Good news in travel & tourism June 2022

“Good news in travel & tour­ism” wraps up a month of “Good Tour­ism” & “GT” Travel news, insights, and experiences.

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• “Good Tour­ism” Insights
• “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites
  Dis­per­sion | Degrowth
• Good news from friends
  Glob­al | Africa | Asia
• Friends indeed

“GT” Insights: Informed perspectives on the industry

The “Good Tour­ism” Blog pub­lishes informed opin­ions on the issues facing the travel & tour­ism industry, everyone’s busi­ness. “GT” Insights are diverse per­spect­ives writ­ten by, for, and about our sec­tor. Here are the latest:

Persuasion, packaging, or pathways: Which works as a visitor dispersion strategy?

As evid­enced by the first “GT” Insight Bites, there are dif­fer­ent ways of look­ing at and try­ing to achieve ‘vis­it­or dis­per­sion’. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Dav­id Ward-Per­kins offers a brief his­tory of vis­it­or dis­per­sion, sum­mar­ises three com­mon dis­per­sion strategies, and picks out the one that he thinks is most effect­ive: “Per­sua­sion, pack­aging, or path­ways: Which works as a vis­it­or dis­per­sion strategy?”

Ourselves, others, nature: The three relationships in regenerative tourism

At a women’s retreat, Sonia Ter­uel would like par­ti­cipants to “rein­force [their] fem­in­ine essence, and to flow with life and the nat­ur­al cycles” so as to more effect­ively work on the three rela­tion­ships of regen­er­a­tion (and regen­er­at­ive tour­ism). In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Ms Ter­uel describes the three rela­tion­ships: “Ourselves, oth­ers, nature: The three rela­tion­ships in regen­er­at­ive tourism”

Revitalise: Empowering inspired hospitality

Hos­pit­al­ity needs to be revered and revital­ised if travel & tour­ism is to become a con­struct­ive and trans­form­at­ive force for good, accord­ing to K Michael Hay­wood in his sev­enth “Good Tour­ism” Insight: “Revital­ise: Empower­ing inspired hospitality”

No invitation required: Hedonic sustainability & meaningful tourism

What is ‘hedon­ic sus­tain­ab­il­ity’ and ‘mean­ing­ful tour­ism’? Wolfgang Georg Arlt intro­duces and describes the terms in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, which is a response to a “GT” Insight by his friend Thomas Bauer: “No invit­a­tion required: Hedon­ic sus­tain­ab­il­ity & mean­ing­ful tourism”

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“GT” Insight Bites: Diverse perspectives on important topics

A “GT” Insight Bites post is a col­lec­tion of short writ­ten responses to an identic­al set of pro­pos­i­tions and/or ques­tions that The “Good Tour­ism” Blog puts to a diverse range of travel & tour­ism stakeholders.

“GT” Insight Bites: Diverse perspectives on visitor dispersion

An oft-cited anti­dote to over­tour­ism, and a means to spread the bene­fits of tour­ism more widely, is ‘vis­it­or dis­per­sion’. What are the biggest chal­lenges to encour­aging and incentiv­ising tour­ists to explore more of a des­tin­a­tion? Who or what do you think could con­trib­ute most to effect­ive vis­it­or dis­per­sion? What can an organ­isa­tion like yours do to encour­age and incentiv­ise dis­per­sion? ‘“GT” Insight Bites: Diverse per­spect­ives on vis­it­or dispersion’

“GT” Insight Bites: Diverse perspectives on economic degrowth and tourism

Tour­ism in the post-pan­dem­ic ‘new nor­mal’ should be informed by eco­nom­ic degrowth, say some tour­ism aca­dem­ics and industry com­ment­at­ors who believe we can and should con­sume — and travel — less. If you are an aca­dem­ic or com­ment­at­or, how would you sum­mar­ise your views on degrowth for a gen­er­al industry audi­ence? If you are a travel & tour­ism prac­ti­tion­er, what might degrowth mean for your organ­isa­tion and the source mar­kets and des­tin­a­tions in which you oper­ate? ‘“GT” Insight Bites: Diverse per­spect­ives on eco­nom­ic degrowth and tourism’

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“Good Tourism” is where free thought travels

Did you ever want to write a thought­ful piece about the state of the tour­ism industry; how we got here; how we can make it bet­ter (or avoid the worst)?

Has a lack of con­fid­ence in your writ­ing held you back? Well, please don’t let it. 

Your cor­res­pond­ent is here to help you pub­lish your “GT” Insight, just as I’ve helped pro­fess­ors trans­late their Aca­damese into plain Eng­lish; just as I’ve helped those for whom Eng­lish is their second (or more) language. 

If you sub­mit a draft that com­plies with the simple “GT” Insight guidelines, I will per­son­ally copy edit your work and ensure you are happy with it before I click “Pub­lish”.

It’s part of “GT’s” mis­sion to offer a plat­form for truly diverse perspectives.

“GT” Travel Experiences: Informed inspiration for travellers

The “Good Tour­ism” Blog’s young sib­ling The “GT” Travel Blog pub­lishes informed inspir­a­tion and top tips for trav­el­lers from tour­ism insiders. There will be fresh “GT” Travel Exper­i­ences com­ing soon.

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Good news from friends

Good news in travel & tour­ism from the won­der­ful organ­isa­tions that make “GT” pos­sible. Here is some of what happened this month in the “Good Tour­ism” network:

Global good news from friends

Back to the future: A sustainability plan for our kids

On the 50th Anniversary of the Stock­holm Earth Sum­mit, and the 30th Anniversary of the Rio Earth Sum­mit — both of which were led by Maurice Strong, the inspir­a­tion for SUN^x Malta (Strong Uni­ver­sal Net­work) — Geof­frey Lip­man gave a key­note at a Stock­holm event reflect­ing on “the dom­in­ant role Maurice played in cre­at­ing today’s United Nations-led cli­mate and envir­on­ment agenda”. Read the tran­script at “Back to the future: A sus­tain­ab­il­ity plan for our kids”.

Enrich yourself and your people with no-nonsense responsible tourism courses

“Buzzwords abound in travel & tour­ism. Singapore’s respons­ible tour­ism pion­eer, Kev­in Phun, excels in unbox­ing the premises and prac­tic­al­it­ies bundled with­in buzzwords … and in demon­strat­ing how they are rel­ev­ant. He has to be good at that in Singa­pore, a pros­per­ous city state whose inbound tour­ism stake­hold­ers might be for­giv­en for think­ing they don’t have to con­sider such things as ‘eco­tour­ism’ or ‘pro-poor tour­ism’.” Read on in “Enrich your­self and your people with no-non­sense respons­ible tour­ism courses”.

New CABI Tour­ism Cases
New CABI Tour­ism Cases: “Com­batting cli­mate change, sup­port­ing biod­iversity con­ser­va­tion and bene­fit­ting loc­al people” (Bot­swana); “Becom­ing Vin­cent: Using the ‘hero’s jour­ney’ to con­nect and design (digit­al) tour­ist exper­i­ences along Vin­cent van Gogh’s her­it­age loc­a­tions” (the Neth­er­lands); “Out­sourcing Man­age­ment to the Private Sec­tor, Com­munity-Based Tour­ism in Mozam­bi­que” (Mozam­bi­que); and “Robot­ics Pro­gram­ming Kids for Leis­ure” (Aus­tralia)

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Good news from friends in Africa

10th Red Rocks Cul­tur­al Fest­iv­al in less than two months
The 10th Red Rocks Cul­tur­al Fest­iv­al is com­ing up on August 26 to Septem­ber 2. The theme for this year is “Con­ser­va­tion and Cul­tur­al Sus­tain­ab­il­ity”. The final day of the Fest­iv­al coin­cides with Rwanda’s annu­al Kwita Izina Gor­illa Nam­ing Cere­mony, dur­ing which new­born gor­il­las are giv­en names by con­ser­va­tion­ists. The day cul­min­ates in the Crazy Night of the Gor­il­las, which is a party for all to enjoy.

WTACH signs MOU to help Afric­an women in travel & hos­pit­al­ity
The World Tour­ism Asso­ci­ation for Cul­ture and Her­it­age (WTACH) and the Afric­an Asso­ci­ation of Women in Tour­ism and Hos­pit­al­ity (AAWTH) will col­lab­or­ate to advance the careers of Afric­an women in the travel & hos­pit­al­ity sec­tor in Africa. They signed a memor­andum of under­stand­ing on June 10.

Red Rocks starts pro­ject to man­age waste products
Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment has ini­ti­ated a pro­ject to teach com­munit­ies liv­ing around Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park on how waste can be treated as a resource to be put to pro­duct­ive use; how agri­cul­tur­al waste can be used to pro­duce bio­gas as well as com­pos­ted to fer­til­ise crops.

How botan­ic­al gar­dens help the envir­on­ment around Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park
Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment reck­ons that the botan­ic­al gar­dens it estab­lished near Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park, Rwanda, “has played a great role not only as a resource for the study and cul­tiv­a­tion of plants with heal­ing prop­er­ties [but also] in the mit­ig­a­tion of the effects of cli­mate change”.

How artists help the envir­on­ment around Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park
Through its Red Rocks Art Gal­lery, Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment con­tin­ues to sup­port tal­en­ted young Rwandan artists so that they can “gain from their tal­ents, and be agents to spread con­ser­va­tion mes­sages around the Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Parks and the globe”.

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Good news from friends in Asia

Khiri Travel Sri Lanka reaps rewards for designing sustainable experiences

Dur­ing COVID lock­downs, Khiri Travel Sri Lanka “anti­cip­ated increas­ing demand for more sus­tain­able and off-the-beaten-track exper­i­ences and geared up for it by design­ing a range of exper­i­ences focused on hav­ing a pos­it­ive impact on the envir­on­ment as well as loc­al com­munit­ies”. The pro­grammes became “instant best-sellers”. Read all about it in “Khiri Travel Sri Lanka reaps rewards for design­ing sus­tain­able exper­i­ences”.

Bali is back, and so is the rest of wild Indonesia

Khiri Travel is delighted with the quick return of travel to beau­ti­ful Indone­sia. “We are extremely happy to see our befriended guides and drivers in Bali work­ing again. Equally, we are proud to pro­mote the more far-flung islands of the archipelago, as we have always done. On our home-island of Lom­bok, our office has been open through­out most of the pan­dem­ic.” Read the full story at “Bali is back, and so is the rest of wild Indone­sia”.

All aboard! High-speed train offers compelling new way to travel through Laos

“The romance of train travel is alive and well in Laos. The recently-com­pleted high-speed rail­way that stretches from Vien­tiane, through Laos, and into south­ern China is oper­at­ing ‘full steam’ ahead. This excit­ing jour­ney takes you through remote vil­lages and into the heart of rur­al Laos, offer­ing up close and per­son­al views of the Laos of today …” Con­tin­ue read­ing in “All aboard! High-speed train offers com­pel­ling new way to travel through Laos”.

Khiri Travel is hir­ing again
Khiri Travel is/was look­ing to hire a gen­er­al man­ager in Viet­nam and an assign­ment man­ager in Thai­l­and. Khiri says it will add more pos­i­tions in the com­ing weeks across all of its destinations.

Every­where Khiri Travel oper­ates is open to trav­el­lers
“All the coun­tries in which Khiri Travel oper­ates are open [to] vac­cin­ated trav­el­lers. No test is needed for entry to Viet­nam, Indone­sia, Sri Lanka, the Mal­dives, Cam­bod­ia, Laos, and Thai­l­and. For the time being, only Myan­mar still needs trav­el­lers to take a test before depar­ture. Viet­nam is also open for unvac­cin­ated trav­el­lers under the same con­di­tions as vac­cin­ated trav­el­lers.” Full details.

How Kong Soung became a con­fid­ent, inde­pend­ent woman 
“I am becom­ing more con­fid­ent and pro­duct­ive, thanks to my awe­some teach­ers, school activ­it­ies, and the cam­pus envir­on­ment. I really love it!” So says Kong Soung, a stu­dent of École d’Hô­teller­ie et de Tour­isme Paul Dubrule, an ASSET H&C mem­ber in Siem Reap, Cam­bod­ia. “[I have also improved] my lead­er­ship, account­ab­il­ity, empower­ment, team­work, and independence.”

A gradu­ate of an ASSET H&C mem­ber loves her school
Sala Baï “took good care of me […] gave us food, lent us bicycles, took care of our health, organ­ised vari­ous activ­it­ies for us”, said Sreyn­gop May, a former stu­dent of Sala Baï Hotel & Res­taur­ant School, a mem­ber of ASSET‑H&C in Siem Reap, Cam­bod­ia. “We all felt warmly wel­comed and joy­ful.” Face­book.

Laos’ phe­nom­en­al cloud of bats
“As dusk falls over Laos, an end­less rib­bon-like cloud of bats pours out of a cliff­side cave at Pha Luang in Meuang Feuang. This nat­ur­al phe­nomen­on has yet to attract many tour­ists. Only a hand­ful of Lao bio­lo­gists …” Read more about the Pha Luang Bat Cave.

A real Lao accom­mod­a­tion exper­i­ence: We Are Lao
“While many big name resorts struggle to seam­lessly blend with nature, Ban Lao Meuang Feuang effort­lessly deliv­ers a real Lao accom­mod­a­tion exper­i­ence,” accord­ing to We Are Lao.

Sinxa­yaram Tem­ple’s ‘King­dom of Buddhism’ wel­comes tour­ists: We Are Lao 
Sinxa­yaram Temple presents the “King­dom of Buddhism” in Meuang Feuang. It has been attract­ing the faith­ful from around Laos and north­ern Thai­l­and for dec­ades, and is now wel­com­ing tourists.

Ang­namtong View opens lakeside resort: We Are Lao
Ang­namtong View Resort and Draft House Res­taur­ant, about 90 minutes from Vien­tiane, is lur­ing guests to its vil­las, float­ing pavil­ions, and water sports activ­it­ies on the Nam Tong Reservoir.

Khiri Pulse on the culin­ary delights of North­ern Thai­l­and
In EP5 of the Khiri Pulse pod­cast Tim Rus­sell chats to “Thai food legend and inter­na­tion­ally acclaimed food writer Kay Plun­kett-Hogge about the culin­ary delights of North­ern Thailand”. 

The importance of good partnerships

To help you nav­ig­ate dire straits, take the tem­per­at­ure in an uncer­tain cli­mate, and keep your head when all about you are los­ing theirs, it’s wise to seek out part­ners who make you their pri­or­ity.

“GT” is a good part­ner. Veri­fy that with a “GT” Part­ner and then look at part­ner­ship oppor­tun­it­ies. There’s a pack­age for every­one — big or small; pub­lic or private; com­mer­cial or not-for-profit — because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business. 

All “GT” Part­ners enjoy out­stand­ing value, includ­ing the oppor­tun­ity every week to con­trib­ute news to the “GT” news­let­ter and these monthly wraps.

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Friends indeed

“Friends indeed” are worthy travel & tour­ism industry fun­draisers and char­it­able causes that are asso­ci­ated with or sug­ges­ted by “GT” Part­ners and friends. Please help them if you can. Share the page with your net­works. And link to it from your website.

Stay healthy, smile, have a good month ahead … And when you travel, remember:

It’s not ‘no’. It’s ‘know’.

Gotta go? Then go!
If you’ve time, go slow
If you don’t, try low
Do what you know is good
And know there is more to know

Fea­tured image (top of post): Share ‘Good news in travel & tour­ism June 2022’ as you would a shabu hot­pot. By Cera (CC0) via Unsplash.

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Donations, diversity, disclosure

To help your cor­res­pond­ent keep his energy-effi­cient lights on, please con­sider a private one-off gift or ongo­ing dona­tion. THANK YOU to those who have! 

You are a tour­ism stake­hold­er — yes, YOU! — so what’s your view? Do you dis­agree with any­thing you have read on “GT”? Join the con­ver­sa­tion. Com­ment below or share your “Good Tour­ism” Insights. Diversity of thought is wel­come on The “Good Tour­ism” Blog. And your ori­gin­al con­tent sup­ports an inde­pend­ent publisher.

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Note: It is “GT’s” policy to fully dis­close Part­ner or sponsored con­tent. If an item asso­ci­ated with a “GT” Part­ner is not dis­closed as such, then it either met the “GT” Insight guidelines (includ­ing “not a sales pitch”) or it was a simple oversight.