With the development of tourist industry, the morality of travelling is becoming a controversial topic. Some argue that becoming a “responsible tourist” is impossible. In my opinion, I firmly agree with this perspective.
On the one hand, tourists’ awareness of protecting the places they visit has been noticeably improved. The main supporting reason is that many types of eco-tourisim are introduced; therefore, this could contribute to the preservation of local environment and culture. For instance, activities included in eco-tourism, such as hiking or fishing, could help to reduce the carbon footprint and also to introduce visitors to the beauty of local nature. Moreover, more charity funds are now be raised from the travelers, which could subsequently be used for the conservation of national cultural heritage. Therefore, this could represents tourists’ attitude of protecting the places they visit.
On the other hand, things people have done to protect the environment and culture would be far from being considered as a “responsible tourist”. Firstly, the damages that traveler dealt to their destination might outweight the benefits. Considering this, the tourists not only discharge rubbishes and wastes, but they also produce a substantial amount of carbon footprint when using transports. Secondly, not every tourists are aware of preserving the place they went through; whereas, most people think that this is an unnecessary activities as they might not visit this place a second time. As a result, culture and environment would be damaged severely by people with low awareness.
On the whole, while local environment and culture are now greatly protected by the presence of eco-tourism and charity funds from tourists; this would hardly be considered as “responsible tourist” when there are still severe destruction caused by thoughtless visitors.