Forum for Alternative TravellingAlternative Travelling helps you to see the world from a different perspective
The merger of nearly 150 travel providers set itself the goal to offer environmentally friendly holidays that all consider people all over the world. But the Forum also offers creative holiday concepts that you cannot find in the catalogues of the big travel groups – they are just different.
Five star plus, pool landscape, all inclusive, domestic German connecting flight? “We do not have that and will never offer it” says Rolf Pfeifer. The man is the speaker for “Alternative Travel”.  Or to put it more precisely, a cooperation of nearly 150 travel agents who offer socially and ecologically responsible holidays. Whereas Pfeifer, whose official title is “managing director of the Forum for Alternative Travel” is not too keen on using the word ecological. That reminds him and his companions too much of the basic democratic, fundamentalist fighting groups of the early green movement. That has become grown up long since. Finally, in times when CDU member Heiner Geissler joins the ecologically motivated anti globalisation group of “Attac”, ecology and fair trade do not have anything more to do with party politics, nor with right or left. That is why Rolf Pfeifer prefers to talk about sustainable tourism. But what is that? “Just different” Pfeifer answers. Whoever uses the catalogue of the club “travel pearls” will have to say: that’s right. What you find there in terms of ideas cannot be found in the big company groups.
 That virtually starts at one’s front door. If people have problems with “sugar” they can learn how to get to grips with glucose and cholesterol values without tablets and insulin during a “ diabetes II trip”. How Hans Lauber succeeded in doing so described by the medical journalist during a hiking trip to the ”Markgräfler Land” in the southwest of Germany. Together with his guests, Lauber visits an organic-dynamic market garden, tries out herbs and plants with sugar-balancing effects and tries a diabetic wine which is also a natural sugar reducer at a “Demeter” winery together with a diabetologist.
Had Prince Charles and his wife Camilla booked their holiday in the Swiss Alps with the Forum for Alternative Travel, the Brits would not have had to cancel his holiday. The organic farmer and successor to the throne was criticised heavily before when he flew with his 19-strong entourage first class to New York just to receive the award for his ecological commitment. That is just what the activists of the anti-flight traffic club ”Plane Stupid” were waiting for. They attacked the Prince by saying that someone who is really serious about environmental protection could have handled this with a video conference. He took the consequences, regretted what he had done and stayed at home instead of boarding the plane from London to Zürich.
With the Forum for Alternative Travel, the Prince could have paid a small sum to non-profit making Atmosfair GmbH. This company, which was founded by the Forum, offers a kind of barter trade: Atmosfair calculates how much CO2 is emitted during a flight into the atmosphere. In return, Atmosfair guarantees its customers that it will support institutions to an amount that is exactly calculated in each individual case to correspond to the value of CO2 that is saved in another place.
 atmosfair.jpg)
In plain language: dad Prince Charles taken his flight to Zürich he would have produced a CO2 emission of 460 kg according to the Atmosfair emission calculator (www.atmosfair.org). For that he would have bought a CO2 voucher for 10 euros per route (and more for Camilla) To compensate for the route from London to the Canary Islands, 39 euros would have been due. For the New York trip to the prize giving ceremony, Charles would have to calculate 70 euros per route. With that money from Royal funds, for example, a highly modern waste treatment plant at the University of Rio would have been financed. It saves 1,500t CO2 per year and in addition creates 50 workplaces. In India 18 professional kitchens are run on photovoltaic systems financed by the German company.
The Greens in the German Parliament and in most of the State Parliaments are cleverer than Charles. They handle emission trade through Atmosfair as the “climatic efficiency” of the compensation projects is checked more stringently there than at competitors’.
Parents who book a tour to Turkey with Karaburn Tours, also a member of the Forum, can also be sure that their trips are intelligent decisions and sustainable. Atmosfair charges 20 euros per head. For that, a mother and her family can board a plane to Dalaman with a good conscience. Having arrived there, the family will spend three nights in a tree house, nine in a beautiful family boarding house and will relax at the beach of the Olympos National Park. But not by lazing around. Parents and children will have to help environmental protectors to secure the nests of sea turtles.
Who has really itchy feet can stay with a Cuban family and feel the sand  between their toes. Northerners can distract on canoe tours in Scandinavia. Qisum, a specialist for enjoyable dancing and music holidays, takes guests along through the Paris jazz scene. Who wants to ride on a camel like animal called a “ger” with nomads through the desert of Mongolia can do so. In India you can combine a holiday on a house boat with Ayurveda wellness trip to inspire your body and mind. China can also be explored by bicycle. During an eco-training trip to South Africa the ranger will explain everything about buffalos, buffalo weavers or leopards and leopard tortoises. In Guatemala, there is a rain forest hike to a Maya village on the programme. There is a hiking trip on the Azores where the high pressure weather for Germany comes from.
Everything started in 1995  Forum speaker Pfeifer explained. A handful of holiday makers whose environmental consciousness and fairness had priority over profit-making interests got together. For 18 years, providers of alternative tourism have had their own exhibition in the form of the ”Travel Pavilion “ Next year they will present their tourism ideas at the “Neue Messe” in Stuttgart from 18-20 January. “We want to confront the customer with the country and not lock him in” Pfeifer says by way of explaining the idea behind the Forum. Nevertheless, a trip with one of the members is not cheap but good value for money. As the travel groups are never more than 20-strong, the Forum cannot be and does not to be a mass product. “Our customer is the middle class educated citizen “ says Pfeifer. Like nearly all supermarkets successfully offer organic food products, sustainable travel is also becoming more and more popular. Businesses offering sustainable tourism are increasing the number of regular customers they have annually by double digit figures. Once having travelled with us, an above average number become regular guests. That is what the image brochure says: “Alternative Travel is more than just visiting one place after the other. It involves the discovery of the great and small wonders of this world. And sometimes also a rediscovery of one’s inner self.”
www.forumandersreisen.de
|
