What is Slow tourism?
The Slow Travel & Living movement
Slow tourism is a holistic approach to sustainable travelling, directly connected with the Slow Living philosophy and the Slow Food movement.
Slow tourism is not a new phenomenon, since it describes the real meaning of holidays, an essential to life activity.
Slow tourism challenges stereotypes by inviting travellers to connect with the host community and their tradition, to become acquainted with their culture, food, drinks, and environment.
As Italy’s Slow Tourism Association explains:
”Slow tourism invites travellers to travel at a reduced pace; one that is sustainable and responsible, and to discover new destinations while respecting them.
It invites tourists to get to know places, to live and ‘’taste’’ them while at the same time promoting their protection as patrimonies of inestimable worth, as a richness to be safeguarded for our common wellbeing.”
The mission of the Slow Travel movement
Slow travel rediscovers places and suggests experience travelling at a slow pace.
Empowering local communities, Slow travel movement suggests a fair ideology for the traveller as well as for the host, based on:
Slow travel is about conscious decision-making
Slow travellers thoughtfully explore the locality they visit, value their connection with the local community, enjoy local food, and drinks, and are aware of their environmental and social impacts.
Slow travellers realize that authentic experiences come unexpectedly, not by design, and prefer to book their trip autonomous and choose their next travel destination and accommodation independently.
They make conscious choices about the way they travel and have a deeper understanding of the social, cultural, and environmental impact of travelling on the whole.
People who choose for Slow travelling enjoy their holidays in unusual travel destinations, away from the tourism trends.
They will probably avoid the must-visit sights and discover the hidden gems of the location they visit.
The cornerstone of the Slow travel philosophy is the social-cultural, environmental, and economic sustainable development.
No wonder why Slow travel is linked to ecology and sustainability.
Alternative tourism VS Slow tourism
The similarities between alternative tourism and slow tourism raise questions, whether Slow tourism is a form of alternative tourism or not.
Slow tourism supports a similar but different philosophy of tourism that stimulates environmental awareness, low impact consumption, and experiential, learning activities.
As the preservation of the natural and socio-cultural environment is globally in priority need, Slow travel suggests Slow surface transport for reaching the travel destination and zero impact mobility at the travel destination.
The fundamental differences between Slow tourism and Alternative tourism lies in the two basic principles that Slow tourism advocates:
- The use of carbon-friendly means of transport, as a way to reduce the ecological footprint of travelling.
Slow surface transport includes road, sea, or rail transport, and “zero impact” mobility refers to includes any human-powered mobility, such as bicycle, rollers skate, skateboard, and pedestrian, as the preferred means of transport.
- The importance of exploring an area by foot or cycling, besides the health benefits of walking and exercise, allows the traveller to connect with the landscape, nature, and locals on the way to the destination to a destination.
The journey then, is a procedure, a chance for leisure and experiential learning activities.
Slow travel and the rediscovery of taste in life
Slow travel suggests a different approach of understanding and managing time; to regain connection with nature, people, family, our selves, and our lives.
Therefore, finding and balance the natural rhythm of life is the basic factor in order to experience meaningful travelling, at the right pace.
Slow travel accommodations operate with a ”home away from home” quality and informal, personalized service models.
Eco-friendly accommodations, farms, traditional lodges, guesthouses, or small family-owned hotels offer valuable interaction with the traveller.
Where the preparation of a slow-cooked traditional meal with locally grown ingredients can be a chance for becoming part of the local community and live like a local instead of being a tourist at a destination.
What is the Slow living movement?
''Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.’’, Lao Tzu
Slow living movement emphasizes on the quality of life and the holistic sense of well-being. rather than quantity in life.
’’We have lost our sense of time. We believe that we can add meaning to life by making things go faster. We have an idea that life is short — and that we must go faster to fit everything in. But life is long. The problem is that we don’t know how to spend our time wisely.’’
(Carlo Petrini, Founder of the Slow Food Movement, September 2008)
Success is often associated with a fast life. Time seems not enough, people live faster, have fast conversations, fast relations, eat faster, play fast games, travel faster, and finally, forget to live.
Living in a fast-paced world, people repeatedly defer their happiness to a later date by sacrificing their present for the ‘’perfect future’’, that may never come.
This fast-style addictive culture focuses on maximizing life`s experiences by doing more in short term and emphasizes on the quantity rather on quality in life.
This continual energy & time investment often leads to mental and physical exhaustion.
The free moments in between and the holidays add more pressure and cause the traveller more stress and loss of balance than rest.
Slow living and Sustainable consumption
’We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit’’ Aristotle
The simple lifestyle that Slow living suggests, emphasizes on slowing down on fast times and experience an unhurried life on the desired pace.
Slow living proposes the minimalistic and thoughtful consumption of goods, luxuries, services, natural resources as a way to live an authentic life.
Slow consumerist behaviour revolves around the idea of sustainable consumption aiming at a better quality of life now and in the future.
In terms of tourism, Slow travellers avoid the cliché tourist souvenirs and prefer to support a small market with local products and handmade items, taste the local gastronomy and drinks, learn a traditional recipe, and discover the authenticity of the local culture.
The history of the Slow Living movement
The Slow living movement has its roots in the Slow Food movement, started in Italy in 1986, by the Italian journalist Carlo Petrini, and a group of activists.
When the first McDonald’s franchise was about to open at the heart of Rome, a diverse group of people protested, aiming at closing the restaurant and preserve Italy`s traditional cuisine.
Valentino, the famous Italian fashion designer, and a long list of Roman intellectuals, city employees, environmentalists, and local shop owners opposed the opening of the fast-food chain, and claimed the annihilation of the displeasing odors and sounds coming out of the restaurant.
McDonald’s franchise eventually opened but the global Slow Food movement was born, suggesting a new approach of eating based on quality and healthy food, environmentally friendly food production, and fair prices for consumers and producers.
In 1989 the Slow Food Manifesto was signed by Carlo Petrini and representatives of 15 countries.
Nowadays, The Slow food movement has a huge network worldwide and implements various projects and campaigns, promoting the Slow food philosophy.
“Being Slow means that you control the rhythms of your own life. You decide how fast you have to go in any context. If today I want to go fast, I go fast. If tomorrow I want to go slow, I go slow. What we are fighting for is the right to determine our own tempos.” Carlo Petrini
What is mass tourism?
Since the 1950s, mass tourism has developed the mainstream way of travelling.
The all-inclusive package vacations have been very popular and offer a huge range of options to travellers, from basic to extraordinary and luxurious holiday deals.
The widespread use of the airplane as a means of transport made the mass transfer in a short time accessible from everyone.
As low-cost airlines offer cheap flights affordable for the great majority of people, travelling by airplane is no more an elitist activity.
Mass or fast tourism encourages the traveller to ‘’consume’’ in a short time as many tourist attractions as possible, under a time limit, and thereby reverse the human needs for relaxation and leisure during their holiday travel.
The massiveness itself promotes the commercialization of localities, nature, and cultural traditions and operates on an unstainable basis with no respect to the traveller, and the natural and social environment.
The concept of ‘’package tourism’’, including transportation and accommodation arrangements gradually loses its charm and travellers become more independent and seek alternatives.
What is travel?
Travelling is the movement of people from one place to another as a way to restore their mental and physical balance and enjoy fresh exciting experiences.
Travelling is, without a doubt, the ultimate way to connect with a new culture, a location, new people, tradition, and nature.
A ‘’must do’’ task in the agenda of millions of people worldwide.
According to the WTO (1980), the Manila Declaration on World Tourism:
‘’The right to access to holidays and to freedom of travel and tourism, a natural consequence of the right to work, is recognized as an aspect of the fulfillment of the human being by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights..’’
A weekend getaway trip or business travel as a tourist in your own country, a journey to far-flung holiday destinations or a volunteer work far away from home; the meaning of moving and visiting new destinations, deep down is the same; travelling is an attractive way of creating new life experiences and life-changing opportunities.
Travel and tourism have direct effects on the social, cultural, economic, and environmental sectors of local societies and plays an important role in their development.
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