Top tips for sustainable travel over the Easter holiday in Spain

With two public holidays and a full week off school for most pupils and teachers, Easter week is peak travelling time in Spain. In fact, despite inflation and spiralling cost of living, data from Spain’s Cetelem Observatory suggest that Spaniards will spend nine per cent more this year on travelling than they did in 2022. On average 429 euros will be spent by 42 per cent of the population.

However, travelling is resource-intensive and the question is, is it compatible with sustainability? Should we stop travelling so much and be more environmentally responsible? "Travelling is fundamental for us and for the people at the destination," explains Núria Cabrero, editor of Lonely Planet guides in Spanish.

"Travelling is enriching. Human beings are designed to be surprised", she highlights. So perhaps it isn't a question of giving up travelling altogether, but rather rethinking the way we travel.

According to the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), sustainable tourism "takes full account of current and future economic, social and environmental impacts to meet the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities".

And the travel market is working hard to take this into account. "In recent years, the travel industry has made great strides towards sustainability, with thousands of travel companies evolving in line with changing traveller preferences," Sarah Reid points out in The Sustainable Travel Guide.

While hotels and transport companies are already doing their homework, tourists can also take responsibility for their own actions. The obvious problem is transport; we already know that travelling by plane is one of the most polluting activities on the planet and Cabrero calls for "flying sensibly" and prioritising public transport.

In her guide, Sarah Reid gives four rules on reducing the carbon footprint for air travel: less luggage (weight burns more fuel), choose airlines and planes carefully, compensate for emissions afterwards and opt for direct flights and longer stays.

Cabrero also talks about the importance of 'slow-travel'; of taking time to get to know a destination, rather than rushing through and on to the next place. She argues that this way the traveller can make more sustainable choices.

"Sustainable tourism is part of responsible tourism", Cabrero highlights. Lonely Planet guides she argues, recommend "going to eat where the locals go", which not only allows the traveller to have a more authentic food experience, but it is also a way of making sure that money goes directly to the locals. "This is important: knowing where you leave your money," Cabrero says.

One of the UNWTO's key recommendations for respectful travel is to ensure that the industry's economic activity is viable in the long term and also that it respects all those involved.

'Touristification'; a process by which a place changes as it becomes an object of tourist consumption, is a serious problem for many popular destinations. For the inhabitants of these places, the influx of tourists leads to price rises, driving locals out of city centres and public spaces losing their traditional uses, among other problems.

The tourist industry is trying to promote alternative destinations to the traditionally popular ones and according to Cabrero, travellers are becoming increasingly aware of these alternatives. She stresses that guides are being published to so-called "secondary destinations" and says that "they are doing very well".

These alternatives are places like Albania or Northern Macedonia, as opposed to the very popular Croatia, to give an example. In Malaga and Cadiz, the tourism sector is working hard to promote inland villages as an alternative to the ever-popular coastal towns.

Furthermore, the north of Spain experienced a huge rise in popularity during the pandemic, with Cantabria, Asturias, Extremadura and Galicia gaining ground for domestic travel. It is hoped that this expansion in rural, agro and wine tourism could help win the fight against depopulation.

These alternative and new forms of tourism can have a highly positive impact and as The Sustainable Travel Guide points out, they can provide the extra income that helps to keep a farm working.

Beyond choosing local businesses or thinking carefully about the impact on local people, other responsible and sustainable ways of travelling are possible to reduce the impact on the destination.

More and more hotels are committed to reducing their carbon footprint or neutralising it and as The Sustainable Travel Guide reminds readers, everyone can help with other small gestures, such as reusing towels instead of changing them every day, avoiding single-use items like individual bottles or sachets of shampoo and shower gel.

"Treating your hotel room as your own" it says is something that housekeeping staff will also appreciate. All of these small gestures help to reduce the environmental impact of a stay.