Tourism often destroys the places that it touches – just look at Venice and the cruise ships. It overwhelms. Five per cent of the planet gets 95 per cent of tourism, which is crazy. And on the other hand, so many beautiful villages and towns aren’t visited and are just withering away. Tourism should help local communities to thrive.

At 700,000 Heures we work with the Global Heritage Fund. It doesn’t just arrive and start refurbishing monuments. It works with the local communities, creating jobs and letting them lead. In Dali, in the Guizhou province in China, for example, it’s won prizes for the work it did. It helped preserve 30 historic structures and then helped to establish a textile cooperative that adapted the local women’s indigo dye cotton into clothing and homewares, which they sell. Tourists can now visit a textile centre in the main plaza.

We have a project called DAEM, which means “Permanent” in Persian. It’s a non-profit training programme that helps local people learn about hospitality, but also how to protect the environment. In Morocco, we are working with the Global Heritage Fund to refurbish an entire village. For every euro spent in the project, I give a euro to a village association and they can decide where that money is spent.

The future of travel isn’t touristic places, it’s authentic experiences with local people. And it is also about choosing to visit hotels that have visible programmes to help the local population, or finding ways to buy things from local artisans.

Freedom is the one word that comes to mind every time when I think of train travel. Not just in the sense that you can hop on and off at will, but also that you are free while you are onboard, too. You can look out the window, you can go and have some dinner, you can read, you can snooze or you can go and chat to people. I always chat.

Once in a dining car, my husband and I were seated opposite a couple of German Baptist Brethren with bonnets and braces. We broke bread and they said grace and we learnt all about their life. You don’t get experiences like that with other modes of transport.

The best trains, though, are in India. They are accessible to absolutely everyone, no matter what budget you’ve got. You can travel down in general class with a wooden flap bed or spend £1,000 a night and travel like a maharajah. You’ve got fantastic food that comes up and down the aisles and you get your bedding in brown paper bags with ironed sheets and a little pillow. It is like a mobile camping trip. You share chapattis, someone will start a game of cards, slide up and watch someone film over their shoulders. The real key to making the most of it is to engage with people. Always share a sleeper cabin. Don’t set yourself aside from it. Be part of it.

There are so many advantages to exploring your own country. First, carbon impact. Without the long flights, your carbon output is lower. Second, supporting local economies at home. I spent much of lockdown in New York. I rediscovered the place – the nature in the parks and waterways of the city, the range of different foods you could get delivered. And I visited the top tourist destinations and found that, at times, I was the only person there.

To get the most out of travelling around your own country, you need to plan. Social media is always a go-to reference for me. The people I enjoy following constantly share their experiences, provide inspiration and, often, easy-to-follow itineraries. I always check the hashtags and geotags of places I plan to visit to see what people have been sharing. During the pandemic we all turned to social media in a way we never have before, so there’s more exciting travel content to be discovered.

There is a chain in travel that starts with a booking and runs through flights, hotels, down to guides on the ground. You really want to make sure there is little leakage, so your money is always doing good.

We all want a trip with a positive impact. It doesn’t mean that it needs to be eco-lodges everywhere, but using a travel provider who has done their due diligence to make sure the chain has a positive impact on the environment and on local communities.

It’s about travelling in a different way. When we fly, we should aim for newer aircraft and direct routes with airlines that invest in renewables, such as Finnair and KLM.

We should also aim to stay in destinations for longer – we call this slow travel – rather than flying into a place and then leaving quickly and in a property that really advocates local employment.

Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland, Canada, is a really interesting example. When you go on the website, there is an economic nutrition label. It shows you exactly the split of where your money goes as a tourist. It’s fascinating. I think transparency is the future.