The travel and tourism industry has been forced to acknowledge the worsening impact of climate change, with efforts now focused on minimising these effects to create a sustainable industry.
Tourist guides, although often overlooked in conversations about the industrywide green transformation that needs to take place, are at the frontline of travel, with the ability to proactively influence travellers on a day-to-day basis.
“The role of the tour guide is to point people in environmentally positive directions,” explains Howard Geach, a Gauteng-based specialised cultural tourist guide and lead guide at Malapa Human Origins Tours.
“Often, guests have never been exposed to destination-specific issues, so in that respect, tourist guides play an important role in sensitising people to current environmental issues.”
Although this can include promoting and enforcing values such as not littering or leaving a mess behind and conserving water, it also extends to the utilisation of…
