We fully acknowledge that travel has become a commodity and is responsible for harmful side effects on our climate, local communities, wildlife and biodiversity. This must stop, no doubt!

But does it mean that we can no longer travel at all, because no form of travel—especially travel overseas that includes flying—can be sustainable by default? We have asked ourselves this question, whether we should stop promoting travel and selling trips altogether.

• What would this mean for our global consciousness?
• Will it increase or decrease our intercultural understanding and connectedness as one global humanity?
• Will it increase or decrease the power of the media to control our minds, as opposed to experiencing reality ourselves and forming our own educated opinions?
• Will it increase or decrease racial prejudice and wars?
• Will it help solve our sustainability crisis?

Peace, global consciousness and personal growth are fundamental to solving for global sustainability. We believe travel was always meant to the industry of peace, is unique in its power to foster global consciousness, and provides some of the best possible quality education for individuals to develop more globally conscious leadership skills—arguably the most important skill that we need so urgently to solve for sustainability.

We must always remember that sustainability is a complex global system, that requires holistic solutions. Amongst the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined by the United Nations, peace (SDG 16) and quality education (SDG 4) are just as important goals as climate action; and we believe rightly so—they are a necessary precondition for environmental sustainability.

Therefore, even though our work isn’t yet perfect and we acknowledge that we still have a long way to go to make travel more fair and environmentally sustainable, we have come to the conclusion—no, conviction!—that a certain new way of more meaningful and conscious travel is a necessity for global sustainability.

Travel and tourism touches all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as defined by the United Nations (UN)—from sustainable local economic development that empowers tourism workers and local communities, via conservation of nature and wildlife, through to climate action.

Any travel and tourism solution that only focuses on select goals risks creating negative side consequences for all other SDGs. At Fair Voyage, we believe that sustainability in travel and tourism requires a holistic and balanced solution consistent will all 17 SDGs.

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), initially formed as a coalition by UN agencies and prominent international conservation NGOs, has developed and manages a comprehensive set of global sustainability standards for travel and tourism. Learn how the GSTC Criteria align with all 17 SDGs.

The GSTC also accredits certification bodies for conducting independent audits consistent with the GSTC Criteria. This means that suppliers audited by a GSTC accredited certification body can reliably prove that they are operating consistent with all SDGs. Therefore, we believe that GSTC accredited certifications are the best and only way to verify the holistic implementation of sustainability on a global scale.

In today's world, staying clear of conflicts of interest and ensuring full alignment of interests with sustainability is easier said than done. At Fair Voyage, we went the extra mile and have been working very hard to maintain our freedom to always act with integrity:

• We have fundamentally structured our legal company objectives and shareholder structure,
• we have always insisted on sustainability audits for ourselves and across our supply chain,
• we have clearly and carefully defined our values that we must hold ourselves accountable to, and
• we have—during the pandemic, once again—revised our business model to adjust to new norms;

all to ensure that we have the freedom to stay clear of legal, financial, personal, business, or other conflicts of interest, and the flexibility to continuously (re)align our work with [y]our vision for the peaceful and sustainable world that we want to live in.

Humans want dignity and respect, meaningful work and fair pay, to be be free to choose our own destinies. Would you want to depend on volunteers and donations from abroad? Probably not. The same applies to people living elsewhere.

Here is why it is so challenging to add value to your destination and local communities by volunteering during your vacation overseas:

• Manual work: Lower income countries are usually not in need of cheap labor—to the contrary, they usually have an excess supply of labor and are challenged by high unemployment rates. Flying labor from rich countries around the world to do manual work in a lower income country with excess labor has unnecessary negative effects on our climate and takes away employment opportunities for local communities.
• Work with children: Children are emotionally and psychologically vulnerable. That's why our teachers and caregivers have psychological and pedagogical training specifically for working with children, and work with children over the course multiple months, if not years. When travelers leave again by the time a child has developed an emotional connection with them, or worse do not even have the necessary training for working with children, the longer-term outcome often is more disruptive and harmful for children than possible short-term benefits of volunteering.
• Technical skills: Before we can contribute our technical skills to a cause and create meaningful solutions, we first need to thoroughly understand the problem and local realities. This means that locals need to dedicate significant time and resources to train and educate you first. A normal vacation of up to two or three weeks does usually not permit sufficient time to add meaningful positive net value.

For meaningful volunteering opportunities, please consider contributing to projects in your own community. We would also recommend you to directly approach organizations working for impactful causes that you feel most passionate about and can commit contributing to for a longer period of time.