An immersion trip to bring you closer to a new language and culture... A tour of a big city... A visit to a remote beach town... The perfect trip means different things to different people. By demanding that your school prioritizes sustainable travel, you can protect the environment, preserve local cultures and ensure the future of many popular destinations.

What Is “Sustainable Tourism”?

Sustainable tourism -- from urban to rural to wilderness -- actively seeks to minimize its impact on the environment and local cultures while generating employment and income for host communities.

Make sure that your school supports sustainable travel -- for study abroad trips, alumni retreats, staff travel and more -- by requesting that it commits to using tour operators and hotels that are committed to operating responsibly. Ask your Campus Activities and Study Abroad offices to use SustainableTrip.org -- a comprehensive Web database of sustainable travel companies in Latin America and the Caribbean -- to find responsible tourism options.

What Is The Rainforest Alliance Doing?

We’re helping the tourism industry conserve the environment and contribute to the creation of sustainable livelihoods by:

• Educating and training thousands of businesses to adopt environmentally and socially responsible practices, and preparing their companies for independent certification. We lead workshops, and help businesses assess their current practices and develop a plan to improve their operations.
• Collaborating on the development of regional and global certification standards for sustainable tourism, and helping to launch the Tourism Sustainability Council -- an international organization that will set the benchmark for tourism certification programs worldwide.
• Creating demand for sustainable tourism by promoting green travel options at the local and international levels, and connecting consumers to sustainable tourism options through SustainableTrip.org.

What You Can Do

Ask your school to switch to Rainforest Alliance Verified™ sustainable trips! Spring break, alumni trips, study abroad and other travel can all be made green!

• Find out who’s in charge of organizing study abroad trips, alumni activities and other school-related travel.
• See if your school prioritizes sustainable travel options when planning outings.
• If not, use our Letter to the Administration to ask your school to commit to scaling up its work with sustainable travel businesses!
• Use the Frog on Campus petition to show your administration that students and faculty care about responsible tourism.
• Join the ‘Frog on Campus’ Facebook page and start following us on Twitter! Use both to spread the word about campus-sponsored sustainable travel!

The next time you plan any kind of trip:

• Choose a tourism business listed on SustainableTrip.org.
• Support local businesses -- such as restaurants, souvenir shops and transportation providers -- in the area that you are visiting.
• Respect local cultures and be mindful of your impact on the surrounding environment.

Learn more about our work in sustainable tourism.