All language subtitles for TheLastTourist

Tourism.

It's considered a wonderful break

from the real world.

♪ V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

♪ In the summertime

Unmonitored tourism has apparently damaged

the nation's coastline.

One last photo, one last chance

for hundreds of tourists to visit Maya Bay.

The beach is being put out of bounds

after years of unrestricted tourism.

♪ V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

♪ In the summertime

Holidays become cheaper and more people

flood into tourism hot-spots.

Over-tourism and environmental degradation.

Twenty million visit each year.

Three quarters of them
only stay for 24 hours.

All these tourists end up drunk...

...there are
just too many tourists.

...see
the same sights,

their impact is devastating.

Dude, holy shit.

She and another tourist

are accused of spray-painting

graffiti on an ancient wall.

Tourism can kill a place.

A place that was so beautiful

can become overused, exploited and trashed.

Most tourism has led to destruction.

It led to the destruction

of the very things
that they've come to see.

Every year, thousands of Brits

visit Thailand and loads of them

can't wait to get a picture
with the local tigers.

A tourist has been caught on camera

carrying a dolphin on a beach.

It's almost a disposable

engagement in economy.

You live with a certain
set of values at home.

Why would you suspend those values

when you decide to take a holiday?

It's a different
set of behaviour principles.

We're hedonistic when we travel.
We tend to have more showers.

We tend to be more wasteful,
we tend to eat more.

The tourist industry is a huge cash cow.

But locals don't see much of that revenue.

The exploitation of the working class

by the hotel industry...

We have people
who say these volunteer trips

abroad are sometimes
only about the photo-ops.

Travel is in a very unfortunate state,

at the moment.

As tourists, we're just such

unconscious consumers.

Like a lot of travellers,

I started out as a backpacker.

In Africa,

when I travelled to Asia,

late '70s, I was already starting to see

negative impacts of tourism.

So it set me off looking for the unspoiled.

The uncharted.
And that eventually led me

to a place called Ko Pha Ngan in Thailand.

When I arrived in Ko Pha Ngan in 1979,

I was the first tourist
to have arrived on that beach.

There was one Thai family,
a fisherman, living there.

His name was Sonboom.
And his wife Chom.

And I stayed with them for three months

and it was magical.

And I made a little map of that location.

And unfortunately,
I shared that with one person,

who was my girlfriend at the time,

and that map found its way to others,

and soon, other tourists began arriving.

Now, I never went back, but in 1993,

I opened a New York Times magazine

and I was stunned.

I saw a photograph of the beach

with thousands and thousands of people

celebrating something called
the Full Moon party.

It was out of control.

Masses of trash.

Out of control development.

It ripped... ripped me apart
from inside.

To think that from the time
I had arrived there in 1979,

within a period of ten years,
this place was being

utterly and totally destroyed.

We have got to get tourism right,

because if we don't,

we're going to see Ko Pha Ngan
reproduced around the world.

One hour?

Yeah.

Wow.

We are born explorers.

We have a carnal desire

to want to travel.

You know, people dream about travel.

Our ancestors were all explorers.

People risked their lives
to travel, originally.

Travel opens our eyes, and we learn

so much about the world

and about ourselves.

Travel. It's a sense
of our innate curiosity.

We're driven by a desire

to experience and to learn.

We were born to explore.

We were born to want

to seek out new experiences.

Learn from other cultures.

And somewhere along the way,

you become a tourist.

You become someone who is disconnected

from the very place you're travelling to.

This is the way to travel.

Relax and enjoy yourself.

Yes, this is the way to travel.

Back in the 1950s, when world tourism,

mass tourism was just beginning,
the first jets

were crossing the Atlantic ocean,

there were 25 million
international trips a year.

Last year, that number
was 1.3 billion.

That's a multiplication of 52 times.

The jumbos are coming.

Heathrow airport took
the arrival of the world's

first fully loaded jumbo-jet aircraft,

which will revolutionize
the future of civil aviation.

Captain Jess Tranter and his crew

brought the first jumbo from the States

in just over six-and-a-half hours.

With the advent
of mass air travel in the 1960s,

747, when it was inaugurated,

was three times bigger
than any public airplane before,

so we've gone through a journey

of global mass travel.

Today, with technology,

you can find ways to get to pretty much

any part of the world, now.

The world has become
an oyster for the masses.

Over-tourism is

simply too many people

in the same place at the same time.

The increase in visitors to the point

where it is too much

for the landscape and the environment.

It's too much for the local residents.

So, you're seeing examples of it

in what are sometimes called
"honeypot destinations."

They're places that people
just really want to go.

Places that used to be protected

are becoming more accessible.

Places that are really
being loved to death.

We're having an infinitely
growing number of tourists

going to finite places

that are exactly the same size
they were back in 1950.

It's this fascinating history,
because it has

everything to do with
what was a great success:

the end of the Cold War.

Literally half of the world
had been cut off

from the other half during the Cold War.

One of the first things
the end of the Cold War did

was open borders around the world,

and with those open borders, trade.

Around the globe, you saw the growth

of the middle-class.

All of this within
literally about a decade.

This is astonishing.

We have emerging
markets such as China and India

coming onto the scene, in terms of

the affordability of travel.

Simultaneously, we had a great

technological leap, the Internet.

Tourism is not an elite hobby anymore.

Tourism has become a global industry.

This industry is
covering our entire planet.

Eighty percent of the world's countries

count tourism in their top five
foreign exchange revenues.

One out of ten jobs in the planet

is connected to the travel
and tourism industry.

There's more travellers,

it's easier and cheaper to travel,

and the way we experience,
and our expectations

for what we want when we travel

have changed.

The advent of social media

has completely changed the way we travel.

We're going after a photograph

rather than actually truly
having experience.

Holidays are a status symbol.

You work hard and you earn
that vacation with your family

once a year.

It's status.

Twenty-nine percent
of millennial travellers

said they wouldn't go to a destination

if they couldn't post
about it on Instagram.

People see their friends

who have taken a picture of themselves

in a beautiful spot, and it spreads,

and it goes viral and then everybody

wants to go to that same beautiful spot.

Social media's become
the ultimate tasting menu.

Some of the most isolated

and fragile areas are now

getting inundated with people
who just simply

really want to say,

"I was here."

Is that our tourism industry?

Are we just travelling
for the iconic photo?

Or are we really trying to truly change

the way that we learn, and gain,

and benefit, and become
enriched from travel?

Right now,

two cruise ships are there,
and I can't believe

nothing is out here,

it's just as dry as you see it.

And it's not only today,

it's always, for a good while, now.

It's about five years now

we have no season, and the cruise ships

come in always, and nothing for the locals.

So I keep on wondering
what is going on for us.

Over two months I have not
made a sale at my store.

My rent is just piling up

and I can't make no money.

We are not benefiting from tourism.

Tourist, we don't
get from the cruise ships,

they're coming to Montego Bay.

Embrace the sun on the largest racetrack

at sea, zooming past Alaska's glaciers.

Or pristine Caribbean beaches.

You know, when you find yourself,

on a go-kart track on a cruise ship

in the middle of an ocean
and they've sold it to you,

at some point you got to think,
"This is kinda weird."

The cruise ship business model
it to basically

keep the money, not surprisingly,

flowing back to the ship.

There's seminars on how to go shopping.

To fulfil your diamond wardrobe.

Making sure you have a thread count

in your bed sheets, and you have amenities

in your bathroom,
and you have five swimming pools

and six restaurants to choose from,

and you can be in the Caribbean,

make sure you still get Italian food.

Maybe we should just
think of another word for it,

'cause it's not travel anymore,

'cause you're being transplanted
from one Western environment

to another Western environment.

So let's just call it
a transfer of environments.

Most of the tours that they take onshore

are sold actually on the ship,

and the ship takes a hefty commission.

A tour costs 80 dollars,

40 dollars of that goes back
to the ship as a commission.

In addition to that,

there are designated shops and restaurants

on shore that the cruise lines

have done arrangements with,
so every time you shop

at one of those stores,

the cruise lines get a commission.

You arrive, you're given

a little map of where
you're supposed to shop

and warned not to shop anywhere else,

because you can't trust the locals.

It's the exact opposite
of a real experience.

The reality is that there have been

surveys of visitors,

and when you look at, "How important is it

that a particular resort or tour operator

is keeping locals in mind?"

It's actually

ten percent that consider that.

Travel has taken a turn

and the destination is no longer relevant.

I was born in Trinidad,

I can speak firsthand,

there's a tension that's built
between local people

and the tourist,

and that tension is being used

by the tour operators
to build compound walls.

Pushing more and more people into isolation

because they're saying,
"Don't leave these walls,

because the natives
are restless."

Because they are restless,
because they're not benefiting

from the fact that you're living in luxury,

consuming mass amounts of resources,

but outside of those walls
there's not access

to medical care or clean drinking water.

Traditionally,

tourism has been a one-way conversation.

The people who change your bed,

clean your room, wait on your table,

their wages are not very good at all.

So you have a very wealthy industry that...

...pays very low.

Fifty dollars a month for a waiter.

On the one hand, travel has been

the source of money, and on the other one,

work has been the source of profit,

and that you just treat them like objects

being exploited.

All-inclusive travel packages

deny host communities.

They don't just deny them revenue,

they deny them even the richness

of integration with travellers.

How will tourism

connect cultures when we have

all-inclusive packages that keep you

in your hotel in one place?

Indeed, tourism can be

a great distributor of wealth...

Only if we manage

the distribution of the revenue

that comes from tourism.

If we don't do that,

tourism will not contribute

to development in destinations.

I'll use a typical

Kenyan example.

You're going to Maasai Mara in Kenya.

If my trip costs

5000 $, I book a whole package,

how much of that 5000 ends up

in Maasai Mara

where you lodge, it's located,

and where you will enjoy your safari?

In a case like Kenya, only 14 percent

of every dollar that's spent
in the country,

stays in the country.

The other 86 percent leaves the country

in terms of foreign ownership
by hotels, or airlines,

or transportation, in terms of food

that needs to be brought in
from somewhere else.

Anything that the country does not keep

in their local pocket is called leakage.

What has been the case in Cambodia

and in other countries too is that a lot

of the foreign hotel chains will simply

build their hotels,

import the food,

import all kinds of things,

and take up that space
so the locals aren't doing it.

So that you are changing

what that city or place is

by making it foreign and not local.

You're depriving the locals

of a lot of economic space

and cultural space.

Most of the money goes
to international companies.

Tourism has created consumption patterns...

...in the minds of the traveller

that need to be deconstructed a little bit.

We have to change our mindsets
about travel.

If you're going to Africa,

especially with the rise of luxury travel,

to go into a luxury lodge
and have gourmet meals,

and sit in your air conditioning,

and then in your ride in from the airport,

you may have seen living conditions

which really can be quite devastating...

And this is absolutely

a bubble that you're in.

The leakage is huge.

Tourism can perpetuate poverty

by not integrating communities,
and you find,

unfortunately, for some destinations,

the most acclaimed tourism destinations

also have the highest levels of poverty.

But why does it happen?
Because they were never

integrated into the tourism value chain.

We talk about tourism creating jobs

in destinations.

But we never question what kind of jobs.

One dollar for one.

Please, one dollar.

One dollar. Yeah, one dollar.

It's important to pay attention

to how tourism impacts the developing world

because of the vulnerability

of the populations that live

in tourism destinations.

This is unlike the west, right?

Where tourism still happens,

but their host communities are not

as vulnerable.

These vulnerable populations

live on a day-to-day basis.

It's about survival every day.

And they can be exploited

by any economic activity,

because they desperately are in need

of transforming their lives.

Their ability to question

and to challenge capitalists

and government policy
becomes very difficult.

Asia,

Africa, South America.

This is where this crossroads,

this critical crossroads of poverty,

indigenous culture and biodiversity

are all found in the same place,

and this is where tourism

is going into right now.

We're travelling to some of the most

in need countries in the world,

yet people are coming
in and out of those countries

and not benefiting local communities.

We, as tourists, have kind of lost

the plot, I think.

We're at a tipping point.

We have a fundamental problem with tourism.

The biggest challenge facing

the tourism industry today

is the need for a paradigm shift.

A change in the way of thinking

of how we do travel.

You know, Machu Picchu
is a tourism hot-spot

where there's hundreds
of thousands of people

going there every year.

Local communities migrate
to where there's jobs

or opportunities.

The Andean communities that live
in the rural areas,

the younger generation is moving

to the cities for work.

Working in retail stores and restaurants,

selling things on the street.

Opportunities for them to stay

within their communities becomes an issue.

In the area surrounding Machu Picchu,

there's very few jobs available.

So the travellers pay

thousands of dollars for their holidays,

but outside of those tourism hot-spots,

they just drive right through

and ignore all the other communities.

For you, for you, for you!

Do I take it?

Yeah!

Ah!

Our research shows that the people who are

buying tickets to these
wildlife attractions

are wildlife lovers.

And they have no idea that they're harming

the very animals they care about.

Actually, I'm really not sure
what's natural and what's not.

I have less knowledge,

and that makes it, for me, really hard

to have a great opinion

about all the centres here.

Good afternoon!

What happens after the show?

Actually, I think if

they just do the show,

and then they will go

to a nice cage with some forests,

and they will be treated well.

Then, I have less of a bad feeling.

If that's how they live, actually,

I feel bad, yes.

More than 500000 animals are suffering

around the world for different types

of tourist attractions.

Just to entertain people.

Are you ready?

Okay!

It's completely shocking.

There's a lot of cruelty.

Tigers bred for tourism.

Exhibited sometimes
in very small enclosures

or in cages.

Tigers are used for selfies.

That tiger was likely drugged.

And dolphin experiences
are also very popular

in the Caribbean and Mexico.

Elephants are still being
poached from the wild

for tourists to ride them or to force them

to perform silly tricks for people.

You're seeing a very sad,

distorted version of that animal.

It's pretty grim.

And those are the kinds of things tourists

need to learn about.

We have travellers who have knowledge

about the places they are visiting

because they have sat
behind their computers,

they have clicked online travel agent,

and been giving a glossy picture

of what everything is.

But they are not aware
of what is happening,

/about what they're dealing with
when they come to destinations.

I think that tourism
that doesn't have knowledge

about the people in destinations
that we travel to...

...it is not travel.

It becomes more of a holiday

from the reality of places.

Poverty is one liability

of marginalized communities.

Gender inequality.

These problems have existed in the world

for ages and ages.

Tourism didn't cause this problem.

But every single person who decides

to become a tourist has to make a choice.

Whether I'm going to be part
of the solution, or not.

Tourism is a big industry,

I mean, it's a booming industry,
and more and more people

are talking about responsible tourism,

sustainable tourism,

They're talking about
how they can give back

to the communities, and how they can make

their experiences of travel
more meaningful.

But there has to be an interaction,

there has to be sharing,
there has to be knowledge.

It's when we travel to different places,

we learn about things.

There are other worlds possible.

There are other ways of being.

You know, build an understanding
of the world

which is so much more diverse
than where I live

and what I know about.

One in three women globally

has faced violence in her lifetime.

In India, more than 90 %
of the cases of violence

that happened against women are happening

in their families and communities.

The reality is that

the men's own homes
and their own communities

are the most violent places
if you look at the records

of crime against women across the world.

It's not just in India that we are fighting

against oppression.

Can tourism be a part of the solution?

For travellers,

when you visit a place,

you become part of that place
from the moment you arrive,

by what you do, where you spend your money,

who you talk to, how you behave.

There's an interaction going on.

This wallet is a vote,

and every dollar or euro you spend

is sending a message,
"I like this, do more of it."

There are more than 3000
elephants suffering

in tourist attractions
across Southeast Asia.

In Vietnam,

Cambodia, and Thailand
is really the hot-spot for this.

What people don't realize
is the harsh treatment

that the elephants have to endure

in order to accept a person on their back.

It's horrific, really.

I hate to tell people about it,
but I think people need to know

that any elephant that's forced
to give tourists rides

or perform circus-like tricks for them

was beaten into submission.

Many elephants experience

post-traumatic stress disorder.

You can see them rocking
back and forth, pacing.

These are called
"stereotypical behaviours."

We've never seen them
in the wild in elephants.

And it's the same
with a chimpanzee, or a gorilla,

or orangutan, or monkey.

And lions and tigers.

They become psychotic.

They show very abnormal behaviour.

Pacing back and forth.

And in the end,

will become deeply depressed

and just withdraw into him or herself.

Like a person would.

You see the same with orphaned children

in some of these terrible orphanages.

Adjective...

Describes... Does that
describe a noun?

What is a noun?

I don't have any teaching qualification,

I've not done my teaching English

as a second language qualification.

It's not necessary,
if you want to spend time

with the children, and enjoy
spending time with children,

it's all you need.

And a basic understanding
of English yourself.

It's super easy to volunteer.
We emailed maybe...

three weeks before coming
here at absolute most.

Ferio called us the night before
to confirm times,

make sure everything was all
okay and then, yeah.

We were here within...

twenty-four hours.

It was so simple.

It could not have been any easier.

Volunteering is one of tourism industry's

fastest-growing trends,

and it's often unregulated.

About two billion dollars a year
are spent through voluntourism

by sending out ten million volunteers.

I spent my entire childhood
in institutional care.

The number of volunteers that
came in through the doors...

You lose count.

There are so many.

Imagine a bus load of tourists

coming into a school
and disturbing a class...

Guys, I found the kindergarten.

...to play
with the kids,

to take selfies with them.

She's gonna let me come see the babies.

I don't think they've ever
seen hair like mine before.

We can't really talk to each other,

but honestly, they just want to touch you.

Sometimes, they give out candy and then

also expect the children
to do a performance for them.

Would this happen in your own country?

Probably not.
So, why do tourists think

it's okay to do it in developing countries?

See the saviour complex.

This idea that you can go
abroad without skills,

without qualifications,

whether you know the local language,

have worked with the issue before.

It's rooted in this belief
that you can actually

change societies and communities.

Let's be honest here.
This is neocolonialism.

This is deeply rooted in prejudice.

Beautiful.

Anything else?
White, beautiful?

The visible impact of voluntourism

is what we see.

It's the pictures from
those who went to the orphanage.

It's the report from the company.

It's the amount that was contributed,

but there are invisible, emotional impacts

that happen when we go to these places

and leave.

It's undocumented.

Can you just tell me
where we are, where we're going?

Uh, we are at...

...a Children's Home.

Here, I've been here
since I was in grade four.

We were around 42 children.

I've been here for eight years.

And...

Here, there was...

This is where we used to play.

And here, mostly where
the volunteers could come.

Here, we could just entertain them.

In 2008, I boarded an airplane

from Toronto to Nairobi.

I remember meeting Teresia very well.

Teresia was one of the older
girls at the orphanage.

She was friendly, she approached me.

She cuddled with me.

She wanted to talk to me,
play with my hair,

braid my hair.
And I'll be honest,

this just made me feel
absolutely wonderful.

Since 2005, in Cambodia,

there's been a 75% increase in orphanages,

and this directly reflects
the tourism industry.

So, what this 75% increase shows

is that orphanage tourism
has become a lucrative business.

The majority of the orphanages

follow a very similar pattern.

So, you usually see a lot of children

in very dire conditions.

The operators want to pull
at the heartstrings

of these travellers and these volunteers

to get the donations from them at the end.

"Orphanage" has become a dirty word.

They've rebranded themselves
as "child centres"

or "residential care institutions,"

so they can still attract volunteers,

attract travellers under the same game.

About 80% of children living in orphanages

have at least one living parent.

Research has shown
that poverty is a big factor.

Communities, they are quick
to postulate into these places.

It's a quick fix and unfortunately,

that does not work
in the childrens' interests.

So, what then, does that tell you?

Voluntourism fuels the demand

for children to be in these facilities.

It fuels the separation of children

from their families of origin.

I've been building a big zoo
for them to stay.

For them to stay all together,
I think, in the future.

For me, I feed them.
I love them like my children.

Like, I take care of the children in here.

It is very difficult

to separate voluntourism

from the kind of, often,

a zoo kind of tourism.

Where we go and we click,
and we cuddle animals,

and we take nice pictures.

And we go to orphanage homes
through volunteers

and do exactly the same thing.

It's a mirror of what we do
with animals in the zoo.

To do this with little ones.

Children.

With another human being.

It's very painful memories.

And thinking how many years
are wasted in depression.

We knew we had family members who loved us,

but you describe yourself
as a total orphan,

and we had nobody to totally
share with the truth.

Someone came into my life today.

But then, tomorrow, they weren't there.

I felt worthless,

undeserving.

You can tell that all of the children here,

they want that relationship,
that connection.

They just want to be with you,

they will write messages like,
"We love you so much.

Thank you for helping our school,

thank you for bringing money."

A decade has passed, and I'm learning that

those hugs and affection,

they're a sign of an attachment disorder.

It means they will be unable
to form healthy bonds

later in life.

I was just one of many volunteers

who came through a rotating door,

off a bus to hug them,

to play with them.

Causing them harm.

I had all the best of intentions,

but in hindsight,

I didn't do my homework,
I didn't take the time

to really understand
what communities needed,

what my impact would have been
on those communities

or why those children were there.

And when I got there, I really learned

the horrible truth.

They were there because
I wanted to be there,

not because they needed to be there.

And because of people like me,

they were separated from their families.

One in three ends up homeless.

One in seven gets involved in prostitution.

One in five has a criminal record.

And one in ten...

ends up committing suicide.

These are experiences I have lived through.

I'm the last one in a family of six.

And we were six of us,
taken to an orphanage.

We all left at different times.

But it was not long after that
my brother committed suicide.

And so, for many children
that are going through...

what I went through,

it's important that we think, really...

about what is right for them.

Selfie, say, "Selfie!" Selfie!

And how can they still get
to be in family settings?

How can they get to experience
the love and care of a family?

♪ Rain, rain, go away ♪

♪ Rain, go away

♪ Come again another day

♪ Rain, rain, go away

♪ Rain, rain, go away ♪

There are different ways
of doing voluntourism

and we can do voluntourism
without being disruptive,

by still leaving a positive footprint.

And in situations where we can determine

that positive footprint in advance,

and we can be accountable for our actions,

I think it's the best way of volunteering.

So, talk to us just a little bit about

the Stahili Foundation
that you helped found

after making this.

Well, a couple of years later,
we came together

and realizing what was actually
happening in the institution,

Stahili was born.

It wasn't initially born
as an NGO, it started...

The most important thing about being

a responsible traveller
is to be an informed traveller.

For me, the travels that I took

were really my education.

To lead us in the direction of ensuring

that this massive industry that
we call travel and tourism

and all of its components

protects the very places we visit.

Ko Pha Ngan, it was a real,
dramatic experience

that kind of made me begin to question

conservation from a different perspective.

And suddenly, tourism became
a part of that.

We should ask more questions

about the places that we want to visit.

And I'm not asking the traveller
to be government,

I'm not asking them to be
the inspector of tourism,

I'm just asking them to put value

in the places that they visit.

What if we could harness tourism?

What if tourism was done differently?

What if tourism was based
on supporting local people?

What if tourism actually
invested and supported

the very places that people
were travelling to see?

There are many places
that have rescued elephants

from these other tourist attractions.

These elephants can't be
released into the wild,

but there is hope for the elephants

that are currently in captivity.

If we are to phase out elephant rides,

they still could have a life worth living

if they are provided proper
a natural environment.

You can, as a tourist,

feel good about supporting these venues

and seeing elephants in proper sanctuaries.

Those people are leading
the way in helping us shift

this change in tourism demand.

The important fact that unless we work

to improve the lives of local communities

around an area that we want to conserve,

if we don't do something
to help the people,

we can't even try to conserve the animals.

Responsible tourism is
tourism that puts people first.

It must be inclusive
of the people in destinations

that we travel to.

If communities are helped a little bit,

then they do better.

Because, if tourists didn't go
and pay money to see

these "entertainments,"

then the entertainments would change.

But if we don't demand it,

they will keep selling us
the same packages.

When we, as travellers,
begin to demand this,

then the travel industry
will give it to us.

I think one of the most

important ways of making tourism
more sustainable

is by engaging with
organizations like Sakha,

where every time a tourist
comes and uses a Sakha cab,

they are contributing to new pathways

for women's empowerment.

A majority of Sakha
clients are foreign tourists.

Tourism has played a significant role

in helping women drivers,
those who are in more vulnerable

positions get opportunities
for a livelihood, for dignity.

Driving, it strikes
at the heart of patriarchy

because patriarchy, one of the key things

it rests upon is restriction
of mobility for women.

And it's linked to the whole
issue of violence.

Normally, little girls grew up
inside homes,

they're not even allowed
to be on the roads and streets.

Driving, it brings
women out of their homes,

onto the roads, behind powerful cars.

I think anyone who has ever
learned driving in their lives

will identify with that feeling,

because it does make you feel empowered.

Today, in Delhi, we have nearly 40 cars,

and we are able to give employment

to more than 100 women chauffeurs

through this initiative.

We believe that women need
to get into the travel industry,

because there's a huge
transformative impact

that this amount of money has.

Women are able to negotiate
delayed marriages

or better marriages, or walk out
of violent relationships.

Ultimately, if there are just more

number of women on the road,

their own homes will also become

safer for themselves.

I think that as travellers,

we should seek more to connect
with the reality of places.

We need a change of mindset,
to become more aware travellers,

to become more conscious travellers.

We need the industry in itself to transform

and change completely.

We were taking passengers through that area

on the way to Machu Picchu.

Hundreds of thousands of passengers going

right through The Sacred Valley,
and you realize

that there's an area there that had

zero employment for women.

And really, it was just
on the way to Machu Picchu.

We met Francesca and her community,

and we realized that they had an idea.

For us, it seemed like
a natural extension on the way

to Machu Picchu, so it made sense for us

to have a dialogue with the community,

to think of how can we help,

and how can we bring passengers to you?

You know, what we have to do
as tour operators

is listen and create a dialogue
with local communities.

That's the basis of community tourism.

Actually listening to
the storytelling locally,

of what local people want.

Culture preserves itself.

Tourism can come in and strengthen it,

and showcase it to the world
without trying to alter it.

That starts by asking the question,

"Is tourism the right tool for this area?

And if it is, in what form

will it benefit
the host community?"

That's really the magical part of tourism

when you get it right,

when you create that dialogue

and you're meeting the needs for everyone,

and you're creating an amazing
experience for travellers.

There's the multigenerational

ripple effect impact,
goes beyond creating jobs.

You give locals a voice, and you give

all the different stakeholders a voice.

And you develop it with
the community in mind,

and with the natural assets in mind,

and you protect those two,

then you have a great
experience, and you make money,

and everybody can win.

These places that we visit,

that we call destinations,
are actually people's homes.

We have come into people's homes.

A traditional homestay is about

staying with a family

in which they've set
the conditions and the terms

to welcome you as part of their lives.

And you stay with them in their home.

You share their day-to-day life

and they open their world to you.

They become the local guide.

They teach you about the local culture

and they also help us
remember we are guests

in somebody else's home.

In somebody else's country.

In somebody else's community.

The challenge of how to deal

with increasing numbers of tourists

is gonna be with us
for the foreseeable future.

And part of it is simple arithmetic.

We're gonna likely
have close to 10 billion people

on planet Earth in the next 35 years.

If you add 160 million
visitors to the current number

of 1.4 billion travellers
that are travelling now,

every year, that's gonna increase,

and then you add it to the already

two to three percent,
which is the global growth,

you have a phenomenal
amount of people travelling.

We're in an "all hands on deck" moment.

If, just like a light switch, right now,

I could just go "click."

And shut down the entire
global aviation industry,

every plane flight in the world,

what does that look like?

Airplanes are supposed to fly in the sky,

but currently, there are more
planes on the ground.

The Coronavirus effect
has been fast and devastating.

There has been so many lives lost,

the numbers are impossible to grasp.

COVID-19 has now spread
to more than 140 countries,

a truly borderless disease.

Most borders are lines on a map.

The virus is taking no account of those.

Travel into the European Union
is being severely restricted.

Governments are sealing their borders.

India is suspending tourist visas.

...expects a drop of...

...restrictions on foreigners
coming into Kenya.

Some airports have turned into ghost towns.

Tourist hotspots are virtually empty.

Many destinations are in lockdown.

Travel was down 80%.

Billions in one of
the world's biggest industries

suffering a devastating blow
to their livelihoods.

Many countries in the developing world

being hit hard, when a high
percentage of their GDP

was tourism-dependent.

We think of the tourists,

who seem to have vanished into thin air.

Wondering if their jobs

and their means to provide
for their families

are going to be able to survive this.

You've seen the disruptions
in some of the most

sophisticated supply-chain
countries in the world,

you can imagine if you have
a problem there,

what you're gonna have
in the most fragile environments

or economies.

International travel today

is one of the strongest
catalysts for conservation

and poverty alleviation that we have.

Tourism has an opportunity to change now.

We have to learn how to make
this interaction

and sharing more responsible.

The idea we've had of a tourist has to end.

We need a new tourist, a new traveller.

The key issue isn't,

"Do we stop travel?"

It's, "How do we get
travel right?"

We travellers are a very powerful lot.

So, when travellers say things like,

"I can only do that,

because that is what
is available."

What did you ask for?

What do you, yourself, want as a traveller?

How much do you want
a different form of travel?

How much do you want

to reduce leakages in destinations?

How much do you want to be accountable

for your actions during the travel?

How much do you want
to leave positive footprints

out of your travel?

At heart, an ethical
traveller isn't selfish.

They don't just see travel
as being about them,

it's not just their trip,

the trip is shared

not only with other travellers,

but with residents,
and with the environment.

Responsible tourism
can be really beneficial

to the animals, to the environment,

to the local people, to the government,

and to the tourist.

For sustainability to be achieved,

it's about educating the tourist.

The tourist has to understand
the power they have.

If people just took the time
to do a bit of research

on where their money's going,
you have this ability

to suddenly make your holiday
a transformative experience

for so many people that would be impacted

by your decision to just go on holiday.

Making sure that travel companies

are being held accountable.

"This is what you say,
and this is what you're selling.

So, now, I'm going to take the tour

and I want to make sure
that this is actually

what you deliver, not only to me

as a traveller,
but to the workers, too."

We have a responsibility to ask

the hotel what they're doing
for the local community,

or if the hotel or cruise ships
have an environmental policy.

As a traveller, tip generously.

That's the best person-to-person
thing you can do.

When abroad, and considering interacting

with activities such as visiting a school

or an orphanage,
it's always good to step back

and ask yourself, "Would this
be okay in my country?"

And if it's not,

there's a good chance
you shouldn't be doing it.

Do your research, make informed decisions,

understand what happens behind the scenes.

Simple rule of thumb:
if you can ride it,

hug it or take a selfie with a wild animal,

chances are it's cruel, so don't do it.

We need to be responsible
about where we're purchasing

our products and make sure that we buy

ethically sourced and locally sourced.

We need to bring our own water bottle

and our own coffee cup,
it's just unexcusable, now.

We need to stop using single-use plastics.

I think one of the most important ways

of making tourism more sustainable

is by ensuring that we work

with communities' own initiatives.

Tourism can encourage
a redistribution of wealth.

Travel can be the greatest form

of wealth distribution
that the world has ever seen.

And suddenly, your holiday
can be transformed

into your form of giving back.

Imagine a world where that happens.

I think that travellers
are like pollinators.

Wherever they go,
they get pollinated by ideas.

Experiences, places, situations, people.

And they're transporting
them to other places.

But they also contribute,

because they have
the privilege of travelling

to many other places.

So, if they hear the right message,

the right ideas, the right questions,

that will create a very good synergy.

By travelling, by meeting new people,

by learning new things,

you become part of, in India, we say...

World is a family.

Alright.

I'm committed to travelling responsibly.

I commit to making
travel decisions that align

with my personal values.

I think it's fantastic for travellers

to always have a mindset of,
"How can I support the locals?"

Small changes can go a long way.

I commit to never using
plastic bags, utensils,

coffee cups and shampoo
and conditioner bottles...

Because we are the ones that are visiting,

it is very important to be mindful

toward the local communities.

Refuse housekeeping.
It's such a simple thing to do,

but you only really need
your bed sheets washed

every few days, same with your towels.

And it saves a lot of water.

Choosing hotels and accommodations

that have sustainable practices.

And also committing to only using

reef-friendly sunscreen
to ensure that chemicals

aren't leaching into our oceans.

Never participating in cruel
animal tourist attractions.

I commit to supporting
women-led businesses,

organizations, and shopping fair trade

whenever I possibly can.

Trying to encourage people to travel solo

or in small groups.

If you are gonna choose a group tour,

then choose one that supports
and works with locals.

I commit to always doing
my research before I sign up

to volunteer with any organization,

and I commit to making sure
my impact is sustainable

over the long term.

Go to a local fresh market,

go to a local farmer's market

and buy the things from the locals,

where the money goes
right back into their economy.

Deciding where we put our money,

to what businesses do we support?

And continually thinking about
how my travel choices

can have an impact,
both positively and negatively.

And I so, I think it's up
to us as travellers,

you and me. We have
a responsibility to search out

opportunities that will
benefit communities,

because we have so much
information at our fingertips.

Sustainable, responsible, ethical travel.

All of these practices,
everyone needs to be aware of it

and needs to think about it
when they're exploring

this great world that we live in.

Because I want to keep exploring this big,

beautiful planet of ours.

I think what the world needs now

is for people to travel.

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