Responsible travel

Tourism to "undeveloped" countries is always a Catch-22.

On the one hand, the tourists get to see undeveloped country, and bring some much needed money to the area.

On the other hand, the more tourists go there, the more they want their creature comforts, and the more developed the country becomes, so that the original charm and character are lost.

That is not yet the case with such rmeote locations like Machu Picchu in Peru, but it is fast getting there, as more and more people from around the world travel their, expecting to find first class, air conditioned hotel rooms and so on!

Then there's all the litter, not to mention the strain of the visitors on the site's sanitary systems.

It is the responsibility of the tourist, or traveller, to take care of each and every site they visit, not only by packing out their own garbage, but even the garbage they see, left by others.

Here's an example from a visit to Stonehenge a year or so ago. Admittedly the people were attending a festival - but really, that's no excuse!

Revelers Leave Trash All Over Stonehenge

The good news is that lots of people got to visit Stonehenge for the summer solstice this past weekend. The bad news is that they left the place covered in litter. Over 36,000 people came to the sacred site on Salisbury Plain for the annual celebration, and local Druids are not happy about the mess. One said, "It is nice to see a lot of people here because there is no better place to learn about our culture and history... But it is upsetting to see so much litter, and some people can be disrespectful."

There had been some controversy a few weeks back, regarding increased police presence. However, local authorities say the attendees were well behaved, with only two dozen arrests. Not bad at all for a crowd that size.

Anyway, the article doesn't indicate whether the trash left behind was due to a shortage of garbage bins, or just people being lazy. My guess would be that it's a combination of the two. Really, if you're attending a public festival like this and you have garbage, you should be responsible enough to take it with you when you go home if there aren't enough trash cans.

Then people wonder why a site they've come a thousand miles to see is all roped off, with no one allowed within a hundred yards of it. Why? Because if they were allowed to get up close and touch it, somebody's hand would sneak out and grab a rock to take away for a souvenir, or spraypaint a clever little slogan...