The ethics around travelling to Socotra
I recently returned from an incredible trip to Socotra Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site owned by Yemen and situated in the Indian Ocean, just east of the Horn of Africa. Whilst my trip was beautiful, it left me with a lot of question marks around the ethics of travelling there so I tried to gather as much info as possible with the help of journalists, professors that specialise in the region, locals and individuals with family ties to the island.
Socotra Island is owned by Yemen, it is currently on Australia’s do not travel list meaning there is no consular assistance if anything goes wrong and no travel insurance. It also makes it difficult entering other countries, for example, you can’t enter the US on an ESTA if you’ve been to Yemen. Socotra operates almost independently to northern Yemen and has its own language and culture, as well as a strong separatist movement, you will only see Southern Yemen flags or UAE flags on the island. Despite acting like two countries, travelling here still comes with a lot of risk. My experience on the island was incredibly safe however there are a lot of external factors that make it high risk given its proximity to a lot of dangerous groups. For example, it’s advised not to post anything on social media until after you leave.
There are no commercial flights to the island, which is a chartered flight and can only be purchased via organised tour groups on the island. You can fly from Abu Dhabi or Cairo, although the option of flying from Abu Dhabi was the only one provided to me. In hindsight, I would’ve tried to fly via Cairo for reasons I’ll explain below.
The island is currently under control by the STC after it was seized by separatists. The UAE has exerted its control of the island through infrastructure and economic development, they’ve built roads, cellphone towers, schools and supports the army. Obviously nothing comes free and tourism legitimises the UAE’s occupation. Tourism was basically established by the UAE and a lot of profits flow back to the UAE, something I learnt on my visit. That’s a brief summary and I’m reluctant to provide more info given I transit through the UAE frequently.
You can only visit the island via an organised tour, majority are around $3.3k USD / $5.5k AUD including the $900 USD flight from Abu Dhabi. An expensive trip for a relatively inexpensive island so you can do the maths as to where the insane profit margins go. It was discovered on our trip that staff were paid max $100 USD for the week, equating to around $12.50 a day or 90 cents an hour (staff are awake when you wake up at 5am and go to bed after you). Majority of staff were paid merely half of that as they were lower on the totem pole. Tour groups can only be established by a local but a lot of foreign partners are from the US, Russia, Italy and the UAE. I went with Tour Socotra, 50% profits go offshore but I heard good experiences also about Welcome to Socotra, owned by Italians. Socotra Eco Tours is significantly cheaper and another option although I can’t speak to ownership on it.
It’s on UNESCO’s world heritage list due to its biodiversity and it’s considered the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean. I had the most incredible time, met some of the most amazing humans with a love of learning and understanding, the locals were so kind and hard working but there are a lot of question marks around how ethical it is to travel here. I have hope that once the requirement for organised tour groups gets removed, that it will create more equality in the tourism industry for locals. I would love to return as it’s one of the most unique places I’ve travelled to but after learning what I know now, I think I’ll have to wait until the locals can capture the full benefits of tourism.
If you do choose to travel there, do so safely and try choose a tour group that has transparency on ownership.
