What is good tourism? “Good Tourism” & “GT” Travel September-October 2025

Wel­come to the Septem­ber-Octo­ber 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?

The “Good Tour­ism” Blog 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.)

“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:

Is debate dead? Not if tourism students have a say

In the after­math of Charlie Kirk’s shock­ing and very pub­lic murder, mil­lions of fol­low­ers mourned (and con­tin­ue to mourn), a few extrem­ists cel­eb­rated (and con­tin­ue to cel­eb­rate), while many shrugged and poin­ted to why it was Mr Kirk’s fault. 

Still oth­ers, like Saverio Francesco Ber­to­lu­cci, worry about the state of debate in the West, where one’s sin­cerely-held opin­ions can lit­er­ally get one killed. 

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. (You too can write a “GT” Insight.)

• Debate is a source of success
• The state of debate at universities
• Alarm­ing trends
• Charlie Kirk
• No sur­pris­ing reac­tions, shockingly
• Tour­ism stu­dents are bet­ter than that
• Tour­ism aca­dem­ics, however …
• Con­flict is inev­it­able, but con­ten­tion is a choice
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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Can content creators promote peace through tourism in Israel and Palestine?

As the fra­gile first phase of a new peace deal com­mences in Gaza, Ahmed Abdel Fat­tah pon­ders the poten­tial for social media con­tent cre­at­ors to con­sol­id­ate con­nec­tions and pro­mote peace through tour­ism in Israel and Palestine.

Thanks to “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions for invit­ing Dr Abdel Fat­tah to write this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. (You can write one too.)

• A refresh­ing reminder
• The power of altern­at­ive media
• A glimpse into every­day life
• Fos­ter­ing con­nec­tions and peace through tourism
• A vis­ion for the future
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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Unveiling freedom: Muslim women tourists in the West

Travel is often about break­ing free. In this spir­it, accord­ing to Ahmed Abdel Fat­tah, West­ern des­tin­a­tions offer veiled Muslim women tour­ists a unique chance to explore who they are, chal­lenge the norms of their own soci­et­ies, and exper­i­ence a refresh­ing sense of freedom.

Thanks to “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions for invit­ing Dr Abdel Fat­tah to write this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. (You can write one too.)

• A world of free­dom and choice
• The power of anonym­ity to res­ist norms
• Linger­ing challenges
• Jour­neys of self-discovery
• Research note
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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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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“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:

What is ‘authenticity’ in travel & tourism?

‘Authen­ti­city’ is the ideal for many trav­el­lers, influ­en­cers, and com­ment­at­ors. But what is it? Can des­tin­a­tion mar­keters and tour­ism pro­fes­sion­als pack­age it and sell it … authentically? 

Thanks to Prof Valer­ia Minghetti and Dr Sham­iso Nyajeka for tak­ing the time to share their thoughts on the ques­tion. Their responses appear in the order received. 

And thanks to Dr Seye­deh Fate­meh Mosta­favi Shirazi for an insight into the chal­lenges of domest­ic over­tour­ism in north­ern Iran. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bite_X.

• Authen­ti­city comes from com­munity accept­ance and engagement
  • Valer­ia Minghetti, Chief Research Dir­ect­or at CISET, the Inter­na­tion­al Centre for Stud­ies on Tour­ism Eco­nom­ics, Uni­versità Ca’ Foscari, Italy
• At the heart of it all is the host community
  • Sham­iso Nyajeka, Dean of the School of Hos­pit­al­ity, PSE-Pour un Souri­re d’enfant, Cambodia
• “GT” Insight BiteX (‘X’ is up to you)
• Iran: The chal­lenges of domest­ic over­tour­ism in the north
  • S Fate­meh Mosta­favi Shirazi, vis­it­ing schol­ar, Iran
• What do you think? 

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Overtourism and overimmigration are the same?

‘Over­tour­ism’ and ‘over­im­mig­ra­tion’ are sub­ject­ive terms that mean essen­tially the same thing. 

Dis­cuss.

Thanks to Chris Kit­tish­in­nak­uppe, Nic­olaus Sulistyo, and John Mor­ris Wil­li­ams for tak­ing the time to con­sider the ques­tion. Their responses appear in the order received. 

And thanks to Kev­in Phun for think­ing about the authen­ti­city of intent when pur­su­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity cer­ti­fic­a­tion. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bite_X.

• In Bali, over­tour­ism is worse
  • Nic­olaus Sulistyo, NGO media and com­mu­nic­a­tions, Indonesia
• In Wales, we must respect the loc­al community
  • John Mor­ris Wil­li­ams, hotel group gen­er­al man­ager, Laos
• It’s all about over­tour­ism in Khao Sok
  • Chris Kit­tish­in­nak­uppe, hos­pit­al­ity mar­ket­ing & sales, Thailand
• “GT” Insight BiteX (‘X’ is up to you)
• The authen­ti­city of intent when pur­su­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity certification
  • Kev­in Phun, respons­ible tour­ism edu­cat­or and con­sult­ant, Singapore
• What do you think? 

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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:

‘Tourism’s Horizon’ book explores tourism’s humanity and agency

Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions — the Substack blog and “Good Tour­ism” Part­ner — has pub­lished a book of the same name com­piled by its founder Jim Butcher. 

In the book, mass tour­ism is a “dynam­ic cul­tur­al & social phe­nomen­on that touches every­one”, tour­ists have human­ity, and hosts have agency. In an era of ‘crit­ic­al tour­ism stud­ies’, some might say that’s refreshing.

• Human­ity and agency
• Inter­views and essays
• About Jim Butcher

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Green Destinations appoints Kevin Phun lead expert for Southeast Asia, Pacific

Green Des­tin­a­tions has appoin­ted Kev­in Phun as lead inde­pend­ent expert for South­east Asia and the Pacific. 

Mr Phun will engage des­tin­a­tions, busi­nesses, and experts in Green Des­tin­a­tions and Good Travel Alli­ance programs. 

• Bullish
• Mis­sion-aligned
• Why Green Destinations?
• Col­lab­or­ate with CRTS
• About CRTS

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SUNx’ BIG IDEA for World Tourism Day 2025: Dodo4Kids

SUN^x Malta had a “BIG IDEA” for World Tour­ism Day 2025: Dodo4Kids.

• President’s mes­sage
• Dodo4Kids video
• Dodo4Kids news
• About SUNx Malta

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How to turn plastic waste into products, learnings, livelihoods in Vietnam

In the heart of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, plastic waste is more than an envir­on­ment­al issue; it is a com­munity challenge. 

Anh Duong Cen­ter is facing up to the chal­lenge by turn­ing plastic waste into products, learn­ings, and livelihoods. 

Their innov­at­ive school-based mod­el has earned recog­ni­tion from the 2025 EXO Found­a­tion Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Awards.

• Con­nect­ing edu­ca­tion and the environment
• Plastic waste reborn as edu­ca­tion­al assets
• Classrooms that clean the environment
• Join us to be part of the change
• About Anh Duong Center

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As Bali runs dry, can tourism help replenish its water?

The travel & tour­ism industry can be expec­ted to hon­our the human right to water, par­tic­u­larly in com­munit­ies and des­tin­a­tions in which it oper­ates. Industry stake­hold­ers need not see this as a bur­den, but rather as a com­pel­ling oppor­tun­ity to mean­ing­fully engage with loc­al people on secur­ing tra­di­tion­al water sup­plies, all the while devel­op­ing more sus­tain­able water and waste man­age­ment sys­tems of their own.

Nic­olaus Sulistyo sheds light on IDEP Foundation’s Bali Water Pro­tec­tion ini­ti­at­ive; an EXO Found­a­tion Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Award winner. 

• Behind the luxury
• The true cost of comfort
• Liv­ing on the same water: Time to give back to Bali
• Towards a new stand­ard of tour­ism: What BWP offers today
  • 1) Adopt a well to return water to the ground
  • 2) Adopt a river to reverse its decline
  • 3) Adopt water aware­ness to edu­cate the next gen­er­a­tion of water guardians
• Time for tour­ism to become a guard­i­an of nature
• About IDEP Foundation

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Thai waterways to become quieter, cleaner as electric engine secures finance

A social enter­prise design­ing low-car­bon, com­munity-based tour­ism exper­i­ences has launched Thailand’s first elec­tric long­tail boat engine, the EV Boat, redu­cing car­bon emis­sions by 96% and cut­ting fuel costs dramatically.

With a USD 20,000 micro­loan from EXO Foundation’s Reset Tour­ism Fund, POSITIV Group will scale up EV Boat pro­duc­tion, train loc­al oper­at­ors, expand green job oppor­tun­it­ies, and take the product to mar­ket, cre­at­ing a rep­lic­able mod­el for sus­tain­able tour­ism across South­east Asia.

• Grow­ing green
• Flag­ship innovation
• Invest­ment opportunity
• Social and envir­on­ment­al impacts
• About EXO Foundation
  • About the Reset Tour­ism Fund

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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 you’ll find the answer in the “Good Tour­ism” & “GT” Travel wrap Septem­ber-Octo­ber 2025. Per­haps not. In any case, share good tour­ism as you would a plate of hum­mus. Pic by Chris­toph­er Alvar­enga (CC0) via Unsplash.

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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