5 December, 2012 1:40PM AEDT

Sustainable tourism

Planning a holiday or just dreaming about your next break? Here are some ideas on how to make your holiday more sustainable. Sustainable tourism has a positive effect on the community you visit. A new book co-edited by Dr Rosemary Black, a senior lecturer and researcher at Thurgoona's Charles Sturt University, shows how developing countries including Fiji, Vanuatu, Costa Rica and Nepal benefit from sustainable tourism.

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Dr Black says the case studies included in Sustainable Tourism and the Millennium Development Goals provide insight into what we, as travellers, can think about and plan when travelling sustainably.

"The book is pulling together a lot of evidence and research that has been done looking at the impacts of sustainable tourism particularly in developing countries. What we have done is we've used the United Nations Millennium Development Goals as a framework for the book. These millennium goals were set by the United Nations in 2000 for all countries around the world to try and achieve."

A successful case study is seen in an all-women trekking company set-up in Nepal.

"The women develop lots of skills around hygiene and guiding and interpretation and they develop a lot of personal skills like confidence and they gain more power within their local communities. They have money they normally wouldn't have to put towards things like their kids education or health care. Once they get that money they can do a lot of positive things that they wouldn't be able to do otherwise."

Dr Black says when planning an eco-friendly holiday, do your research and ask questions.

"Try and find out if accommodation is locally owned and operated. Is the money going to go back to that local community? Are there opportunities for you to contribute to the local community through some volunteer work for example?

"Rather than staying in big international hotels perhaps people should try and stay in a guest house which is locally owned and operated, so the money goes back to local people and then they can do things to improve their lives.

"When you are on actual holiday try and do things that are positive like employing local guides; people who know the area and know the culture, so the money is going back to the community."