Green trends are becoming increasingly popular in every industry including travel.

Sustainable travel has become an important part of the overall eco-tourism trend, but it means you’ll need to do things a little bit differently the next time you head away on vacation.

Eco-friendly travelers are choosing new places to go, stay and are packing in sustainable ways.

Recent research has shown that most travelers are interested in eco-tourism. In fact, they plan to take a more sustainable trip in the near future. That said, despite the fact that green travel opportunities are becoming better and more available, many people don’t know exactly how to go about improving their travel sustainability.

Fortunately, while this may be a relatively new concept for most of us, it’s far less difficult than you might think. Travel sustainability is often a matter of making a few smart choices but enjoying the same overall vacation.

Use the following handy eco-tourism tips to help improve the sustainability of your next trip.

• Choose eco-conscious accommodations – Your accommodations impact a substantial portion of the overall impact of your trip. Look for a hotel, resort, inn, or rental that has a focus on green choices. Look for options that reduce their waste, choose eco-friendly products and toiletries and have green housekeeping practices, among others.
• Enjoy the natural environment – Choose destinations that have lots of gorgeous natural sites to see. Moreover, make sure that when you visit them, you know how to do so without leaving a big footprint behind. Use your eco-travel vacation to see mountains, oceans, jungles, and deserts in real life. Find out what they smell, sound and feel like and don’t leave anything behind. If you take a tour, make sure you’re taking an eco-conscious tour.
• Eat at farm to table restaurants – Focus on eating at restaurants that choose fresh and local ingredients. This helps to reduce the carbon footprint that would otherwise be made from shipping the ingredients from all over the world. It also increases the chances that you will try delicious, authentic local foods because you’ll be eating ingredients that are grown nearby.
• Go paperless – These days, virtually all parts of travel can be done on your phone. You can book accommodations, transportation and tickets on your phone, you can use your device as a tickets, boarding passes and other entry documentation. You can even use your phone as a map. Just make sure you have a portable phone charger with you so your device doesn’t run out of juice just when you need it most.