Philobiblon

To a talk by Tom Hall of Lonely Planet (and travel columnist on the Observer) on this question … so you know what the answer is going to be.

But there were some interesting snippets: There are currently 61 accreditation schemes for “ethical travel” … so pretty tough for an “ordinary” traveller to tell if they mean anything at all. But a survey of the customers of the mass travel company First Choice say 83 per cent of customers are concerned about the environmental effects of their holiday. (Of course that doesn’t mean they aren’t going, but it certainly is a base to build on.)

We were pointed to a great website, The Man in Seat 61, which offers advice on how to travel by plane and ship pretty well everyone – Japan via Vladivostok by train and ferry anyone?

The speaker said that Lonely Planet was concerned about the distorting effects of its advice, citing the Vietnamese guide that raved about a guesthouse run by a mute local man. The next time they went back there was a whole street of guesthouses apparently owned by mute men…

But he didn’t really say what they were doing about it, probably because there is nothing you can do if you are going to offer specific advice.