What is good tourism? “Good Tourism” & “GT” Travel wrap March-April 2025

Wel­come to the March-April 2025 wrap of “Good Tour­ism” & “GT” Travel news, insights, and exper­i­ences shared by friends and Part­ners of The “Good Tour­ism” Blog. [You too can share.]

What is good tour­ism? Per­haps it is shar­ing a home-hos­ted meal with St Hel­eni­ans in Sandy Bay, St Helena … ‘a breath of fresh air’.

“Good Tour­ism” nev­er defines ‘good tour­ism’. Your cor­res­pond­ent would nev­er be so bold. The fact is that what’s good for one stake­hold­er may not be good for another. 

Travel & tour­ism is a com­plex industry, so it is a good idea to open one’s mind to per­spect­ives one may nev­er oth­er­wise encounter. 

This is the “Good Tour­ism” mis­sion. It’s “GT”. And go!

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

What does good tourism mean to you?

Have you ever wanted 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” »

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“Good Tourism” 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:

Tourism and solidarity with Ghana & the developing world: Can they go hand in hand?

Is tour­ism from the developed world com­pat­ible with the devel­op­ing world? Ceri Dingle believes so, and argues that if people could vis­it devel­op­ing places without pater­nal­ist­ic pity and pre­ju­dice they would help sup­port the sort of devel­op­ment and pro­gress loc­als want.

Ms Dingle writes this “Good Tour­ism” Insight about her edu­ca­tion char­ity WORLD­write and its exper­i­ences in Ghana at the invit­a­tion of Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions, a “GT” Insight Partner.

• Empathy vs pity
• The NGO para­dox in Ghana
• Tour­ism as a driver of change
• Chal­len­ging detract­ors, cham­pi­on­ing progress
• The prob­lem with ‘volun­tour­ism’
• Travel as a cata­lyst for broad­er perspectives
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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The problem with critical tourism studies

Is crit­ic­al tour­ism stud­ies los­ing its edge? Are CTS schol­ars shy­ing away from the polit­ics that are at the heart of crit­ic­al theory?

Prof Mary Mosta­fanezhad writes this “Good Tour­ism” Insight about crit­ic­al tour­ism stud­ies at the invit­a­tion of Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions, a “GT” Insight Partner.

• Not what you expect
• The ‘crit­ic­al turn’ in tour­ism studies
• Is crit­ic­al tour­ism stud­ies los­ing its edge?
• Polit­ics: The beat­ing heart of crit­ic­al tour­ism studies
  • The polit­ics of space and place 
  • The polit­ics of culture
  • The polit­ics of the environment
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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A force for good: What can global travel & tourism learn from social enterprises?

Can the loc­al com­munity-based busi­ness mod­els of tour­ism social enter­prises be rep­lic­ated at glob­al scale? Anishka Narula-Nielsen thinks so. It’s her first “Good Tour­ism” Insight. (You too can write a “GT” Insight.)

• The search for ‘good tourism’
• What makes tour­ism ‘good’? 
• What makes social enter­prises different?
• What I learned about tour­ism social enter­prises in Thailand
• What can the travel & tour­ism industry learn from social enterprises?
  • Keep money in loc­al hands
  • Move bey­ond ‘feel-good’ sustainability
  • Recog­nise that sus­tain­ab­il­ity is about people, too
• Scal­ing up: How can glob­al tour­ism do better?
• Final thought: The power of choice
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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AI and authenticity in tourism, hospitality: Why human stories still matter

With arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) and auto­ma­tion on the rise across many sec­tors of the glob­al eco­nomy, how can travel, tour­ism, and hos­pit­al­ity brands bene­fit while stay­ing true to them­selves and the exper­i­ences they offer? 

It’s Anishka Narula-Nielsen’s second “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too can share.]

• Dawn of the AI age
• What AI is great at and where it falls short
• What’s miss­ing? Human stories
• Social media is more than marketing
• Where AI and storytelling meet
• AI can’t replace authenticity
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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Considering sustainable tourism certification? What to do first and what to look for

Some­times the first step is the hard­est. This applies as much to the daunt­ing task of obtain­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion as any­thing else; espe­cially for micro and small busi­nesses that can­not afford to throw resources at a new depart­ment or employ­ee to man­age it. 

Kev­in Phun offers his advice in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too can share a “GT” Insight.]

• Do you need sus­tain­able tour­ism certification?
• Assemble a sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion team
• Sort through the sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion options …
  • Rel­ev­ance
  • Recog­ni­tion
  • Sup­port
  • Net­work
• … before you commit
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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St Helena got an airport: Where to now for one of Earth’s remotest places?

It’s not news, but it will be news to many. The remote island of St Helena and its tiny pop­u­la­tion got a USD 380 mil­lion air­port. But that was shortly before the glob­al COVID shutdowns. 

While St Helena Air­port (HLE) has yet to deliv­er on its tour­ism and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment poten­tial, Mar­cella Mit­tens and many oth­er ‘Saints’ remain hopeful. 

Ms Mit­tens writes this “Good Tour­ism” Insight at the invit­a­tion of Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions, a “GT” Insight Partner.

• St Helena: ‘a breath of fresh air’
• Far, far away … by sea or by air?
• Appre­hen­sion
• Hope
• Delay and disaster
• Where to from here? 
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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“GT” Insight Bites

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

Wishwashing tourism

With ‘gre­en­wash­ing’ and oth­er forms of empty rhet­or­ic and inef­fect­ive poli­cy­mak­ing allegedly rampant, is the travel & tour­ism industry, its stu­dents and con­sult­ants, engaged in ‘wish­wash­ing’: hop­ing motiv­a­tions and incent­ive struc­tures are bet­ter aligned to our wishes than what they are in the real world?

Yes? No? Some­times? Maybe? Offer examples.

Thanks to the 11 respond­ents — edu­cat­ors, exec­ut­ives, experts, and entre­pren­eurs  — who took the time to share their thoughts on the ques­tion. Their answers appear in the order received. 

And thanks to Anishka Narula-Nielsen for her “GT” Insight BiteX.

• ‘Sus­tain­ab­il­ity fatigue’: When wishes fail
  • Wolfgang Georg Arlt, exec­ut­ive lead­er, Nepal
• From wish to real-world alignment
  • K Michael Hay­wood, pub­lish­er, Canada
• Sus­tain­ab­il­ity starts in the classroom
  • Regina Raj, school vice prin­cip­al, Indonesia
• Sus­tain­ab­il­ity is a work in progress
  • Kriz­ia Clem­ente, product & account man­ager, Vietnam
• The think-do gap in sus­tain­able travel
  • Greg Richards (pro­fess­or) & Wendy Mor­rill (research lead), The Netherlands
• ‘Not only unfair but also dismissive’
  • Dorji Dhradhul, author, Bhutan
• For women: Is tour­ism a power­ful tool, or an unful­filled promise?
  • Sham­iso Nyajeka, col­lege head of depart­ment, Cambodia
• ‘Bridging the gap between vis­ion and reality’
  • Ivana Dam­njan­ović, edu­cat­or and entre­pren­eur, Serbia
• ‘Make smal­ler prom­ises that have big­ger loc­al impacts’
  • Nat­alie Van Ogtrop, sus­tain­ab­il­ity man­ager, Thailand
• ‘Stop view­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity as a performance’
  • Chris Kit­tish­in­nak­uppe, mar­ket­ing & sales lead, Thailand
• “GT” Insight BiteX (‘X’ is up to you)
• ‘The White Lotus’ effect: Thailand’s tour­ism boom or bust?
  • Anishka Narula-Nielsen, con­sult­ant and founder, UK
• What do you think? 
• Pre­vi­ous “GT” Insight Bites

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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” »

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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 recently in the “Good Tour­ism” network:

Apply now for EXO Foundation’s 2025 Sustainability Awards

The EXO Found­a­tion is proud to announce the 2025 Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Awards. Our goal is to recog­nise and cel­eb­rate organ­isa­tions and busi­nesses that are lead­ing the way in sus­tain­able tour­ism and envir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion in Asia.

Every pro­ject, no mat­ter its size, can con­trib­ute to a more sus­tain­able future for tour­ism. If you believe that your organ­isa­tion has the poten­tial to drive pos­it­ive change in the tour­ism industry, we invite you to apply for this year’s awards!

• How to participate
  • Plan­et
  • People
• Eli­gib­il­ity requirements
  • » Apply / nom­in­ate by June 15, 2025 «
• Bene­fits of participation
• About EXO Foundation

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Strong Earth Youth Summit launches Dodo Education 2 Action

The Strong Earth Youth Sum­mit (SEYS) 2025 took place April 29 dur­ing which SUNx Malta launched its Dodo Edu­ca­tion 2 Action programs:

• ‘No More Dodos’
• Dodo 4 Kids
• A ded­ic­ated ini­ti­at­ive sup­port­ing Ukraine.

The free online event high­lighted the need for a clean and green future for tour­ism and pro­filed Cli­mate Friendly Travel: Par­is 1.5, SDG-linked, and Nature Positive.

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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” Partnership places are strictly limited!

“GT” is a good part­ner. There is a “GT” Part­ner­ship pack­age for any organ­isa­tion — 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 Part­ner mes­sages, and the oppor­tun­ity to con­trib­ute news to the “GT” news­let­ter and to these ‘What is good tour­ism?’ wraps.

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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

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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 time … And when you travel, remember:

#KnowNotNo … 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

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Featured image (top of post)

What is good tour­ism? Per­haps it is shar­ing a home-hos­ted meal with St Hel­eni­ans in Sandy Bay, St Helena. Photo by Math­i­as Fal­cone, sup­plied by St Helena Tour­ism … ‘a breath of fresh air’.

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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.

Part­ner with “GT”.

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.

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