May 2026 Listener A&A

But I think one of the main things that we can do as travelers when we travel somewhere, and I would say this would go broadly around the world, but again, since I'm a Europe specialist and that's where my kinda area of expertise is, I will talk about Europe.

I think one of the biggest things is to try to support local businesses and really think about not staying in, you know, sort of the big chain hotels.

Staying in a locally run mom-and-pop place.

That's one thing that, that kind of is a, a little bit more responsible.

The same when you're booking a tour.

Stick with a local tour guide.

You know, I think about as I sit here in Scotland and just spent time with Bo Fraser of Scotland Your Way, she is a certified blue badge guide for Scotland, so she is part of the STGA, which I think is the Scottish Tourism Guide Association.

[laughs] Might have that wrong.

But anyway, she is part of that association.

So all of the guides are local and live locally.

You know, they live here in Scotland, so you're not supporting a big business, you're supporting a mom-and-pop business.

Think about restaurants being that way.

Again, going to a local mom-and-pop restaurant or pub or cafe and supporting them there.

Look for places that also maybe tout local produce so that they are getting things, their, their food is coming from the farm just, you know, maybe not more than 20 miles away, or seafood that's right off the boat, some veg or fruit that is from a farm that's maybe only five miles away.

So think about things like that.

That's one way that you can travel in a more authentic and sort of socially, environmentally responsible way.

The other thing is there are some, [sighs] there are some sort of, um, a stamp of approval from like, um, you know, like an eco-certified accommodation.

So there may be some sort of label along with it.

Just be sure that, you know, it's, it's a true one.

There, I think there are some EU eco labels and Green Key for, for Europe, so you can look for those.

Just know that oftenwhen you're looking at accommodation, sometimes they have to, I remember somebody telling me this, that they have to like pay extra for that.

And some of these places are small and they just can't afford to have it.

So don't rule out places that don't have it.

They may be very environmentally friendly, such as they may be using solar or wind power somewhere, but they don't have like some sort of eco label on their accommodation.

So it doesn't mean that they're not eco-friendly just because they don't have that.