Mark Ellingham (Rough Guides) and Tony Wheeler (Lonely Planet) shouldn't be personally faulted for encouraging air travel with their best-selling guidebooks, in fact in promoting a more aware style of travel they've probably encouraged longer stays per airline seat km and done their bit - just like we at BelloMundo would like to - to nibble away at the influence of airlines and tour operators who just want to shift their product. They're heroes in their own way (and so is Maureen Wheeler), and to travel writers more than most...
But the story that came out in March, them sitting down together and declaring that they regretted being bad boys and they'd be working harder for the environment in future, needs to be taken with enough salt to down a crate of tequila.
- They're not really rivals. OK, both companies now tackle most destinations, whereas for years they'd stay out of the other gang's major spheres of influence, but that's the big publishing conglomerates that both brands have become, and neither one is about to put the other out of business. Informal links between the two have been cards played in other promotional campaigns before.
- The story originated with British-based Climate Care, a limited company (not the 'charity' the TheGuardian appeared to think) in the business of flogging carbon offset products. A good business to be in, we're not suggesting anything other, but a business just the same. Free advertising is a wonderful thing.
- Both LP (www.lonelyplanet.com/responsibletravel) and RG (www.roughguides.com/climatechange) have just launched sections on their websites addressing the issues (linking through to whose website, would you suppose?), and a forthcoming Rough Guide to Climate Change might shift a few units when it comes from such a perceived reliable (yes, we do mean it) information source. We're not looking to pillory these people for doing what we're doing here ourselves at BelloMundo, but, again, free advertising is still a wonderful thing.
Yep, you've got to be an even more hardened cynic than I am to say these guys don't mean it. But you've got to read between the lines of news stories just the same.
We here at BelloMundo think that planting trees is a great idea at all times, and anyone you can get to finance more, it's a good thing. But still we'd like some more informed opinion on Carbon Offset, too. Anyone NOT attached to the business of selling offsets who wants to fill us in on the long-term effectiveness of the policy, we'd love to read it and publish. Something here is sounding so short-term tokenist, and there is more to be done to the fundamentals (like cutting the amount of pollution from air travel full stop!) than any amount of greenwash can disguise.
Read what Rough Guides, Lonely Planet and The Guardian had to say, anyway...
