Asia’s Top Sustainable Tourism Destinations for 2021

Sustainable tourism is a term that is used to describe travel and tourism activities that don’t have an adverse impact on the environment or local cultures. The term is something of a paradox because every time we board a plane, we are contributing to carbon emissions that damage the global environment. But generally, the term refers to what we do at our destination and whether the presence of tourists has a net positive or negative impact on the quality of life of people living there, and their immediate natural and cultural environment.

A couple of years ago, National Geographic undertook a survey to find out more about people’s understanding of sustainable travel, and they discovered only 15 percent of travellers really understood what it meant. And of those, more than half were young people aged between 18 and 34.

Does that mean older travellers are not into sustainable travel or simply don’t understand it? In my view the answer to that question is a definite no. Anyone who visited Boracay in the Philippines or Luang Prabang in Laos 20 years ago, and have been back in recent years, knows what over-tourism does to a place once it becomes better known.

Older travellers who have been visiting Asia for two or three decades, or more, have first-hand experience of how a “hidden gem” can turn into a polluted, over-crowded tourist destination that has little left of the appeal that once attracted backpackers and the more adventurous older set. The tourism dollar in those places became more important than protecting the local environment and culture.

*Many older travellers seek authentic back-to-nature experiences. Image:* © Filip Mroz

There are now many non-profit organisations that are working to encourage tourism destinations to adopt more sustainable practices to handle visitors and minimise the adverse effects of tourism on the local community and environment. Once such organisation is the Netherlands-based ‘Green Destinations’ that helps tourist destinations to gain insights into sustainable tourism planning and protect local values.

Each year Green Destinations publishes a list of the “Top 100 Sustainability Stories”. The 2021 list was published recently and includes 22 winners across Asia from Cambodia, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Timor Leste and Thailand.

These lists can help older travellers who have “been there, done that” in their younger days to seek new destinations that are off-the-beaten-track and where they can connect with nature and the local community. These are destinations that either offer ‘experiences’ working with local people to make their tourism activities more sustainable, or where travellers can be assured that income from tourism is put back into protecting the local environment.

*The Cardamom Tented Camp in Cambodia. Image:* © YAANA Ventures

An example of the latter is the Cardamom Tented Camp in Cambodia, which was a winner in the ‘Nature & Ecotourism’ category, where income from the venture supports the employment of 12 forest rangers who help to reduce illegal logging and wildlife poaching in the surrounding 18,000 hectares of forest of the Botum Sakor National Park.

The ecolodge operates with the slogan “Your stay keeps the forest standing” and offers visitors a luxury camping experience and the opportunity to join rangers on their forest patrols. These comprise either two-and-a-half-hour hikes through the jungle or two-hour expeditions on kayaks.

For the more adventurous there’s also an option to spend a night in a jungle camp, trekking there on the first day and returning by kayak on the second day. This may appeal to those who want to learn more about the flora and fauna of the area and may include rare wildlife sightings.

For those not so adventurous, the camp offers the opportunity to relax away from any crowds, listen to the sounds of birds and gibbons in the trees, and enjoy meals cooked by a Khmer chef in a restaurant built from bamboo and local timber that overlooks the slow-moving Prek Tachan River. The menu is based on locally available produce and vegetables grown at the ecolodge. Wine and other alcoholic drinks are available.

*The interior of a luxury tent at the Cardamom ecolodge. Image:* © YAANA Ventures

Other Asian winners in the Nature & Ecotourism category were five localities in Japan, one in South Korea, one in Timor Leste and one in Taiwan.

The Japanese destinations included Toyooka City, north of Osaka, where conservation efforts have brought back the almost extinct Oriental White Stork to Japan through the construction of organic rice paddies, wetlands and biotopes, and the erection of artificial nesting towers to replace the tall pine trees that the storks used to nest in, but of which few now exist.

Another location that was recognised for its efforts in preserving the natural habitat for wild birds was Sado Island in the Sea of Japan off the north coast of Honshu. There the local ecotourism body has introduced electric bicycles for visitors to tour the island because the Toki bird (a type of crested Ibis) which breeds there is sound-sensitive and was being disturbed by the increasing number of visitors to the island.

Further west, Aso City on Kyushu was recognised for its efforts in preserving the Aso Grasslands for future generations, and two islands – Amani-Oshima Island and Yoron Island, in the long chain of islands between Kyushu and Okinawa, received awards for their efforts in preserving their fragile natural environments and local cultures. In the case of Yoron Island, this included extensive clean-ups of marine waste and rubbish that continually drifts onto its beaches from other countries in Asia.

In South Korea, the Ungok Ramsar Wetland was recognised for its restoration efforts which included initiatives to reintroduce silkworm farming and fireflies to the region, and in Timor Leste an award was made to Atauro Island for its efforts in promoting nature and adventure tourism whilst protecting endangered environments, both above and below sea level, so that local livelihoods could co-exist with sustainable tourism.

In Taiwan, the Mao’ao Community Association was recognised for its implementation of ‘The Sea Women’s Dream Experiential Tour’. Mao’ao is a small fishing village on the route of the old Caolin bike path in the beautiful Yilan Coast National Scenic Area where female fisherfolk who are over 65 years old (known as the ‘Sea Women’) harvest a type of seaweed called gelidium which is used to make gelidium jelly.

*A rocky cove in the Yilan Coast National Scenic Area. Image:* © Han Lin

The tours were introduced to enable visitors to learn about the local marine resources and taste the local cuisine which includes neritic squid rice noodles and gelidium jelly. The aim of the tours, which are guided by local residents, is to provide an opportunity for visitors to have an immersive experience that exposes them to traditional fishing village culture.

In another category called ‘Culture & Communities’ there were six destinations in Asia recognised – three in Japan, two in Thailand one in Taiwan.

The three in Japan were the Nakayama area of Shodashima Island in Japan’s Sedo Inland Sea, west of Osaka; the Nagara River Basin near Nagoya; and an ‘Open Field Museum’ project in Kamaishi City, northeast of Sendai in northern Honshu.

The Nakayama area, which is located in the middle of a picturesque mountain region, was the focus of a rural revitalisation project to preserve the Nakayama rice terraces which have been listed as one of the “100 Best Rice Terraces in Japan”. The area is fed by beautiful clear mountain streams, is home to fireflies in the early summer, and is considered one of the best examples of traditional Japanese villages.

The Nakara River Basin was another rural conservation project but focused more on the local river lifestyle and culture. Cormorant fishing, which has a history of 1,300 years in the area, and the practice of using bamboo and river water to make Mino Washi paper (an artisan industry that is recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage) and traditional parasols called wagasa were among the lifestyle and cultural aspects that the project focused on.

*View across Kamaishi Bay, Japan. Image:* © kimonofish

The city of Kamaishi was one of those badly damaged by the tsunami that followed the big 2011 earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan, with over 1,000 residents losing their lives, and about 10,000 others made homeless. Six years later, during the reconstruction of the city’s most badly damaged areas, a ‘tourism vision’ was established based on the concept of an ‘open field museum’ to promote the natural and cultural heritage of the city, and the beauty of the surrounding bay area.

This project offers experience programmes with Kamaishi citizens acting as guides. These include fishing trips with local fishermen, hiking in the nearby national park or tree planting with forestry workers, guided tours of the tsunami-affected streets, or talks with local citizens about their experiences in the tsunami and how they are preparing for future natural disasters.

The two Culture & Community awards in Thailand were made to Nan Old City in far northern Thailand and Sukhothai Old City in central northern Thailand.

Nan is visited by over a million Thai tourists every year to experience its unique culture which is a blend of influences from Chiang Mai and Sukhothai, Xishungbanna in China and Luang Prabang in Laos, as well as those from about a dozen indigenous groups in this mountainous region. However, despite having 25 art, silverware and traditional textile galleries, 10 museums and numerous temples, it is rarely visited by international tourists.

*Inside Wat Phumin in Nan City, Thailand. Image:* © Sumeth Anu

The project in Nan Old City is focused on preserving and developing the Nan culture through the transfer of skills from older artisans to young persons interested in crafts and folk arts. Learning centres in silverware craft and textiles have been established to reflect the cultural heritage of the city, and events are being organised to integrate the Nan culture into a more modern context.

Sukhothai Old City – or Mueang Kao Sukhothai – as it is locally known, is a UNESCO World Heritage site that is better known to international tourists because of its annual candle burning festival. But the project nominated for the Green Destinations award related to efforts to stem the illegal export of the region’s traditional ceramic pottery known as sangkhalok and to recover some of the antique pieces that were smuggled out of Thailand over the past 100 years.

A third category in which awards were made by Green Destinations is called ‘Environment & Climate’, which is for destinations that have initiated projects to achieve greater sustainability including actions to mitigate climate change. There were four awards in this category in Asia. Two were in Japan, namely Niseko town and Nanao City, and the others were Sentosa Island in Singapore and the resort Club Paradise Palawan in the Philippines.

Niseko is a winter ski resort area which was recognised for its efforts to address climate change. Skiers from all over the world travel to Niseko to experience its dry powder snow but increasing winter temperatures are reducing annual snowfalls. Niseko is reducing its output of greenhouse gases by installing heat pumps in public facilities that use clean energy from the town’s underground geothermal sources.

*The ski runs at Niseko are located near an active volcano. Image:* Marek Okon

Nanao is a small city on the Noto Peninsula that juts into the Sea of Japan on the central northern coast of Honshu. It’s popular with domestic tourists for its Wakura Onsen. It also has made efforts to reduce greenhouse gases by composting food wastes from tourism establishments. Previously the city incinerated those food wastes.

Singapore’s Sentosa Island would undoubtedly be one of the most well-known award recipients on the 2021 Green Destinations list, and some might be surprised at its inclusion given that so much of Sentosa is built-up and man-made, but there are a lot of ecologically fragile sites on the island which may be adversely affected by climate change in the future.

Sentosa received its award for the management of those sites which has involved a compromise approach between banning visitors from those parts of the island and allowing unfettered access. It does that by organising ‘learning’ visits to those sensitive sites which allow limited access under the supervision of nature guides who show and explain to visitors what the island’s developer is doing to protect those sites.

The last recipient on the list was the only beach resort in Asia to have been included in the Green Destinations awards. It was Club Paradise – a four-star resort located on Dimaquiat Island in the province of Palawan. The 19-hectare island is located within a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve off the north coast of the much larger Busuanga Island on which the tourist town of Coron is located.

*An aerial view of Club Paradise on Dimaquiat Island. Image:* © Club Paradise

Like many island resorts, Club Paradise faced difficulties in disposing of the garbage produced by the resort, especially non-biodegradable waste like plastic containers. The resort owners previously had to ship all its garbage to the mainland, which was a high-cost operation that was often interrupted during periods of inclement weather.

To overcome these difficulties, the resort embarked on numerous projects to combat these difficulties. The first was to reduce the use of single use plastics such as plastic bottles and straws. The resort invested in water purifiers so that it could supply guests with drinking water in reusable glass bottles, replaced plastic straws with metal straws, and plastic cutlery with biodegradable cutlery made from cassava.

For single use plastic products like bulk food containers that couldn’t be replaced with biodegradable alternatives, the resort’s garbage management team worked out how to make eco-bricks using plastic scraps and glass bottles. These eco-bricks were then used to build structures at the resort’s small organic farm on the island.

Biodegradable waste is now processed entirely on the island. Fruit and vegetable trimmings, fish offal and food waste from the resort’s restaurants are all composted and used to feed plants at the organic farm, and paper waste is shredded and fed to African Night Crawler worms at the farm to produce vermicast organic fertiliser, which is used to supplement the compost produced.

*A tree trunk is hauled ashore on Dimaquiat Island. Image:* © Club Paradise

The resort’s staff have also found innovative ways to reuse other items that would otherwise have to be shipped to the mainland for disposal. Old tyres from the resort’s vehicles (and some washed ashore from other countries) are used to stabilise slopes along walking tracks, old water buckets and bulk condiment containers have been turned into plant pots, and a large wooden reel that was used to ship heavy duty electrical wire to the island was turned into a plant stand.

The garbage management team also conducts regular beach clean-ups of garbage that is washed ashore on the island’s otherwise pristine beaches. This garbage is comprised mainly of plastic bottles that have floated all the way from Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Driftwood is also collected and repurposed. A large tree trunk that was hauled ashore was made into ten chairs for one of the resort’s bars.