Good news in travel & tourism December 2023 to January 2024

This ‘Good news in travel & tour­ism’ wraps up two months of “Good Tour­ism” & “GT” Travel news, insights, and experiences.

Share it as a fam­ily might share a feast with you near Mabala­cat, Philippines …

It’s “GT”. And go!

(Click/touch an item on the shar­ing menu to go straight to it. And don’t for­get to share.)

“Good Tourism” doesn’t judge. “GT” publishes.

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. 

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

The freedom to share

Just as “Good Tour­ism” nev­er defines ‘good tour­ism’, “GT” will nev­er judge any­one who would, in good faith, share their insights, ideas, expert­ise, exper­i­ence, and wis­dom. It’s part of “GT’s” mis­sion to offer a plat­form for truly diverse per­spect­ives and opinions: 

• From estab­lished lead­ers in aca­demia and industry to young people with the gump­tion to express themselves; 
• From elite glob­al organ­isa­tions to the most mod­est micro busi­nesses (like “GT”);
• From the world’s ‘WEIRD’ (west­ern, edu­cated, indus­tri­al­ised, rich, and demo­crat­ic) places to the ‘LDCs’ (least developed coun­tries) in the ‘Glob­al South’;
• (From those who adore acronyms and cat­egor­ies to those who des­pise them ;-))
• From the centre and from the mar­gins.

No, “GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” publishes.

Join the “GT” net­work. Con­tact “GT” »

Back to menu ^

“GT” Insights: Informed perspectives on tourism

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 most recent:

Oh, Canada: Reconciliation via Indigenous storytelling, dignity, and ‘dark tourism’

Can tour­ism — ‘dark tour­ism’ — and the storytelling that it facil­it­ates help Canada and Cana­dians recon­cile their past and look for­ward to a bright­er, more united future?

Kel­ley A McClinchey and Frédéric Dimanche explore these themes in this “GT” Insight.

• A rev­el­a­tion of truth
• A jour­ney towards reconciliation
• Storytelling and ‘dark tourism’
• Through dark­ness comes heal­ing and hope
• A 95th Call to Action
• What do you think? 
• About the authors

Back to menu ^

How to implement sustainable food systems in Southeast Asian hospitality

Nguyễn Thị Thu Thảo sum­mar­ises the case stud­ies shared and les­sons learned at a recent event about sus­tain­able food sys­tems organ­ised by the Asso­ci­ation of South­east Asi­an Social Enter­prises for Train­ing in Hos­pit­al­ity & Cater­ing (ASSET‑H&C), a “GT” Insight Partner.

• Where to start?
• Learn­ing is key to sus­tain­able food systems
• Respons­ible food pro­duc­tion for eco­nom­ic resilience
• Food waste management
• Aware­ness and involve­ment of stakeholders
• Train­ing the train­ers in food waste prevention
• What do you think? 
• About the author

Back to menu ^

A climate-conscious reading of ‘The New York Times’ ‘52 Places To Go in 2024’

Cli­mate action advoc­ate Herb Hiller offers a cli­mate-con­scious read­ing of The New York Times’ list of ‘52 Places to Go in 2024’. 

It is his second “Good Tour­ism” Insight.

“People love to travel but keep get­ting shoved around. We live in an epoch of cata­stroph­ic glob­al warm­ing, which fre­quently forces us to change our travel plans. (We haven’t yet reached mid-winter in the north­ern hemi­sphere, but [storms] are already divert­ing us from inten­ded destinations.)”

• ‘[G]obsmackingly bana­nas’ 
• Trav­el­lers don’t always mean what they say about cli­mate action
• Our trips can help us rebal­ance Earth’s prospects
• Missed pre­dic­tions
• New chal­lenge
• What do you think? 
• About the author

Back to menu ^

“GT” Insight Interviews

A “GT” Insight Inter­view is presen­ted in a simple Q&A format or is a sum­mary of an inter­view whose full tran­script is avail­able. The inter­view­er ensures that the interviewee’s con­sidered answers are faith­fully represented.

Prof Richard Butler on tourism’s challenges and academia’s inadequacies

As most travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers rush towards an uncer­tain future filled with very real chal­lenges, Richard But­ler wor­ries that aca­demia is los­ing itself down ideo­lo­gic­al alley­ways and crit­ic­al cul-de-sacs.

The cre­at­or of Butler’s Tour­ism Area Life Cycle (TALC) mod­el thinks it is import­ant for tour­ism research­ers and edu­cat­ors to check in with reality.

Prof But­ler par­ti­cip­ated in a Tourism’s Hori­zon Inter­view. For this “GT” Insight, Dav­id Jar­ratt sum­mar­ised the highlights.

• Who is Pro­fess­or Richard Butler? 
• The chal­lenges facing tour­ism and the inad­equa­cies of academia
• Academia’s wish­ful think­ing dur­ing COVID-19 …
• … and scape­goat­ing of ‘over­tour­ism’
• Over­tour­ism and the Tour­ism Area Life Cycle (TALC)
• Con­des­cen­sion in tour­ism discourse
• Aca­dem­ics need a real­ity check 
• What do you think? 
• About the author

Back to menu ^

Pablo Torres on revenue, volume, value, and the keys to success in tourism

Can travel & tour­ism des­tin­a­tions learn some­thing from rev­en­ue man­agers about max­im­ising value out of any giv­en volume?

Pablo Torres par­ti­cip­ated in a Tourism’s Hori­zon Inter­view. For this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Saverio Francesco Ber­to­lu­cci sum­mar­ised the highlights.

• Who is Pablo Torres?
• Learn. Travel. Dare!
• Trend­ing now: ‘Revenge travel’
• The lifeblood of hospitality 
• Volume vs value for destinations
• Pub­lic-private collaboration 
• What do you think? 
• About the author

Back to menu ^

Prof Michael Hall on inspirations, fears, and tourism studies’ legitimacy problem

There is much to fear about the future of travel, accord­ing to Michael Hall, includ­ing the risks that attend its growth, and the rise of intol­er­ance. He also wor­ries about a lack of “genu­ine debate”. 

Pro­fess­or Hall par­ti­cip­ated in a Tourism’s Hori­zon Inter­view. For this “GT” Insight, Jim Butcher sum­mar­ised the highlights.

• Who is Pro­fess­or Michael Hall?
• Inspir­a­tions
• Doubts about tour­ism studies
• ‘Car­ry­ing capa­city’ more use­ful than ‘over­tour­ism’
• Much to fear
• What do you think? 
• About the author

Back to menu ^

“GT” Insight Bites

A “GT” Insight Bites post is either a col­lec­tion of short opin­ion pieces that travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers are wel­come to sub­mit at any time, or a com­pil­a­tion of short responses to an identic­al set of pro­pos­i­tions and/or ques­tions. Here are the most recent “GT” Insight Bites:

What are tourism’s biggest challenges & threats over the next five years?

Over the next five years, what is the single biggest chal­lenge or threat facing tour­ism where you work, or that you have iden­ti­fied through your research and study? 

And what are the key strategies that your organ­isa­tion, des­tin­a­tion, or the industry at large should employ to over­come it?

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites question.

Towards the end of 2023, your cor­res­pond­ent put the ques­tion to a range of travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers in the “GT” net­work, invit­ing writ­ten responses of no more than 300 words. 

Thanks to the 13 respond­ents who shared their thoughts. Their answers appear in the order received. (Click/touch an item on the Bites menu to go straight to it.)

• Cli­mate complacency
  • Geof­frey Lipman
• In Rwanda: Eco­nom­ic, envir­on­ment­al, and region­al instability
  • Greg Bak­un­zi
• In Hain­an, China: The loss of a ‘flag­ship species’
  • Yana Wen­gel
• Anoth­er glob­al pandemic
  • Steve Noakes
• In New Hamp­shire, USA: Work­force shortages
  • Jada Lind­blom
• In Bar­celona, Spain: Capa­city management
  • Saverio Francesco Bertolucci
• Cli­mate transformations
  • Kev­in Phun
• Cli­mate adaptations
  • Duncan M Simpson
• For­get­table experiences
  • Ed Jack­iewicz
• In Bhutan: Main­tain­ing Gross Nation­al Happiness
  • Dorji Dhradhul
• Travel & tour­ism access for all
  • Neha Arora
• Adapt­ing to uncertainty
  • K Michael Haywood
• Cli­mate action is on us
  • Herb Hiller

Back to menu ^

In 2024, what are the best opportunities for tourism over the next five years?

Over the next five years, what is the best oppor­tun­ity for travel & tour­ism where you work, or that you have iden­ti­fied through your research and study?

And what are the key strategies that your organ­isa­tion, des­tin­a­tion, or the industry at large should employ to take advant­age of that opportunity?

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites question.

Your cor­res­pond­ent put the ques­tion to a range of travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers in the “GT” net­work, invit­ing emailed writ­ten responses of no more than 300 words. 

Thanks to the 13 respond­ents who shared their thoughts on the ques­tion. Their answers appear in the order received. 

Included in this “GT” Insight Bites com­pil­a­tion are four “GT” Insight Bite_X con­tri­bu­tions. Bite_X (where ‘X’ is up to you) is an oppor­tun­ity for any travel & tour­ism stake­hold­er to dis­cuss any­thing they want (with­in reas­on) with­in the strict 300-word limit.

(Click/touch an item on the Bites menu to go straight to it.)

• In Rwanda: The Great­er Vir­unga Trans­bound­ary Collaboration
  • Greg Bak­un­zi
• Tech­no­logy … with care
  • Saverio Francesco Bertolucci
• ‘Strong ambi­tion’ cli­mate action
  • Geof­frey Lipman
• ‘Bal­anced tour­ism’ and social enterprises
  • Jens Thraen­hart
• Oppor­tun­it­ies for the most adaptive
  • Wolfgang Georg Arlt
• Lead­er­ship activated
  • K Michael Haywood
• In Rwanda: ‘Sig­ni­fic­ant strides’ in tour­ism development 
  • Rwaka Mab­rise
• In Asia and the Pacific: What can PATA do?
  • Peter Semone
• Sus­tain­ab­il­ity niches
  • Ed Jack­iewicz
• In Rwanda: Favour­able conditions
  • Roger Irakoze
• In Kenya: Demand for sus­tain­able, respons­ible tourism
  • Edwin Magio
• A grow­ing interest in tack­ling food waste
  • Rubina Srikur­eja
• More act­ive and involved communities
  • Jona­thon Day
• “GT” Insight BiteX (‘X’ is up to you)
• BiteX: Pune’s pol­lu­tion problems
  • Sandip Saheb­rao Tapkir
• BiteX: ‘You can­not beat cli­m­age change, but …’
  • Wolfgang Georg Arlt
• BiteX: What do lead­ers have in common?
  • K Michael Haywood
• BiteX: ‘Cli­mate change blanches greenwashing’
  • Herb Hiller

Back to menu ^

“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.

Share a “GT” Travel Experience or “GT” Travel Postcard

Are you a ‘tour­ism insider’ keen to share some of the exper­i­ences that got you inter­ested and keep you inter­ested in the travel & tour­ism industry?

Have you ever wanted to write a travel blog about an inspir­ing travel exper­i­ence … and have it published?

You are invited to share your travel pas­sion with dis­cern­ing trav­el­lers, and join a list of oth­er dis­tin­guished “GT” Friends who have done just that.

It could be a “GT” Travel Exper­i­ence (500 – 1,000 words) or a “GT” Travel Post­card (your favour­ite photo from a trip accom­pan­ied by an exten­ded cap­tion of up to 300 words).

It doesn’t mat­ter if you think you can’t write. I will per­son­ally copy-edit your draft and ensure that you are happy with it before I hit the ‘pub­lish’ button.

It’s all part of the “GT” Travel Exper­i­ence.

Join the “GT” net­work. Con­tact “GT” »

Back to menu ^

Good news from friends

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

Tourism & the climate crisis: New TPCC Horizon Papers on the implications of ‘Doughnut Economics’ & aviation’s inadequate climate change policies

Fol­low­ing its recent Tour­ism and Cli­mate Change Stock­take 2023 in Decem­ber, the Tour­ism Pan­el on Cli­mate Change (TPCC) has pub­lished two new ‘Hori­zon Papers’.

The TPCC Exec­ut­ive Board issued the fol­low­ing statement:

“Our recent Stock­take of the tour­ism sec­tor, by more than 60 lead­ing tour­ism and cli­mate aca­dem­ic and industry experts, made it clear that we are not going far enough, and not going fast enough, to ful­fil our share of the Par­is 2030 and 2050 Glob­al Cli­mate Tar­gets.

“Our TPCC Hori­zon Papers are lead­ing-edge ‘think pieces’ to stim­u­late crit­ic­al action. They are com­mis­sioned from recog­nised experts in the field and are peer-reviewed. 

“We will pro­duce these routinely between our annu­al major sci­ence-based reports on the inter­ac­tion of tour­ism and the cli­mate crisis.”

• TPCC’s latest Hori­zon Papers
  • ‘Tour­ism in a Finite Cli­mate-Chal­lenged World’ by Pro­fess­or Har­old Goodwin
  • ‘Cli­mate Change Mit­ig­a­tion Policy of Inter­na­tion­al Avi­ation – a Crit­ic­al Assess­ment’ by Chris Lyle
• TPCC’s earli­er Hori­zon Papers
  • ‘Sus­tain­able Tourism’s Achilles’ Heel: Avi­ation Emis­sions’ by Chris Lyle
  • ‘The Imper­at­ive for Advan­cing Cli­mate Risk Assess­ment in Tour­ism’ by Risk­lay­er GmbH
• About the Tour­ism Pan­el on Cli­mate Change

Back to menu ^

Revealed for COP 28: Global tourism’s first climate change stocktake report

The first Tour­ism and Cli­mate Change Stock­take report has been released by the Tour­ism Pan­el on Cli­mate Change (TPCC) con­cur­rent with the UN COP 28 Cli­mate Conference. 

[Down­load the Stock­take.]

Its 24 key find­ings aim to sup­port policy makers and the tour­ism industry to accel­er­ate plan­ning and invest­ment toward low car­bon and cli­mate resi­li­ent glob­al tourism.

The report finds that many coun­tries sup­port tour­ism because of its integ­ral role in con­trib­ut­ing to eco­nom­ic development. 

There is lim­ited evid­ence that tour­ism growth has been decoupled from increases in green­house gas emis­sions. Tour­ism now con­trib­utes dir­ectly and indir­ectly about 8 – 10% of glob­al emis­sions … full story.

Back to menu ^

Enhancing equitable climate adaptation strategies through responsible tourism

Kev­in Phun of the Centre for Respons­ible Tour­ism Singa­pore hosts the Respons­ible Tour­ism pod­cast, which explores the many dimen­sions of respons­ible tourism. 

In line with Ep #44: Respons­ible tour­ism, cli­mate adapt­a­tion, and cli­mate justice, Mr Phun sum­mar­ises his thoughts about the chal­lenges and oppor­tun­it­ies for tour­ism around equit­able cli­mate adapt­a­tion.

• Increas­ingly crucial
• Equit­able cli­mate adapt­a­tion for equit­able outcomes
• Social, eco­nom­ic, and polit­ic­al dimensions
• Com­munit­ies need support
  • Ref­er­ences
• About the author
• Enrich your employ­ees with the CRTS experience

Back to menu ^

CABI Tourism Cases: Animals and tourism

CABI Tour­ism Cases, a “Good Tour­ism” Part­ner, pub­lishes peer-reviewed case stud­ies on travel & tourism’s inter­ac­tions with the world from just about every angle … includ­ing (non-human) anim­als and tourism. 

This is the first in a new series of posts in which CABI shares brief sum­mar­ies of its most recent tour­ism-related case stud­ies and books along vari­ous themes. 

• CABI Tour­ism Cases on anim­als and tour­ism from 2023
  • Bio­lu­min­es­cent insects in the USA
  • Land-use con­flicts in Tanzania
  • Bird watch­ing in Mexico
  • Anim­al res­cue tour­ism in India 
• CABI Tour­ism Cases on anim­als and tour­ism from 2022
  • Com­munity con­ser­va­tion in Mozambique
  • Red panda fantas­ies in China
  • Cli­mate change and biod­iversity in Botswana
• Recent CABI books on anim­als and tourism
  • Ele­phant tour­ism in Asia and Africa
  • A post-human­ist reflection
• About CABI Tour­ism Cases

Back to menu ^

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 good part­ners.

“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 to con­trib­ute news to the “GT” news­let­ter and to these ‘good news’ wraps of a month or two of “GT” content.

Back to menu ^

Your comments

If there are com­ments on any “GT” post, you will find them below the main con­tent of that post. You need to be signed in first. 

The “GT” Blog requires regis­tra­tion and sign in to make com­ment, read com­ments, and reply to com­ments. Why? Because “GT” is a ‘safe space’ for diverse per­spect­ives and respect­ful, friendly debate. 

You will NOT be banned for your off-the-wall opin­ions or your weird sense of humour (with­in reas­on; even if the capri­cious algorithms of our big tech over­lords pun­ish the publisher). 

How­ever, you WILL be banned for enga­ging in argu­mentum ad hom­inem. If you dis­agree with some­thing, always tackle the argu­ment not the indi­vidu­al mak­ing it.

Join the “Good Tour­ism” community 

Back to menu ^

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 time … 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

Back to menu ^

Featured image (top of post)

Share ‘Good news in travel & tour­ism Decem­ber 2023 to Janu­ary 2024’ as a fam­ily might share a feast with you near Mabala­cat, Phil­ip­pines. Photo by Avel Chuk­lan­ov (CC0) via Unsplash.

Back to menu ^

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.

Part­ner with “GT”. You know you want to.

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 “avoid sales pitches”) or it was a simple oversight.

Back to menu ^