A List of Eco, Ethical and Responsible Travel Organisations on Twitter

I've become aware of late of the various eco-tourism, ethical tourism and responsible tourism organisations who are on twitter but I sometimes feel like there's a lot of us working towards the same ends, but we're not always as in touch as we could be.


I've put together a list of people who I follow on twitter and I am sharing the list here. I have featured the ones below as a taster of the entire list as a whole.  To follow the entire list on twitter just click on the link below.  

@ecothreesixty/eco-travel-orgs

Sustainable Travel @STI_travel

STI's mission is to positively impact communities and travelers worldwide through sustainable tourism development that delivers measurable results.

Hidden Britain @HiddenBritain
We’re a charity helping local communities to realise their tourism potential, creating a fantastic place to visit for everyone and supporting the local economy

Resp Tourism Canada @ICRT_Canada

International Centre for Responsible Tourism Canada - promoting & developing the concept of responsible tourism in Canada

World Green Tourism @WGreenTourism
ADTA and EAD initiative to promote sustainable tourism globally - especially in the Middle East . Tweets news on the region and titbits from further afield.

Mary Mulvey @ecoireland

Ireland only Ecotourism criteria approved by Global Sustainable Tourism Council 2012


Chitwan Jungle Lodge @ChitwanJungle
I'm Nistha Shrestha, Marketing Exec for Chitwan Jungle Lodge, a quiet little family-run lodge located deep inside the Chitwan National Park in Nepal.

Nat Geo Traveler @NatGeoTraveler

Traveler championed sustainable travel before it was cool and celebrates cultural and authentic journeys. 

Carin Cowell @EcolodgeMorocco

Founder of www.khanfousretreat.com, a bamboo retreat experience on the gorgeous Atlantic coast of Morocco, where sustainability and responsibility matter.

Tourism Concern @tourismconcern

We're the only organisation in Europe actively campaigning on tourism & human rights issues. Our mission is to ensure that tourism always benefits local people

Joie de Vivre Hotels @JDVHotels

Joie de Vivre manages over 30 boutique hotels, restaurants and spas located in Calif. and Ariz. and is opening in Palm Springs and Chicago in Feb. 2012.

The Social Travelers @SocialTravelers

WE BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF TRAVEL TO EFFECT POSITIVE CHANGE...WE LIVE FOR EXCEPTIONAL MOMENTS...THE WORLD AWAITS!

Sandy @TiptoeTraveller 

French Marketer, loves life, people, nature, real food, travelling near & far. Keen to share small ideas for greener adventures just 1 little step at a time.

One World 365 @oneworld365

A directory of meaningful travel opportunities including volunteer work, jobs, teaching, conservation, eco / adventure trips & tours worldwide

Ethan Gelber @thetravelword

The travel blog of the WHL Group (www.whl-group.com), the largest local-travel company in the world, connecting mindful travellers to responsible experiences.

TIES @ecotravel

Dedicated to promoting ecotourism since 1990.

Kate T @Thedivehub

Applying responsible tourism principles to scuba diving, making a difference - one dive at a time! Kate Turner

SustainableTrip.org @SustainableTrip

Helping travelers find sustainable tourism destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean! Created by the Rainforest Alliance, a nonprofit organization.

Stephen Chapman @maketravelfair

The original sustainable travel Blog network. Make Travel Fair is about unleashing the potential of travel to educate, engage and inspire

Ecotourism Feeds @EcotourismFeeds

GO GREEN ON THE ROAD!!Tweets and retweet to inspire to conserve local nature and cultural differences!

Himalayan Footsteps @Himalfootsteps
Himalayan specialists. Follow for adventure with altitude and attitude. Olly tweets news from Himalayas, ethical travel & travel tips.

Irene Lane @GreenloonsEco
Founder of Greenloons | educates & connects eco-conscious travelers with certified ecotourism operators & accommodations | aims to visit a new country each year

Ecotourism Australia @EcotourismAus
Ecotourism Australia is committed to growing and promoting ecotourism and other sustainable tourism experiences

Katie @QualityUnearthd
tweeting about anything that grabs my attention, eco-builds, yurts, retreats, quirky stuff and even, sometimes, QU holidays!

Muskoka Foundation @DoGoodAsYouGo
We equip&inspire a network of travelers to live the idea of use what you know, to do good as you go. Programs create skills, independence &sustainable change.

If you think you can recommend any organisation who is worth adding, I'll happily add them.

The Last Week

Well a it's been a busy week.  Working on the various different elements that go into Eco Accommodation. The struggle I've been wrestling with is that you can either write something in relation to an area of an accommodations offering that it is very detailed and perhaps overly specific, or something that is more general but verges on being so vague as to really not be fit for the purpose of giving a wider understanding of the "eco" terms around eco accommodation. So for example something like "waste management" it's obvious what it means. But the manifestation of this management of can be so varied, it can be tricky to nail down. An Eco lodge can have such a different offering to its guests from an eco urban hotel. I think it can be split simply into two straight forward catagories, there is the minimisation of waste by controlling consumption at source, for example, smart lighting which turns on when there is movement in a guest's room and turns off when there isn't.  The other form of waste management is the more obvious is the more obvious, namely the management of waste after it has been created, like sewage or plastic for example.  Anyway, I'm still wrestling with it all so more tales of further definitions to follow no doubt.  On another note, the ecothreesixty.com website is getting more pages indexed by Google which is a great, we're now comfortably into double figures.  

Greenfuzzing?

Leading on from my posting last week, I gave some more thought to another very basic error made by many providers of eco accommodation and this time it is more about an simple error, rather than economising on facts.  Ecotourism being a growing market that it is, not surprising many accommodation providers struggling in the hard economic times it is understandable. Last time I checked, and I forgot where I read it, but the study stated that ecotourism had grown by 67% in the previous year, which is an incredible level of growth, but compared to the world travel industry as a whole, it is less than a tiny speck.  So what can ecotourism focused hotels and lodges do to make their tiny share of the world travel market just that little bit bigger. 

Over the past few years while learning more about the field of ecotourism and the wider green/eco cause I have come across the term “greenwashing” time and time again.  From bloggers trying to highlight the eagerness of some eco hotels and eco lodges to finesse or massage their eco/green offering by basically taking a half-truth and exaggerating it beyond recognition.  An example of this might be from a hotel stating on their website they have a “strict and comprehensive recycling policy” when in reality all they do is put their paper in the recycling bin.  That would be a solid example of people “greenwashing”.  The most hardcore form of "greenwashing" would obviously to just make up or copy someone else’s eco policy and put it on the hotels or lodges website. 

But I’ve been becoming more aware of late of a sort of, for the want of a better word, “greenfuzzing”.  Which can be a complicated form of “greenwashing”, but after reading the countless examples of eco policies I think it is an example of fuzzy copywriting.  When you read about an eco lodge, they’ll tell you how their committed to making the world a better place.  And it might be just me, after a little introduction to the ethos or philosophy I just want to get down to the hard facts of what they do in relation to the environment and the local community.  But that’s not always how it reads. 

Many eco lodges get too hung up on over the top description, or adding copy finesse, to make it more of a selling point than perhaps it is.  I think people in the main, and this is my personal experience, people value plain speaking.  So it you have a sewage treatment process that involves worms chewing away happily on peoples effluent just say that, concisely and clearly.  Yes detail is good, but speaking to most people, they just want to be able to scan through quickly see examples of the policy in action where possible, but really just get a good overview and then consider the other elements of the accommodation at more length.  This over complication of simple facts is what I would define as “greenfuzzing” where effectively the information is there, but you have to dig and sift through it to actually find out what you want.  I think as ecotourism grows out of its niche area, eco hotels and eco lodges will need to think about selling their offering by using terminology that is eco transparent.