Transport

An important aspect to responsibility and sustainability is travel. Destinations, and individuals, often try to encourage people to visit using public transport rather than by car and travelling this way is also called ‘slow travel’. Using public transport is particularly important in touristed areas where public transport can make streets less busy and pedestrianisation more possible as well as achieving better air quality. Venice has pedestrianised a number of streets to ensure people are not fighting for space with cars. Public transport is generally a more environmentally friendly option than a car as many more people can be accommodated in one vehicle. Public transport can also persuade tourists to see more sights than they might have initially planned because travel to and from them is much easier. Some cities are even rewarding tourists who arrive by train or who travel via public transport such as Copenhagen through its ‘Copenpay’ scheme.

One example of this is Stagecoach, a UK bus and coach company, which runs two open top ‘Peak Sightseer’ services from May until early October around the Peak District National Park. This encourages people not only to visit the National Park itself but attractions around it such as Chatsworth (a historic house), old mines that are now open to the public and Bakewell – home of the famous English pudding. As part of its offer, Stagecoach has negotiated money off certain suppliers so anyone using the service can benefit from reduced prices in some local shops and cafes in the places it calls at.

Many cities now also have hop-on, hop-off bus services. Lima in Peru has a sightseeing bus that offers a nighttime trip so tourists can see the city lights. Bangkok has one too, the tickets for which can include a dinner cruise down the Chao Phraya River. Of course, in order to stop leakage, ideally local companies should be supported.

Train travel is also important. Since 2020 there has been a growth in night train services around Europe. Even in the UK, since 2025, the famous Caledonian Sleeper, which connects London to Scotland, now stops at Birmingham too. More than that, though, a number of countries are opening up high speed rail links in order to encourage tourists to visit places outside of their usual destinations as well as supporting local people accessing work or visiting family.

In June 2026 the United Arab Emirates started a new train service, which will eventually join up twelve cities across the Gulf States making it far easier to combine a beach holiday in Al Mirfa, Abu Dhabi with a golf holiday in Dubai. In the USA, AmeristarRail is also looking to upgrade current rail services on the East Coast with a high-speed service connecting New York to Washington DC in under an hour. It is planning on-train facilities for families with children and its top priced tickets may include luggage transfer services to and from the train to home/a hotel. Its aim is to make travel for business and pleasure easier, quicker and more affordable than having to use flights. Building rail networks take a lot of money and planning but they also make a positive difference to the environment, help tourists as well as locals and can reduce journey times significantly. For example, the train service in Laos between Luang Prabang and Vientiane (the capital city) takes from 1hr 45mins and costs from £19. The plane journey takes 51 minutes – not including check in time and potentially waiting for luggage at the other end – and costs from £52 and the bus journey takes around 8hrs and costs from £15.

But it is not just bus and rail that are important. Melbourne, Australia, which has the most tram tracks in the world, and has had trams since the 1880s, has just launched its ‘Next Generation’ trams (Jackson, 2026) to replace some of its older stock. Melbourne deliberately commissioned its new trams to be more accessible. Trams are free in the City Centre so it is very simple for tourists to travel around the sights and for residents to get to work. In fact, Melbourne advertises its ‘City Circle’ free tram route around Downtown Melbourne, which runs every twelve minutes. Its tourist office says; ‘No visit to Melbourne would be complete without experiencing a journey on board its most iconic mode of transport’. Trams, however, are also expensive to build. Fortunately for Melbourne, it never got rid of its trams the way other cities did (like Sydney or London) because of the growth of road travel.

Although it has high environmental impacts, it would be wrong not to mention developments in flying here too. Although trains are becoming popular and expanding, at the same time aeroplane use is increasing and scheduled to increase further as more people travel. Air travel releases a lot of greenhouse gas – it is not a sustainable mode of transport. To counteract this, United Airlines is attempting to reduce its fuel emissions 100% by 2050. It intends to do this by using more Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). It was the first airline to try SAF on a passenger aeroplane in 2021. There have long been concerns about alternative fuels, especially using plant oils, as growing crops for fuel might replace growing food. However, in United’s vision, SAF consists of ‘used cooking oil, household trash, or forest waste’ rather than anything grown directly. Availability of SAF, though, is currently extremely limited and, therefore, extremely expensive. If it could be scaled up, this would help significantly limit carbon emissions and may even have a positive impact on waste disposal. Boom, the company currently testing a new supersonic aeroplane, has said its model, Overture, will be carbon neutral run on SAF as do Spike Aerospace with their Spike S-512 Diplomat supersonic jet (although supersonic aeroplanes need more energy than ‘normal’ aeroplanes so it is not clear how energy efficient it will be).

Because design is such an important factor in fuel use, Airbus is working on wing technology with its ‘Wings of Tomorrow’ programme. JetZero, from Japan, is trialling an ‘all wing’ plane that can reduce fuel use by up to 50%. The UK is now investing heavily into hydrogen, which looks as if it will have fewer adverse environmental effects too.