What is Slow Travel, and What are the Benefits?

What are the Benefits of Slow Travel?

The benefits of slow travel are wide ranging. From economic, environmental and social factors, to simply enriching an individuals’ travel experience and holiday, it’s easiest to identify all the benefits of slow travel by breaking them down into their separate categories.

1.      Economic Benefits

The local population and communities in areas of mass tourism often suffer from a concept known as tourism leakage. Tourism leakage occurs when the money a traveller spends ends up, for the most part, in the pockets of multi-national companies, rather than in the community you actually visit.

In some developing countries, it’s been estimated that as much as 95% of a tourists’ money ends up going to airlines, hotel chains, and foreign imports, with the remaining 5% ending up circulating around the people who actually live there.

Slow travel combats tourism leakage, as it encourages travellers to immerse themselves in authentic local culture, whilst avoiding the trappings of mass tourism such as large hotels, fast food, all-inclusive resorts and honeypot sites.

Instead, slow travel encourages individuals to seek out authentic, traditional food, to stay in places that will get you in touch with the local culture and with local people, and to visit the more off the beaten track locations that many tourists miss.

This, generally, means that your money goes to small, independent business and operators, who in turn are more likely to spend that money in their own community, boosting the economy and helping tourism have a positive impact on the locals’ quality of life.

2.      Environmental Benefits

When it comes to mass tourism, it’s all too obvious what the negative impacts are when it comes to the environment and climate change. Huge hotels that sap most of the water and resources in the area, mountains of litter being left in wild, beautiful places, erosion of historical monuments and mountain pathways, long supply chains to import food that caters to tourists’ tastes, these consequences of mass tourism are barely the tip of the iceberg.

Slow travel attempts to mitigate the damaging effects that tourism can have on the environment.

By staying in small, independent accommodation with the aim of immersing yourself in the local culture, you have less of an impact than if you stay at a huge five star hotel.

By cooking and eating local food, you decrease the air mileage of each meal whilst putting money into the pocket of local suppliers.

By visiting lesser-known sights and joining local guides who respect their own, local environment, you are likely to go on tours that get you away from overcrowded tourist hotspots and explore in a way that respects the area.

And by resisting the urge to travel by internal flight, taking the train instead in an attempt to get a real understanding of a country and a landscape, you dramatically reduce the size of your holiday’s carbon footprint.

3.      Social Benefits

In many parts of the world, tensions between tourists and locals are, to say the least, a little strained. Mass tourism caters towards travellers’ tastes, often leaving local culture diluted to the point of non-existence.

Hordes of tourists may descend on a town, city or village, leaving litter, causing overcrowding, and often contributing very little to the local economy thanks to tourism leakage.

With slow travel however, and with the idea that when travelling slowly you take the time to understand new cultures and peoples, you will find that local people become far more receptive to the idea of having tourists visit.

Slow travel is designed to break down cultural barriers and make travel what it has the potential to be: a tool for broadening horizons and becoming a more tolerant, open global community.

It might seem like a stretch to say that slow travel is going to bring about world peace, but at Not In The Guidebooks we truly believe that by getting a glimpse into other, authentic ways of life and local traditions, we can help break down barriers of prejudice and build a more accepting, broad-minded society.

4.      Immediate Benefits for Your Holiday

Even if none of these factors particularly bother you, there is one irrefutable reason for going slow the next time you travel – it makes your own holiday a more rewarding, enriching experience that you are likely to remember.

When we ask our travellers what the most memorable part of their holiday was, so often we get the same answer. It’s generally not the show-stopping historical monument or natural feature they’ve gone on holiday with the intention of seeing, it’s the little, local experiences they’ve had when they’ve had an insight into another culture or met an incredible local guide who has managed to show them sights they didn’t even know existed.

By slowing down and appreciating the new culture you find yourself in, you make yourself more receptive to new experiences and to meeting new people, which can result in some of the most memorable travel experiences you could have.

Here at Not In The Guidebooks, we work hard to bring you travel experiences that get you off the beaten track, and in touch with local people who are passionate about sharing the very best hidden gems and things to do that they can offer in their home. At the end of a Not In The Guidebooks holiday, you will be leaving with a treasure-trove of memories that speak of experiences unique to the place you have visited, as well as the warm hospitality of your local guides who have made your experience so special.