Almost four years ago, Danish Simon Grimstrup, owner of the travel agency Trailtours, made a big decision. He would no longer fly and instead offer more climate-conscious travel with, among other things, trains.
He had just quit his job because he wanted to organize special trips abroad for runners, and his first trip to Vietnam was already planned and sold out. So he decided that the Vietnam trip would be his last time traveling on an airplane, and therefore he would also not arrange travel by plane to others either.
To JydskeVestkysten he explains, “I felt bad when I travelled on planes myself, and it just did not feel like a good idea that I should now make money on others doing it. I completed the journey to Vietnam and it was very strange because I knew it was my last. Everyone was happy, but I almost hated it every time something was posted on Facebook from that trip. I could have made a good business out of it, but the feeling in my gut won, which is the most important thing to go with,” Simon Grimstrup says.
He is an elite runner and has previously participated in races across large parts of the world. “I am a physics teacher and teacher of climate. I also feel bad when I start my little petrol car. I justified it to myself that it was not me who paid for the plane tickets which was ridiculous actually” he says.
Simon Grimstrup still travels, and although the pandemic put a damper on Trailtours ‘activities, he still arranges group runners’ trips. They just do not include planes, but by other more climate-conscious means of transport.
Although he dreams of one day traveling to Vietnam without the use of airplanes, it is nevertheless easier to stay within Europe’s borders if one has to travel by train. He has visited several places he had never been to before.
Simon Grimstrup understands well why many choose flights over trains because as a rule, airline tickets are much cheaper. But he still dreams that more people will start to travel climate-conscious so that we can reduce part of the massive C02 consumption that air travel constitutes.
