Eco Travel Along South Africa's Garden Route

For South Africa's Garden Route, eco travel is on the rise, according to a press release submitted by MyDestinationInfo.com. MyDestinationInfo reports that businesses along the Garden Route are focusing on offering more environmentally friendly services, reducing their carbon footprint and maintaining the biodiversity of the area. In other words: MyDestinationInfo.com knows that emphasizing sustainability will get them what they want (press!), and the travel companies know that emphasizing sustainability will get them what they want (wealthy tourists!).  As long as the emphasis actually leads to sustainable practices, everybody gets what they want (including the eco-habitat of the Garden Route).

According to MyGardenRouteInfo, luxury travel hotels can still "offer unparalleled experiences but also do it in a responsible manner". So, to those tourists who for some reason believe that eco travel means "backpacker style", MyGardenRouteInfo says: "relax". You will still have silky sheets. The difference? MyDestinationInfo writes that businesses are including local communities, making use of sustainable materials to build tourist establishments and improving energy saving practices.

The press release points to statistics from The International Ecotourism Society (TIES): eco travel has grown approximately 20-34% every year since the 1990's (if accurate, that means that eco travel has grown 400% to 680% in the last two decades). And, in 2004, "nature-based tourism" grew three times faster than the travel industry as a whole. Eco travel is (obviously) an up and coming trend and travel companies are ready to climb aboard the canoe.

MyGardenRouteInfo pointed to several featured companies to commend their sustainable travel practices, including the Phantom Forest Eco Reserve Facilities and Teniqua Treetops, in the Outeniqua forest.  MyGardenRouteInfo also pointed to wildlife safaris in Addo Elephant Park and Shamwari, which offer tourists eco-friendly experiences in the Garden Route.

South Africa's Garden Route runs along the warm Indian Ocean. The area is rich with flora and fauna (hence the name: Garden Route), rivers and mountains in a vacation-worthy Mediterranean climate. It's an ideal area for eco travel. During the last three centuries, the Garden Route has experience ongoing conflict, including fights between the Xhosa tribe and European settlers, as well as the Anglo-Boer War in the early 20th century. However, the Eastern Cape was also the birthplace of leaders such as Nelson Mandela, who fought against Apartheid (the policy of racial segregation introduced after the Second World War. Now, an area of peace, MyGardenRouteInfo suggests that the Garden Route is becoming an eco travel haven.

Photo credit: Conrad 88