Chile and Costa Rica top the ethical travel tables

Chile and Costa Rica top the 2008 top ten ethical destinations list.

The list was published recently by The Ethical Traveller and fully half of them are in Latin America: Chile, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Argentina and Bolivia. Peru and Ecuador also received honourable mentions.

Basically the idea is that as tourists, we are participating in the largest industry in the world and can make a difference to societies we choose to visit.

Here is how the authors (Jeff Greenwald and Christy Hoover) put it: “Many developing countries, in their efforts to woo travelers, are making noble attempts to preserve their natural assets, create a user-friendly infrastructure, and build an economy where their citizens share the benefits of tourist revenue. By bringing our commerce to such places we encourage their efforts, and inspire neighboring countries to support these values as well.”

I must say that these types of report often elicit a somewhat cynical response from me but the more I have looked at it, the more impressed I have been with the type of criteria they have employed.

We are particularly pleased to see that Chile and Costa Rica in particular received top marks in Human Rights and Social Welfare with Costa Rica getting top marks for environmental practice too.

The full list (alphabetically) is:

Argentina
Bolivia
Bulgaria
Chile
Costa Rica
Croatia
Estonia*
Namibia
Nicaragua
South Africa

You can read the full report on The Ethical Traveller website.