Page 41 - Mirvac Residential Magazine_Issue_15

“Putting nature at the centre of our travels

is another way to lessen our environmental

impact on the places we visit, and decelerate

our sense of time while we’re at it.”

NINA KARNIKOWSKI
Author

Left: Sal Salis, Western Australia
Above: Sky pods, Great Ocean Road, Victoria
Below: Gibb River Road, The Kimberley, Western Australia. Photo courtesy Australia’s North West / C&J Maddock

Slow travel, and spending more Smaller actions also play a big Perhaps the most important
time in the places we visit, also role in encouraging a slower and thing to remember is what the
equates to less ‘leakage’, a term the more conscious travel mindset. great travel writer Pico Iyer calls
travel industry uses to describe Packing a journal, for example, the first great principle of travel:
how travellers’ dollars leak out of helps us become more engaged “Everywhere is transporting, if
host countries and into the pockets with the places we visit, helping only you can see it in the right
of multinational corporations. our minds hone in on all the details light.” Maybe what we need most
According to the UN’s World that make them unique, while of all, then, is to shift what we view
Tourism Organisation, just 5 per helping us figure out what places as exciting and interesting, and to
cent of money spent by tourists mean to us. Taking fewer but better remember that with the right set of
actually stays in the communities quality photographs, opting for real eyes we can find what we seek most
they visit. One of the best ways to cameras over iPhones and making from travel – a chance to grow,
plug these leaks is to support small, sure we’re travelling for more gain perspective and engage with
locally owned businesses, putting than just our Instagram feeds, is something larger than ourselves –
money directly into the hands of another way to help us slow down right here at home.
locals. Prioritising, for instance, and carefully observe landscapes
small local eateries and hotels or or communities, enriching
homestays, native guides and tour our memories because of the
operators, and hand-crafted goods concentration we’re putting into Nina Karnikowski is the author
that support indigenous artisans. the moment. of Go Lightly, How to Travel
Without Hurting the Planet.
The more time we spend in
destinations, the easier this is to do.

38 ISSUE 15 SUMMER 2022 The Right Place by Mirvac The Right Place by Mirvac ISSUE 15 SUMMER 2022 39