halls Gap, pods of eastern greys are eating grass beside my parked rental car beneath the stars. Next morning, when I see the backyard of my rented villa on the edge of town for the first time, there are kangaroos feeding beside a slow-moving creek, lined with river red gums.

    Five hundred metres up the road, 50 or so of them are eating by the side of the road in a paddock. I pull over to watch and spot three emus. Yellow-tailed black cockatoos fly overhead towards the tall green mountains just beyond town.

    ‘Kee-ow, keee-oww’… their calls fuse with the maniacal cackle of a kookaburra (or 10). Gawd, how I’ve missed the sound of them. Far above, a wedge-tailed eagle watches, and there you go: the ‘great birds of Australia’ trifecta, all half a kay from the town limits.

    Exchanging city chaos for country calm

    kangaroos near Halls Gap, Grampians National Park
    The park is renowned for its significant diversity of native fauna species. (Image: Visit Victoria/Robert Blackburn)

    I’ve come to the Grampians to disconnect, but the bush offers a connection of its own. This isn’t just any bush, mind you. The Grampians National Park is iconic for many reasons, mostly for its striking sandstone mountains – five ridges run north to south, with abrupt, orange slopes which tumble right into Halls Gap – and for the fact there’s 20,000 years of traditional rock art. Across these mountains there are more than 200 recorded sites to see, created by the Djab Wurrung, Jardwadjali and Gunditjmara peoples. It’s just like our outback… but three hours from Melbourne.

    I’ve come here for a chance at renewal after the chaos of my life in America’s third-largest city, Chicago, where I live for now, at the whim of a relative’s cancer journey. Flying into Melbourne’s airport, it only takes an hour’s drive to feel far away from any concept of suburbia. When I arrive in Halls Gap two hours later, the restaurant I’m eating at clears out entirely by 7:45pm; Chicago already feels a lifetime ago.

    The trails and treasures of the Grampians

    sunrise at Grampians National Park /Gariwerd
    Grampians National Park /Gariwerd covers almost 2000 square kilometres. (Image: Ben Savage)

    Though the national park covers almost 2000 square kilometres, its best-known landmarks are remarkably easy to access. From my carpark here, among the cockatoos and kangaroos on the fringe of Halls Gap, it only takes 60 seconds’ driving time before I’m winding my way up a steep road through rainforest, deep into the mountains.

    Then it’s five minutes more to a carpark that serves as a trailhead for a hike to one of the park’s best vantage points, The Pinnacles. I walk for an hour or so, reacquainting myself with the smells and the sounds of the Aussie bush, before I reach it: a sheer cliff’s edge lookout 500 metres up above Halls Gap.

    walking through a cave, Hollow Mountain
    Overlooking the vast Grampians landscape from Hollow Mountain. (Image: Robert Blackburn)

    There are hikes and there are lookouts and waterfalls all across this part of the park near town. Some are a short stroll from a carpark; others involve long, arduous hikes through forest. The longest is the Grampians Peaks Trail, Victoria’s newest and longest iconic walk, which runs 160 kilometres – the entire length of Grampians National Park.

    Local activities operator Absolute Outdoors shows me glimpses of the trail. The company’s owner, Adrian Manikas, says it’s the best walk he’s done in Australia. He says he’s worked in national parks across the world, but this was the one he wanted to bring his children up in.

    “There’s something about the Grampians,” he says, as he leads me up a path to where there’s wooden platforms for tents, beside a hut looking straight out across western Victoria from a kilometre up in the sky (these are part of the guided hiking options for the trail). “There are things out here that you won’t see anywhere else in Australia.” Last summer, 80 per cent of the park was damaged by bushfire, but Manikas shows me its regrowth, and tells me of the manic effort put in by volunteers from town – with firefighters from all over Australia – to help save Halls Gap.

    wildflowers in Grampians National Park
    Spot wildflowers. (Image: Visit Victoria)

    We drive back down to Halls Gap at dusk to abseil down a mountain under the stars, a few minutes’ walk off the main road into town. We have headlamps, but a full moon is enough to light my way down. It takes blind faith to walk backwards down a mountain into a black void, though the upside is I can’t see the extent of my descent.

    Grampians National Park at sunset
    Grampians National Park at sunset. (Image: Wine Australian)

    The stargazing is ruined by the moon, of course, but you should see how its glow lights up the orange of the sandstone, like in a theme park. When I’m done, I stand on a rocky plateau drinking hot chocolate and listening to the Aussie animals who prefer nighttime. I can see the streets of Halls Gap off in the distance on this Friday night. The restaurants may stay open until 8pm tonight.

    What else is on offer in The Grampians?

    a boat travelling along the Wimmera River inDimboola
    Travelling along the Wimmera River in Dimboola. (Image: Chris McConville)

    You’ll find all sorts of adventures out here – from rock climbing to canoeing to hiking – but there’s more to the Grampians than a couple of thousand square kilometres of trees and mountains. Halls Gap may be known to most people, but what of Pomonal, and Dimboola, and Horsham? Here in the shadow of those big sandstone mountains there are towns and communities most of us don’t know to visit.

    And who knew that the Grampians is home to Victoria’s most underrated wine region? My disconnection this morning comes not in a forest, but in the tasting rooms and winery restaurants of the district. Like Pomonal Estate, barely 10 minutes’ drive east of Halls Gap, where UK-born chef Dean Sibthorp prepares a locally caught barramundi with lentil, pumpkin and finger lime in a restaurant beside the vines at the base of the Grampians. Husband-and-wife team Pep and Adam Atchison tell me stories as they pour their prize wines (shiraz is the hero in these parts).

    dining at Pomonal Estate
    Dine in a restaurant beside vines at Pomonal Estate. (Image: Tourism Australia)

    Three minutes’ drive back down the road, long-time mates Hadyn Black and Darcy Naunton run an eclectic cellar door out of a corrugated iron shed, near downtown Pomonal. The Christmas before last, half the houses in Pomonal burnt down in a bushfire, but these locals are a resilient lot.

    The fires also didn’t stop the construction of the first art centre in Australia dedicated to environmental art in a nature-based precinct a little further down the road (that’s Wama – the National Centre for Environmental Arts), which opened in July. And some of the world’s oldest and rarest grape vines have survived 160 years at Best’s Wines, outside the heritage town of Great Western. There’s plantings here from the year 1868, and there’s wines stored in century-old barrels within 150-year-old tunnels beneath the tasting room. On the other side of town, Seppelt Wines’ roots go back to 1865. They’re both only a 30-minute drive from Halls Gap.

    Salingers of Great Western
    Great Western is a charming heritage town. (Image: Griffin Simm)

    There’s more to explore yet; I drive through tiny historic towns that barely make the map. Still part of the Grampians, they’re as pretty as the mountains behind them: full of late 19th-century/early 20th-century post offices, government offices and bank buildings, converted now to all manner of bric-a-brac stores and cafes.

    The Imaginarium is one, in quirky Dimboola, where I sleep in the manager’s residence of an old National Australia Bank after a gourmet dinner at the local golf club, run by noted chef and teacher, Cat Clarke – a pioneer of modern Indigenous Australian cooking. Just south, I spend an entire afternoon at a winery, Norton Estate Wines, set on rolling calico-coloured hills that make me think of Tuscany, chit-chatting with owners Chris and Sam Spence.

    Being here takes me back two decades, when I lived here for a time. It had all seemed as foreign as if I’d driven to another planet back then (from Sydney/Warrane), but there seemed something inherently and immediately good about this place, like I’d lived here before.

    And it’s the Australian small-town familiarity of the Grampians that offers me connection back to my own country. Even in the better-known Halls Gap, Liz from Kerrie’s Creations knows I like my lattes with soy milk and one sugar. And while I never do get the name of the lady at the local Ampol station, I sure know a lot about her life.

    Kookaburras on a tree
    Kookaburras are one of some 230 bird species. (Image: Darren Donlen)

    You can be a local here in a day; how good is that? In Chicago, I don’t even know who my neighbour is. Though each day at dusk – when the kangaroos gather outside my villa, and the kookaburras and the black cockatoos shout out loud before settling in to sleep – I prefer the quieter connection I get out there in the bush, beneath these orange mountains.

    A traveller’s checklist

    Staying there

    Sleep beside the wildlife on the edge of Halls Gap at Serenity.

    Playing there

    abseiling down Hollow Mountain
    Hollow Mountain is a popular abseiling site.

    Go abseiling under the stars or join a guided hike with Absolute Outdoors. Visit Wama, Australia’s first environmental art centre. Check out Dimboola’s eccentric Imaginarium.

    Eating there

    steak, naan bread and beer at Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap
    Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap serves a great steak on naan bread.

    Eat world-class cuisine at Pomonal Estate. Dine and stay at much-revered icon Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld. The ‘steak on naan’ at Halls Gap brewhouse Paper Scissors Rock, can’t be beat.

    Dunkeld Arboretum in Grampians National Park
    The serene Dunkeld Arboretum.

    For Halls Gap’s best breakfasts head to Livefast Cafe. Sip local wines at Great Western’s historic wineries, Best’s Wines, Seppelt Wines and Norton Estate Wines.

    two glasses of beer at Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap
    Sink a cold one at Paper Scissors Rock.