You don’t have to give up travel comfort to take care of the planet; you just need to learn how to be a better guest.
Sustainable travel and that ever-present smell of sweat!
A young guy with a backpack on his back, messy hair, dusty boots, a sunburnt face, and sweaty clothes was pitching his tent by the Greek Ship beach in Kish, under a golden Persian Gulf sunset. That was the image I captured of a young outdoorsy traveler—a traveler from Urmia who had pedaled roughly 2,000 kilometers.
Until I read up on it more, that was my idea of “sustainable travel” too—maybe with different details, but always with sweat and a bad smell! Later I found out that a lot of people have the same wrong picture. I found the reason on social media, in movies, books, and ads that—knowingly or not—have tied nature travel and adventure to sustainable travel.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I’d have dragged the big tourism companies into it. But in my view, the main reason is a lack of awareness, reading, and depth among some influencers, promoters, and travel writers—not all of them, and not their audiences either.
Another misconception is that sustainable tourism means giving up comfort, putting up with hardship, having less, and living like a monk. But let me give you a few examples—maybe they’ll surprise you:
- A father driving his family in his own car to a nearby destination.
- A businessman choosing a five-hour train instead of a one-hour flight.
- A couple staying at a luxury hotel in the Maldives that does better environmentally than the hotels around it.
- A tourist buying souvenirs from a small local shop in the back alleys of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter.
All of these can be examples of sustainable tourism. Which one reeked of sweat or meant giving up comfort?
Sustainable travel: a way of making decisions, not a travel style
In reality, sustainable tourism is a “decision-making approach,” not a style of travel. Everything I write from here on is just an explanation of that one sentence. So if you don’t have a problem with that, you can save yourself the trouble of reading the rest!
Sustainable tourism cares about our footprint in three areas—the environment, the local economy, and the culture of the destination—not about the image our travel style creates for us.
So where did this wrong idea come from?
But where did this misconception come from? Why did sustainable travel get reduced to a small backpack, cycling, long hikes, camping, simple lodging, and avoiding luxury?
The early sustainable tourism movements grew out of nature travel, ecotourism, and adventure trips. Pioneers of travel to sensitive natural areas noticed the damage caused by tourism sooner than others and kicked off the changes. That’s why the image of sustainability got tied to their travel style. Over time, instead of spreading the concept of sustainability, one specific example became the public face of an entire way of thinking.
I mean, does a healthy lifestyle mean having six-pack abs and running 10 kilometers a day? Definitely not—because we know there are all sorts of healthy patterns: walking, stretching, eating well, drinking enough water, cycling. Sustainable travel, like a healthy lifestyle, is a broad concept, not a few specific, superficial examples.
Social media isn’t exactly innocent in creating this wrong picture either. Algorithms lean toward specific, eye-catching images—images that show a different, exciting lifestyle instead of ordinary people’s everyday lives. In sustainable travel, the same specific, simplistic image has taken over—though I still don’t get how the smell of sweat is supposed to be exciting!
For example, how many pictures have you seen of mountain adventures versus how many of a 20% energy reduction at a green hotel? The answer is obvious.
The result of this wrong image-making is that many ordinary people—over 95% of the world’s population—think that if they can’t trek across the North Pole on foot, sustainable travel isn’t for them.
When simplicity gets mistaken for sustainability
A few years ago, on a trip to Yazd, I stayed at a cheap, simple place in a beautiful centuries-old house—a spot with lovely little details, but also with dozens of energy-hungry lights blazing in broad daylight, bins full of wasted food, and fairly clean water running pointlessly into the alley gutter—and all of this in a city that once dug qanats, sometimes a thousand kilometers long, just to get to water!
Five decisions that shape our travel footprint
“Simplicity” doesn’t necessarily mean “sustainability.” Sustainability isn’t about how much the trip costs or what it looks like; it comes down to our decisions and their consequences. It all boils down to the answers to five key questions:
- How do we get to the destination?
- Where do we stay?
- What do we eat?
- What do we buy?
- How do we treat local people?
Every trip is a chain of decisions, each with its own environmental and social impact. The goal of sustainable tourism is to reduce the harmful consequences and boost the constructive effects of a traveler’s decisions.
Sustainable travel is for everyone - even luxury lovers
Sustainable travel is for everyone, not just adventurers. Families can travel more sustainably by picking a closer destination, cutting down on plastic, using their own car less, and choosing responsible places to stay. On business trips too, you can hold short meetings online, take the train instead of a plane on short routes, and pick hotels with environmental standards.
Even luxury travel doesn’t clash with sustainability; plenty of luxury places invest in solar energy, water recycling, biodiversity protection, and support for local communities. Even a short weekend trip in the city can be part of responsible travel—by choosing a local restaurant, using public transport, walking, and buying from small producers.
One common mistake is equating sustainable travel with deprivation and hardship—when in fact its goal isn’t to kill the joy of travel, but to cut down on pointless consumption and ramp up conscious consumption.
Responsible comfort: consume less, or choose better?
Picture two beach tourists: the first buys a plastic bottle, orders imported food, keeps grabbing taxis, and generates trash; the second carries a reusable bottle, eats local food, walks, and buys from local producers. Even with the same budget, their impact on the destination is completely different.
Sustainability isn’t about “having less”—it’s about “choosing better.” The idea of “responsible comfort” says the same thing: you can enjoy creature comforts, good food, and professional service while still paying attention to how a hotel manages water, its energy sources, and how it handles waste.
A sustainable traveler isn’t the enemy of comfort; they’re the enemy of mindless consumption.
From trains to water bottles: small choices with a big impact
Let’s run through some simple choices any traveler can make on their next trip.
Transportation is one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions when traveling. According to data from the European Environment Agency, trains are usually far lower-carbon than planes, and public transport leaves a smaller footprint than a private car. So instead of hopping in taxis every five minutes or renting a huge car, let’s use the metro, buses, bikes, and our own two feet.
A sustainable place to stay doesn’t necessarily look any different; cutting water use, using energy efficiently, eliminating single-use plastic, and buying local products are what really count.
Carrying a reusable water bottle may seem like a tiny thing, but when you consider that the world produces more than 400 million tons of plastic a year, this choice starts to look pretty significant.
And finally, supporting the local economy means choosing whether our money goes to big companies outside the destination or to local families, artists, and businesses. Choosing a family-run restaurant and buying authentic handmade crafts are simple steps toward responsible travel.
Cities need sustainability just as much as forests and mountains do. According to World Bank figures, more than 50% of the world’s population lives in cities, and about 70% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions happen in urban areas. So an urban tourist’s choices about food, transport, shopping, and lodging matter just as much as a hardcore nature traveler’s behavior.
Backpacking isn’t always sustainable; luxury travel isn’t always destructive
We also need to draw a line between backpacking and sustainability. Backpacking can be sustainable, but not always—just as a backpacker can do plenty of damage with multiple flights, piles of trash, and harm to nature, an ordinary traveler can travel more responsibly with a shorter trip, more conscious consumption, and respect for the local culture.
Being cheap doesn’t mean being responsible, and being expensive isn’t necessarily destructive; the real benchmark is awareness.
There’s no shortage of examples of sustainable travel that don’t involve a backpack and a tent. A family that picks somewhere closer instead of a far-off destination burns less fuel, has more time to actually experience the place, and helps take some pressure off crowded hotspots. A couple traveling by train sees the journey itself as part of the trip’s memories. Choosing a hotel with an energy- and water-management program reminds the market to be responsible, and buying authentic local souvenirs supports artists, honors the region’s culture, and replaces imported industrial products. Even luxury tourism sometimes helps protect wildlife, restore habitats, and educate local communities.
Technology and modern conveniences are allies of sustainable travel—without dragging us back to primitive living: high-speed trains make faster, lower-emission travel possible; smart accommodations use sensors to manage energy and recycle water; apps point out convenient public transport routes; and data analytics help popular destinations predict peak times and ease the pressure on sensitive areas.
The world needs better guests
If there’s one big mindset shift that needs to happen, it’s this: sustainable travel doesn’t care what our trip looks like—it looks at how we make our choices. Backpacking can be irresponsible, and luxury or comfort-focused travel can be responsible. Sustainability doesn’t start with the look of the trip; it starts in the mind.
The world doesn’t need millions of travelers who turn their lives upside down; it needs travelers who make slightly better choices on every trip. Maybe a reusable water bottle, taking the train, eating local food, or staying at a responsible hotel won’t save the planet on its own—but billions of small choices can change the future of tourism.
We don’t have to give up seeing the world to take care of it; we just need to be better guests. Sustainable travel begins the moment we see ourselves not just as “travelers,” but as guests of a planet that’s hosting us for a little while.
