Harm Reduction Tourism

First off, let us say that we are writing this from the traditional, unceded, and stolen land (unceded means the land was never ceded, or freely given, to the colonizers. In the old days we called that 'stealing') of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. This land was never surrendered to the Crown and has been stewarded by these First Nations since time immemorial. 

We both work in the mental health and substance use field, so harm reduction is something we talk about freely. In our work it involves clean needles, supervised injection sites, and take-home Naloxone kits. However, harm reduction is in everyone's life every day. Things such as seat-belts in cars save lives. It wasn't that long ago that seat belts were not something that came with a car. They were only mandatory after the public demanded increased safety after losing too many loved ones needlessly to car accidents. By the way, in North America alone (Canada and the US) more than 42,000 people die because of automobiles every twelve months. Bicycle and motorcycle helmets are harm reduction, as are sugar-free drinks (diabetes), organic produce (pesticides), condoms, public transit (approximately 150 people killed in North America per year due to walking in front of buses, trains, etc. versus 42,000 in cars), face shields (hockey players used to have no teeth), speed limits (faster the speed the more deadly the crash), sewer systems (anyone remember the black plague?), and other every day systems, items and processes that we often don't think of as harm reduction.

Tourists and over-tourism are responsible now for a great deal of environmental, societal, and cultural harms around the world. Travel when I was young was for the wealthy. In 1977 I remember my parents saving up for a few years to take us over to Ireland to see relatives. Flights at that time were over $1000 per person. Keep in mind the average wage was around $5.00 per hour, so that $1000 was a huge sum. Today, one can find a flight from Vancouver to Ireland for around that same cost with wages far higher than they were in 1977. The number of travellers in 1977 was around 12 million people. A huge number when you think about it. In 2024 that number reached 1.4 billion people. That is an 85% increase in tourism with many places still struggling with 1977 infrastructure. If you are interested in further reading on over-tourism we encourage people to read the book, "Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism" by Elizabeth Becker (2013). There is a 3-part documentary based on this book - you can find all of these references and videos/documentaries on the reference section of the blogs.

Now you may be asking (or not) what is harm reduction when it comes to tourism. Well, we are happy you are here to share our thoughts. These are not ours alone - this is based off of numerous books, documentaries, research papers and magazines.

HOSTELS

One of the best ways to practice harm reduction tourism is to not stay in a holiday rental. Specifically using sites like Air BnB, VRBO, Agoda, etc. The research is increasing and it is all pointing in one direction. Vacation rentals decimate local communities by making housing costs unaffordable for people who live in the communities. Vacation rentals can increase housing costs by over 80% in some locations (i.e. Barcelona). You may have seen news reports of locals in places like Barcelona, Paris, Venice who are absolutely furious with tourists and tourism because of the damage done to their homes. They have a right to be furious when their average rent increased ten-fold over a decade and they can no longer live where they parents, grandparents, great-grandparents etc. lived and raised their families. In Oahu the local Hawaiian population has been decimated because of tourism and the increase in housing cost. There are now more native Hawaiians living in Nevada than there are in Hawaii, and that isn't right. If you are going to visit - or be a tourist - then staying in hostels, or small family-owned hotels - are how you practice harm reduction with your choices on where to stay. More often than not hostels are family-owned and operated, or are a local chain (versus something like Hyatt, Hilton, Best Western, etc.) that puts the majority of the money back in to the communities that they are in.

The Fado singer at 'Rossio Hostel' in Lisbon. Sunday nights in the common room.

Hostels often have the added benefit of being in reconditioned buildings that were not bed-based operations originally. In Reykjavik there is a hostel in an old cookie factory that went out of business - the hostel is called "Kex" that looks amazing, and if we get a chance to go to Iceland we will be staying at Kex (click the name Kex in red to link directly to the hostel's website). In Dublin you can stay in a former boys' reformatory - called Kinlay House. This is a fascinating hostel with a labyrinth of hallways, rooms and common areas. We have stayed here several times over the years and have had many interesting conversations with people of all ages, incomes and cultures. In Christchurch New Zealand we stayed in an old federal prison converted in to a hostel - called Jailhouse Accommodation. There is a lot of tongue-in-cheek humour throughout this hostel, and two great kitchens for use with your fellow travellers.

From the rooftop patio at "Jacob's Inn" in Dublin, Ireland

Hostels are great to reduce cost from eating out. There is some critique of this as people who cook their own food are thought to contribute less to the communities they visit than those who can afford to eat out every night. Yes, and no. Harm reduction also means shopping for groceries at local family-run markets rather than going to a large chain grocer such as Tesco (in Europe), Lidl, Aldi, etc. Hostels doesn't mean never eating out, it just means eating out less, and when you are travelling - at least for us - we find that eating out too often doesn't leave us feeling all that great since restaurants tend to include more salt and fat in their cooking than what we make for ourselves. Fine if you are 20 with a 20-year-old's metabolism, but not so great when one is over sixty-years-of-age.

PUBLIC TRANSIT

We will add the caveat "whenever possible" to the use of public transit. Europe and Japan are amazing for public transit. The wealthy use public transit in Europe and demand a good system, which benefits those with fewer financial resources. In North America public transit is purposely made to be onerous and underserving of marginalized communities (see: Wilt, J. 2020. Do Androids Dream of Electric Cars?: Public Transit in the Age of Google, Uber, and Elon Musk. Between The Lines: Toronto, ON.). Public transit is far more efficient than personal vehicles. It is also more difficult to be prejudice against others when you are sitting beside someone who looks, and dresses, different than you do. Personal automobiles are isolation boxes - they keep us separated from our neighbours and community members. Cars make it easier to be angry at the 'other' because we are surrounded by a 2,000 kilogram weapon if we so choose. It is like trolls online who terrorize people anonymously. However, if you are sitting with 50 of your closest friends you haven't met yet on a bus, or train, it is more difficult to distance oneself from our fellow humans. We take trains whenever we can. Sitting on a train that is moving at 307 kilometres per hour is one of the coolest feelings - to see the scenery whip past that fast is something that is hard to describe unless you have had the opportunity. The Eurostar and SNCF are two of the high-speed trains in Europe with the SNCF reaching 320 km / hr when we took it from Paris to Strasbourg. If you get the chance sit in the upper level for the views of the countryside.

The Eurostar top speed on our trip between Rome and Naples

LANGUAGE

Remember that we/you are a guest when we travel, and it is entitled to expect those we are visiting to speak our language. Learning a few phrases and words goes a long way to take the edge off, and shows the people you are visiting (keep in mind they are likely very tired of tourists by the time you visit) that you made some effort to understand their culture and language. Even if it isn't much - a few phrases that include "thank you", and "please" will get you further than not learning a few of these words.

TRAVEL COMMANDMENTS NUMBERS 1 THROUGH 10

A lot of what we are talking about are linked to our Travel Commandments that you can link to here. If you can stick to all (or most) of these you will be practicing harm reduction. Stay in hostels or locally run hotels, pensions, motels and the like and you are also practicing harm reduction and even doing some good for the places you are visiting. If you want to check out more on responsible travel and maybe contribute to a good organization, check out the Centre for Responsible Travel here.