While Cape Town is grappling with the worst water shortage crisis in over a century, tourism and travel stakeholders are conscious of the bitter-sweet prospect of the peak travel period that looms.
Now, more than ever, they’re thinking about ways in which to encourage travellers visiting the Mother City to be water wise and are adopting measures to keep water usage at a minimum – from removing plugs from baths to reducing water pressure in toilets.
The environmental impact of travel is one that has been discussed at length for many years – mostly with regard to carbon emissions. In South Africa, however, carbon emissions is playing second fiddle to the dire water crisis within our own borders.
So how important is being environmentally conscious and being environmentally friendly when we travel?
A recent report from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) says only one in six travel management professionals currently incentivise their travellers to stay in hotels with sustainable practices. Even fewer encourage travellers to book suppliers with sustainable practices.
Although these statistics are international, our current predicament presents an opportunity for travellers to begin changing their mindsets when it comes to travelling sustainably.
If you’re not sure how to reduce, reuse and recycle while travelling, there are some clever ways to preserve our planet’s resources while carrying out business as usual.
- Try to fly the most direct route possible so that you reduce your carbon emissions.
- Pack as light as possible.
- Use electronic boarding passes.
- Try to use public transport as much as possible.
- Carry a reusable bottle and refill with boiled water from the kettle in your hotel room.
- Recycle your rubbish and ask about your hotel’s recycling programme.
- If you’ve hired a car, park centrally and try to walk between meetings. Cluster your meetings so that you can maximise your driving time.
- Reuse your towels.
- Try to keep the use of your hotel air-conditioner to a minimum.
- Take short showers, instead of long baths. Shut the tap while you’re brushing your teeth.
Being a responsible traveller is not just for the greenie beanies among us. We all have a responsibility to try and help Cape Town to get through until its next rainy season, and beyond. The same can be said for any destination in the world.