Conscientious travel

[deadbilly]

This is something I've been thinking about and wanted to bounce it off folks who have experience with it. Generally speaking, many popular dive destinations tend to be in poor and developing countries (3rd world, for brevity's sake). SCUBA diving, by its nature, is a luxury activity. I'm not saying you have to be rich to do it, it's just that it tends to be expensive (and you have to have the time available to do it) and is not the sort of thing that's typically available to someone who's making a subsistence living. Basically, in a lot of destinations, you're paying what may be a person's entire annual income (or more!) for a four day vacation.

So, what I'm curious about is: is this something you think about when planning a vacation? Do you look for operations that are more "sustainable" (i.e. they hire local people, pay a fair wage, give back to the communities, keep revenues within the local economy, etc.)? Or are you more concerned with cost? Do you do any traveling on your own outside of the resort or boat? Or do you tend to prefer the resort or guided tours? There's no judgment implied in any of these questions, I'm just interested.

I've noticed there are a lot of resorts in places like PNG that are pretty isolated from places where people actually live. Having done quite a bit of traveling in third world countries, I know that widespread poverty and privation can be unsettling, and not conducive to a relaxing tropical vacation. I'm not planning any dive vacations anytime soon, but if and when I do, this is certainly something that'll be in my mind and I'm curious to see how others approach it.

 

[TSandM]

I have conflicts about travel like that. I realize, for example, that when I go to Mexico, the money I spend on daily tank rental and site entry is probably what people make in a week, and I live at home with running water and sewers and central air conditioning, and the people I am "visiting" don't. But if I didn't come there and spend my money on site entry fees, then they wouldn't be making as much as they ARE, and at least what I am doing to the sites is generally not deleterious.

I try to treat everyone with respect, and speak to people as much as I can (given language barriers). I don't bargain in places where prices are low -- I thought the people trying to talk T-shirt saleswomen down from their $5-a-shirt prices in Indonesia were unbelievable. But I don't NOT go places because the people there are poor. I figure what they earn working in the resorts or on the boats is probably better money for easier work than subsistence farming or fishing. At least I hope so.

 

[deadbilly]

That sounds about like the way I would approach it. It's funny what relativity will do to you, as far as prices are concerned. I've been in situations where my instinct is to bargain. I start thinking about things in a local price-scale. Then I step back and think to myself, "wait, I'm trying to bargain from $1.50 to $.75. This is ridiculous."

 

[Dirty-Dog]

In the places you describe, just think how bad their economies would be without tourism...

I don't generally haggle, unless the price has clearly been set at a tourist level. And (as is often the case) when it is obvious that most of the money is going to an owner, not to the people doing the work, I tend to tip extra well, in cash, and in times/places that allow the worker to keep the cash.

 

[robint]

I have conflicts about travel like that. I realize, for example, that when I go to Mexico, the money I spend on daily tank rental and site entry is probably what people make in a week, and I live at home with running water and sewers and central air conditioning, and the people I am "visiting" don't. But if I didn't come there and spend my money on site entry fees, then they wouldn't be making as much as they ARE, and at least what I am doing to the sites is generally not deleterious.

I try to treat everyone with respect, and speak to people as much as I can (given language barriers). I don't bargain in places where prices are low -- I thought the people trying to talk T-shirt saleswomen down from their $5-a-shirt prices in Indonesia were unbelievable. But I don't NOT go places because the people there are poor. I figure what they earn working in the resorts or on the boats is probably better money for easier work than subsistence farming or fishing. At least I hope so.

I feel the same way. In places like Cozumel, I know that most vendors have set the price a bit high and I will haggle to a point. But in out-of-the-way places in Mexico and other destinations, away from resorts, I don't really see a reason to haggle as whether you buy an item may make a big impact in that vendor's day.

Same thing goes for tipping, DMs and crews on dive trips - i know that tips may be their only source of income that day (I have been told this is not true in Coz, but I have doubts about that in some cases).

BUT I have very mixed feelings about going to dive destinations where I disagree with political issues or with ocean related issues. Dynamite bombing of reefs and over-fishing are big issues to me and I debate whether going to their destination, no matter how good the diving might be, is helping or hurting the situation.

robin

 

[greylion]

On Wakatobi almost all of us from our group brought school supplies to the locals because they are hard to get.

In some parts of the world the villagers are just a couple of generations away from shrinking heads. They are friendly and curious and trying to figure the modern world out. Divers are mostly the same way, friendly and curious and good ambassadors for the countries they come from IMO. Tourism is usually controlled in these places by government officials that are frequently on the take and not very good at sharing the revenue generated by us divers. I have no idea how to stop my Illinois government officials from stealing from us let alone some guy on a patrol boat in a foreign land that shows up once a week looking for his bag of cash?

So no, I don't feel guilty traveling to some far flung island because I can afford to get there. I assure you if the islanders could afford to travel they would. Meanwhile, just be nice and respect the people and their surroundlings and you're doing a good thing by providing commerce and good relations between people who are starved for information and a better way of life that we all want.

 

[TSandM]

Dynamite bombing of reefs and over-fishing are big issues to me

I spent several weeks on a cruise ship in the South Pacific last year, and Jean Michel Cousteau was the featured speaker. He is well worth hearing, if you ever have a chance to do so -- he is not the shrill, fanatic conservationist you might envision, but a highly pragmatic man. One of the things he said that really struck me was that you can't just make people stop dynamiting or overfishing. You have to give them an alternative, another way to make a living that is less damaging to the environment. Tourism can do this (if the housing is managed sensibly). So in a way, if you don't go and dive in places where those practices are rampant, you deprive the people there of another way to survive.

 

[caymaniac]

I have been to some areas that you might consider a place that is less fortunate than a place like the Florida Keys, one example would be PNG.
Just because the people don't have air conditioning or they don't have electricity that you can depend on doesn't make the people unhappy people.
Many places like the Bahamas or PNG or Africa don't have the luxuries that you do but the people are still happy and are going to subsist whether or not you visit/vacation. I'm glad I can enjoy their country and diving delights yet I pay attention to their customs.
If you are in Australia as well as PNG tipping is not encouraged, thereby you would be insulting with your tipping. Once when I was in Africa and with some friends that are educated South Africans I left a tip as well as a note thanking the maid for taking care of my laundry/ironing, my South African friends laughed at me as they told me the note was silly as most people can speak English but not read and the note was nice but not worthwhile as nobody could read it. Also they told me to never tip with US dollars, and to tip less than what I thought, as it was blatantly too much.

 

[Mike Boswell]

I don't see any problems if divers take the time to educate themselves. Buying water in disposable plastic bottles, or ordering grouper or shark fin soup at a restaurant, are obviously not helpful.

At a minimum, scuba tourism provides badly needed jobs to locals who would otherwise be worse off.

Poverty is not pretty or comfortable to look at, but seeing the reality of how many people live produces a more sympathetic perspective, and more affluent travelers should be exposed to it.

None of us can have much control over how local businesses and government officials conduct themselves, but we can each help a little by spending our money in ways that reward good things and discourage bad things.

Finally, dive tourism can - and must - provide financial incentives for local peoples to resist trashing their reefs and depleting their fisheries, and provide good stewardship of their ocean environment.

Thanks for starting this thread, Deadbilly. This is an important issue for all of us.

 

[NETim]

On Wakatobi almost all of us from our group brought school supplies to the locals because they are hard to get.

In some parts of the world the villagers are just a couple of generations away from shrinking heads. They are friendly and curious and trying to figure the modern world out. Divers are mostly the same way, friendly and curious and good ambassadors for the countries they come from IMO. Tourism is usually controlled in these places by government officials that are frequently on the take and not very good at sharing the revenue generated by us divers. I have no idea how to stop my Illinois government officials from stealing from us let alone some guy on a patrol boat in a foreign land that shows up once a week looking for his bag of cash?

So no, I don't feel guilty traveling to some far flung island because I can afford to get there. I assure you if the islanders could afford to travel they would. Meanwhile, just be nice and respect the people and their surroundlings and you're doing a good thing by providing commerce and good relations between people who are starved for information and a better way of life that we all want.

Ain't it the truth... ain't it the truth? So much poverty in third world countries is exacerbated, even caused, by corrupt government.

Of course, in our infinite wisdom, we're busy here making our increasingly corrupt government bigger all the time.