Hello! Welcome to my final post for my blog. In these ten weeks, I had the pleasure of sharing my thoughts about sustainable tourism and different tourist attractions. Aside from those, I had also conducted a survey and a few interviews to learn more about different views regarding sustainable tourism. Through this blog, I have learnt about so many different environmental issues around the world concerning tourism as well as ways to travel sustainably. Now, for my final post I will be doing a reflection of my thoughts and things I have learnt throughout these 10 weeks.
Many people do wish to become more sustainable in their actions but yet, our love for travelling and seeing the world may inhibit us from being carbon neutral. I am not criticising these people as I too am one of them. Being born in the tiny island of Singapore, surrounded by looming skyscrapers and roads, there are little places to visit and relieve our boredom. Some of us are so acquainted with Sentosa, we know it like the back of our hands. As a result, many of us subconsciously seek to travel out of the country to experience new cultures and take in new sights. The world has so much to offer and yet we have to constrain ourselves from these new adventures to save our world, how sad is that thought?
“We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.”
—Quote by Anne Marie Bonneau, Zero Waste Chef.
When I was surfing Twitter, I stumbled across this quote tweeted by Bonneau and I felt like this could be applied for sustainable tourism. In one of my previous posts, my classmate Mark left a comment sharing that sometimes he may not choose eco-friendly alternatives as he believes that some eco-tourism alternatives just cannot replace some iconic activities. I understand that some experiences are difficult to replicate such as amusement parks. My professor, Dr Coleman suggested Mark to try activities such as ziplining and bungee jumping where there are tour operators that contribute their profits to conservation and restoration efforts. However, on the other hand I love theme parks not only for the thrilling rides they offer but also the colourful castles, the fairytale-like songs blasted out loud and the dazzling parades where the mascots stand on moving floats. Such experiences are irreplaceable to me. Although I may feel guilty at times, I feel that we should be allowed to enjoy what life has to offer. Therefore, I believe that it is okay to not be perfect all the time, as long as we are making a conscious effort to improve.
Now I will be closing the chapter of this blog, thank you to all my readers and a special shout out to all the commenters for challenging my growth and debating issues with me! Since travel restrictions are not lifted yet, let’s all continue to travel the world through our screens.
