The consensus on the question I posted before seems to be that it's okay to encourage travel, but that we need to encourage traveling BETTER, whether that means encouraging choosing trains over planes, taking longer trips, seeing things in a different way, etc.
My question now is HOW? How do I as a content creator do that? I mean, just lecturing people about sustainability or whatever isn't going to help. I'd love some PRACTICAL ideas on how to encourage better travel.
So far I'm trying - not always succeeding - to avoid writing about the places that are very popular and instead focusing on lesser-traveled places. I'm avoiding big general listicles and instead trying to write about much narrower topics. As much as possible, I'm traveling by train or bus rather than plane and that'll come through when I write about a place. Any other suggestions?
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So inpired by the work Dani & Evan are doing which is documented on this interesting YouTube channel called "BENTON HOMESTEAD". Dani and Evan are a young American couple who moved to the beautiful island of Omishima in the middle of Japan- not far from the famous Shimanami-Kaido cycling route.
They came to Japan on a (new) startup visa program with a plan to renovate old houses into guest houses (decorated with many of the salvaged antiques found in the houses) and reuse abandoned farmland into bee farms, as well as fields to grow organic vegetables and peppers.
As well as beekeepers, artists and talented renovators they are also picklers and have started selling their honey, vegetables as well as starting to create pickles to sell. They document their projects so well on the channel and have helped many other people navigate the tricky paperwork to find nearby abandoned properties for them to move into as well.
If you are thinking of traveling to lesser known, off-the-beaten track destinations in Japan - the area where Dani and Evan are set up is a great area to explore and meet interesting local people, do some cycling along the beautiful coast, see great scenic views as well as visit interesting temples, shops and eateries.
Here's a video of the house when they initially purchased it.
I also had the chance to visit their guest house and do a walk through tour:
Very interesting conversation! Thanks for sharing.
thanks for watching and commenting Scott- glad you enjoyed it, Dani & Evan are doing great things!