Traveling Respectfully

Respectful travel is not a code of conduct to memorize. It is one posture applied repeatedly: you are a guest in a place that existed long before you booked, that will continue after you leave, and whose ordinary life is not an attraction. Everything else in this section is that idea worked out in particular situations.

What You Need to Know

The posture

A visitor who arrives assuming their own norms are the neutral default will make a series of small errors and never learn why the room went quiet. A visitor who arrives assuming they are about to learn something will make fewer, will be forgiven the ones they make, and will have a better trip. That difference is almost entirely about expectation rather than knowledge.

Observe first

Most etiquette questions answer themselves if you wait. Watch how people greet each other, whether shoes come off at a threshold, how loudly a room talks, whether hands are shaken and with which hand, how a bill is settled. Copying the room is the cheapest and most reliable method there is, and it works in places no guide has written about.

Ask, and take the answer

Asking whether photography is welcome, whether a place is open to visitors, or whether it is appropriate to enter is almost never resented. What is resented is asking and then proceeding anyway, or treating a refusal as an opening position. If the answer is no, the answer is no.

Where respect becomes economics

The difference between tourism a place welcomes and tourism it tolerates is usually money. A trip built on locally owned accommodation, local guides, local restaurants and local craftspeople leaves considerably more behind than the same trip at the same price built on international chains. That is covered in Supporting Local Businesses, and it belongs in this guide because it is a form of respect rather than an accounting choice.

Where custom is law

Some of what reads as etiquette carries penalties. Of the 211 destinations the State Department publishes country information for, 26 address public displays of affection, intoxication or indecency in their local laws, 27 restrict photographing certain sites and 15 address modest dress. Read that section before deciding what is merely polite.

What to Do Before Your Trip

• Read the local laws section for your destination.
• Learn the greeting, and how to say thank you.
• Find out what is expected of visitors at the places on your itinerary.
• Choose locally owned suppliers where you have the choice.
• Read something written by someone from there, not only by visitors.

Important Considerations

Beware the confident generalization. A country is not uniform, a region is emphatically not, and practice differs between a capital and a village, between generations and between families. Arrive with a few things learned and hold them lightly.

Be wary of the opposite error too. Deciding that everything is relative and nothing can be known produces a visitor who makes no effort at all, which reads as indifference rather than as humility. Learning a greeting badly is better than not learning one.

And remember that people are not exhibits. A market where people are buying food, a service where people are worshipping and a street where people are going to work are not staged for visitors, and the fact that they are interesting does not make them public property.

Tips for Group Travelers

• Brief once, briefly, on day one. Long lectures do not survive jet lag.
• Model it rather than announce it. The group copies the leader.
• Use local guides and let them lead.
• Keep the group’s volume in mind. Twenty people are loud without meaning to be.
• Leave room in the schedule for the unplanned conversation, which is where the trip happens.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Treating your own norms as the neutral default.
• Photographing people as scenery.
• Negotiating a refusal.
• Assuming a country is one thing.
• Making no effort at all for fear of getting it wrong.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does responsible travel actually mean?

In practice, three things: obeying local law, behaving as a guest rather than an audience, and spending in ways that leave money in the place you are visiting. It is less a philosophy than a set of ordinary decisions, most of which are made before departure.

How do I avoid causing offense?

Observe before acting, ask when unsure, and accept the answer. Most visitors who cause offense do so by assuming rather than by not knowing, and local people are generally forgiving of a mistake made by someone visibly trying.

Is it patronizing to learn a few phrases badly?

Almost never. The effort is the message, and it is read as such. Being unwilling to try because you might say it wrong is the more common failure and the one that reads worse.

Related Travel Tips

• Culture, customs and responsible travel, the section this guide belongs to.
• Cultural Etiquette Basics. The specifics.
• Responsible Community Travel.
• Engaging Respectfully With Local People.

Plan Your Trip With LABUSA Travel

The difference between visiting a place and being welcomed into it is usually the people who introduce you. LABUSA Travel works through local guides and locally owned suppliers, which is the practical form this guide describes.

Talk with a LABUSA Travel advisor about a trip you are considering, or browse our destination guides for a specific country.

Verify Before You Travel

Local laws and customs are published per destination by the U.S. Department of State and independently by the U.K. FCDO. Where a custom carries a legal penalty, those pages say so.