Rise in vegan travel spots with cozy plant-based diet

Colleen Corbett, a bartender based in Florida, went vegan about four years ago. She thought she might starve or be forced to eat meat when travelling abroad. But soon she began exploring the burgeoning vegan destinations that have thrived globally. No worries for vegans like Ms Corbett while travelling abroad. Good news is vegan destinations are flourishing around the world with plant-based food regimens.
“It’s changed how I make my bucket list,” she said between trips to Peru in December and Dublin in March. “It used to be just scenic stuff. Now, I find myself adding cities I wouldn’t have had an interest in before, but have booming vegan scenes. I just added Warsaw.”
While vegans and vegetarians are minorities in the United States, a growing number of people are more interested in reducing their meat consumption, often for environmental reasons, as livestock operations significantly produce climate-disruptive methane gas.

The travel industry is countering with plant-centric hotels, restaurants, festivals and tours as veganism becomes increasingly associated with sustainable travel, and not just during what some people are calling Veganuary, an annual January campaign to highlight the plant-based diet in the month traditionally associated with good intentions.

“Collectively, we’re far more aware of the planetary impacts of food than we were even five years ago,” said Justin Francis, co-founder and CEO of Responsible Travel, a sustainability-focused tour operator, which has seen demand for its vegan trips quadruple in the past decade. “As more people switch to planet-friendly diets, travel is responding to that.”
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