SubscriberWrites: Vote Your Travel Money

Post Operation Sindoor, the thought process of using our travel money politically has gained ground. This article takes a look at this aspect.

Representational image | ANI

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Copenhagen

“Who are the best shoppers for you people?” I asked, matter-of-factly.

This was twenty-seven years ago. I was in Copenhagen Airport, waiting for my SAS flight to Delhi. I was early at the gate and had time to loiter. That particular section of the terminal had a languid look that morning with only a few shops open. And I got chatty with one of them. 

Pat came the reply, “You Indians.” 

Mind you, that was long twenty-seven years ago. India is way more economically powerful today. Way higher ability and propensity to splurge. 

Let me change gear, here. But promise to get ‘Copenhagen’ back in a while. 

Responsible Tourism

For years now, I have been writing and conducting lectures and workshops for responsible tourism. Responsible travel, you see, is the larger umbrella within which the more quickbite terms like eco-tourism, sustainable travel and all fall into. 

While designing the workshop, I played safe, and followed the best seller model of books, and fashioned it as: 5 Habits of Responsible Travel. 

Follow these 5 habits and you’d become a responsible traveller. But this article, my gentle reader, is not about trying to make you a responsible traveller, which you already are. Rather, it is to pick the 5th of those 5 habits up and expand its horizon. This 5th habit says: Vote your travel money. 

At times, some of us are like those lazy voters during the election, who think, why should I take the trouble to go out and vote? What difference would my single vote make? 

Well, it does make a difference. Trust me. It does. 

And it’s the same about how you decide to spend your travel money. This one is really potent. 

All these years I have been writing and talking about how you can distinguish between a sham eco-resort – and there are plenty, all around – and a sincere one. What are the criteria for being a truly ecologically sensitive place of stay? How can you assess before booking one? And I have been asking people to consciously choose those properties and services who truly live up to their “Eco” promise. And through your bookings support them financially. This is indeed voting — deciding where your money for travel will go to. 

But now, it is time to add another important parameter to voting through your travel money: Destination. 

Vote Your Travel Money

I have nothing against any country or its people. Its rivers and valleys and cities and historical monuments. Even its cultures and music. 

But sometimes. Sometimes, certain governments, through their acts of commission, deliberately, decide to harm our country. Harm our people. 

As a traveller, what can you do? 

You may have business relationships going on in that country, and you still need to buy or sell. And even travel. That is understood. 

But for leisure travel, we all have far more control over where we want to visit. We can do two things. We can deprive those economies, inimical to us, of our travel money. In simple term, stop going there. Stop availing their services, like airlines, booking sites and all. And, simultaneously, we can spend on those places which would benefit whom we want to consciously support. 

Whom do you want to deprive? Take your pick.

And, whom do you want to support? Your menu card here is quite expansive. In a country as diverse as ours, it can be some exotic part of our own nation. Whereby the tax revenue from it will help. After all, even a limited ‘war’ costs a lot. Or it can be some friendly nation. And also remember, there’s something called enemy’s enemy is a friend. 

Let me recall my chance tête-à-tête with the shopkeeper at Copenhagen Airport twenty-seven years ago, which I mentioned right at the beginning. Even back then, Indians were sought-after shoppers by, mind you, an extremely developed Scandinavian country. Today, with India inching towards the podium of top GDPs, Indian tourists with their purse are ‘apple of the eye’ across the tourism world. 

A ten percent dip of Indian tourists will be felt by many tourist destinations. Twenty percent drop will give jitters. We already have a test case in the Indian Ocean. 

You, me. We can vote our travel money.

Do we need to say more?

Ashis Dutta is a Bangalore based software entrepreneur, writer and author of Gandhi and the London Cabby. Can be reached at [e-mail]

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