"See the world on $10 a day"

"Travel for free"

"How to eat for under $1 a day" 

Headlines like these are very alluring to many young travellers, eager to see the world and not prepared to let a lack of financial resources stop them in their mission. Millions of people head off each year to explore the world excited to see and experience all that they can while keeping one eye firmly on their finances.

I was speaking at a local business forum recently and brought up the topic of ethical travel. "How can travel be ethical?" I was asked. The argument went that every time we choose to explore another part of the world we are burning yet more carbon, both in our journey itself and in the consumption that is involved in every aspect of our trip. And what for? For us to get our kicks from seeing another place? Who is actually going to benefit from our wanderings? 

"Travel enables us to see and share our cultures with others" I said. I argued that by experiencing how others live, their beliefs, their ideologies and their customs, people can develop a greater tolerance for others, a great acceptance for those who are different to them. The lesson that we are all bound by a common humanity, a wish to be happy and a desire to do good to others. 

"Rubbish" was the sharp retort. Most people go to another country and look for their own comforts. Their own food, their own people, their own music. They just want to live a more exotic version of their own lives for a little while under a different sky. There's precious little exchange of culture going on here. 

"But think of the money" I retorted. When we travel we spend money in local hotels and guest houses. We eat at humble eateries and travel on rickety buses and boats. All of these dollars go into the local economy, and some of it filters through to help provide an income for the communities we visit. 

"Nonsense" was the answer I got back. Most young people pride themselves on how little their travels will cost. Those in motorhomes and caravans who bring everything wherever they go and leave having contributed little more than their human waste. Backpackers on the other hand often employ the most desperate measures to avoid spending money and then plead poverty to those around them, even when the pocket money they received as a teenager often far exceeds a teacher's salary in their host country. 

And here is where I turn to others for help in this argument. If we are travelling in extreme frugality, are we making as much of a positive difference as we can to those who we impact along the way? And if we compound this by sticking to our own comfort zones and hanging out only with other backpackers, how do we make sure that our travels have a meaning beyond the burning of yet more carbon?