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Travel as the new tobacco-like curse

Amelia Hill

MARK ELLINGHAM, founder of the Rough Guides and the man who encouraged a generation of travellers to pack a rucksack and explore the world, has compared the damage done by tourism to the impact of the tobacco industry.

Mr. Ellingham now says travelling is so environmentally destructive that there is no such thing as a genuinely ethical holiday. He wants the industry to educate travellers about the damage their holidays do to the environment.

The development he regrets most is the public's appetite for what he calls "binge-flying."

"The tobacco industry fouled up the world while denying [it] as much as possible for as long as they could," said Mr. Ellingham. "If the travel industry rosily goes ahead as it is doing, ignoring the effect that carbon emissions from flying are having on climate change, we are putting ourselves in a very similar position to the tobacco industry."

"Climate change is an issue that dwarfs all others and the impact of flying is key to this," said Mr. Ellingham. "All of us involved have a responsibility to inform travellers as clearly and honestly as possible about the environmental cost of their journeys. We must encourage travellers to travel less and neutralise their carbon footprint through offsetting. It is hard to say the positive impact travelling has can ever outweigh the damage done by simply travelling to the destination," he said. "Balancing all the positives and negatives, I'm not convinced there is such a thing as a `responsible' or `ethical' holiday."

Mr. Ellingham is calling for a £100 green tax on all flights to Europe and Africa, and £250 on flights to the rest of the world. He also wants investment to create a low-carbon economy, as well as a moratorium on airport expansion.

While determined to encourage people to reduce the number of flights they take, Mr. Ellingham admits he has no intention of stopping himself, and he does not expect others to do so either. "As a `recovering travel writer,' I fly less than I would like to, but more than I know that ethically I should. The deal I have made with myself is to limit the number of flights I take to one long-haul and two or three shorter flights each year," he said.

Mr. Ellingham says he is horrified by a new travelling trend. "If there was just one thing I could change, it would be this new British obsession for binge flying," he said.

"We now live in a society where, if people have nothing to do on a Saturday night, they go to Budapest for 48 hours. We fly anywhere at the slightest opportunity, 10 times and upwards a year. This needs to be addressed with the greatest urgency."

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

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