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Sustainable Travel
持続可能性
Sustainability
What is sustainable tourism?
According to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), sustainable tourism refers to the sustainable practices in and by the tourism industry, and is an aspiration to acknowledge all the impacts of tourism, both positive and negative.
Negative impacts include economic leakage, damage to the natural environment, overcrowding and disturbing the local’s way of life. Positive impacts include job creation, cultural heritage preservation and interpretation, wildlife preservation, landscape restoration, global understanding and more.
JOURNEY TO THE EAST AND sustainable travel
At Journey to the East, sustainable travel is in our DNA as we are the pioneer of extra small group tours (up to 10 travellers per group), and we specialise in regionally focused Japan tours to limit the distance of ground travel. Our values are strongly aligned with those of sustainable tourism, and we are committed to playing our small part in ways explained below. Here are our 6 key commitments to Sustainable Travel.
1. Reducing carbon footprint
While guests’ flights to Japan generate carbon emissions, we minimize our footprint through ground arrangements. We prioritize public transport whenever possible without compromising comfort, and it also promotes local interactions. Additionally, we limit travel distances, allowing more time at destinations and less in transit. Our tours typically focus on one or two regions of Japan rather than covering the entire country in one trip.
2. Supporting local communities
One of the GSTC’s main performance pillars for tour operators is to maximize social and economic benefits for local communities while minimizing negative impacts. We prioritize locally owned accommodations, restaurants, and transport, providing authentic experiences for guests and supporting local economies. This approach is especially vital in Japan, where rural communities face depopulation and cultural loss.
3. Protection of cultural heritage
We value and incorporate genuine forms of traditional and contemporary local culture in our tours to help their protection over time. Japan has a long history and a lot of traditional customs. It is also known for superior skills in art and craft. We are proud to work with the practitioners of such culture and support them through our tours.
4. Protecting local environment
Journey to the East works with those suppliers who are committed to the protection of the environment, and who source environmentally sustainable products. For example, we favour those restaurants that use locally sourced ingredients, and hotels which employ sustainable practices such as water conservation and waste management.
5. Promoting responsible travel
We encourage our guests to be responsible travellers in Japan by minimising environmental impact. We recommend bringing reusable water bottles to refill with safe, tasty tap water and using reusable shopping bags to reduce single-use plastics. In many pristine areas we visit, bins are scarce, so we ask guests to follow local customs and take their rubbish with them.
6. Tackling overtourism
Overtourism has become a real issue in Japan in recent years. We keep our tour group size to very low (our standard group size is maximum 8 travelers). Many of our tours visit areas outside of tourism hot spots to reduce negative impacts on the local communities. We have found our guests often enjoy missing the crowds and a more personal experience by visiting rural less-visited places.
From designing tours, sourcing suppliers to running tours on the ground, sustainability is at the forefront of our mind. We cannot achieve sustainable tourism alone. We are committed to working with our partners, our guests and destination communities, aiming to create and offer tours that are deeply rewarding for us all.
REF:
The United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Sustainable Development, Sustainable tourism https://sdgs.un.org/topics/sustainable-tourism
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council ( https://www.gstcouncil.org/what-is-sustainable-tourism/),
GSTC Industry Criteria, Performance Indicator for Tour Operators https://www.gstcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/GSTC-Industry-Criteria-Tour-Operators-with-SDGs.pdf