“Good Tourism” Insights

Dancers, singers, and drummers from a local women’s cooperative welcome visitors to the Red Rocks Cultural Center in Nyakinama village, Rwanda. Pic by David Gillbanks.

Dan­cers, sing­ers, and drum­mers from a loc­al women’s cooper­at­ive wel­come vis­it­ors to the Red Rocks Cul­tur­al Cen­ter in Nyak­i­n­ama vil­lage, Rwanda. Pic by Dav­id Gillbanks.

“Good Tour­ism” Insights are ori­gin­al posts by aca­dem­ics, experts, and prac­ti­tion­ers who are keen to share their sus­tain­able tour­ism and respons­ible tour­ism insights, expert­ise, and exper­i­ences, in plain Eng­lish, for the bene­fit of all travel & tour­ism stakeholders.

Each “GT” Insight rep­res­ents the opin­ion of its author, NOT neces­sar­ily the opin­ion of The “Good Tour­ism” Blog, its Part­ners, or its pub­lish­er. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog neither pays nor is paid for any “GT” Insight. 

Any­one with an informed and sin­cerely-held opin­ion about travel & tour­ism is wel­come to sub­mit a “GT” Insight for pub­lic­a­tion. The “GT” Insight guidelines are very simple.

Masters of complexity & change: What travel & tourism needs from the academy

March 1, 2022
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Masters of complexity & change: What travel & tourism needs from the academy. Background image by geralt (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/colorful-abstract-artwork-art-3256055/ Mortar board. https://pixabay.com/vectors/graduation-cap-hat-achievement-309661/

Many travel & tour­ism edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions could be unin­ten­tion­ally restrict­ing stu­dents’ abil­ity to see the ‘big pic­ture’.  And some edu­cat­ors may be too tied to their pet per­spect­ives and untested the­or­ies to be doing their stu­dents any favours.  Edu­cat­or and entre­pren­eur Lauren Uğur reck­ons the academy can bet­ter reflect real­ity while equip­ping stu­dents to face it. […]

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Lessons in resilience: Binna Burra’s rise from the ashes

February 15, 2022

Lamington National Park, Queensland, Australia is easily accessible from BInna Burra Mountain Lodge

Des­pite a dev­ast­at­ing wild­fire in Septem­ber 2019 and the glob­al pan­dem­ic that fol­lowed, Aus­trali­a’s Binna Burra Lodge is open for busi­ness. Draw­ing from that recov­ery story, Jona­thon Day shares five les­sons in resi­li­ence that any tour­ism busi­ness can apply. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too can write a “GT” Insight.] On Septem­ber 8, 2019, a bushfire […]

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Posted in Insights & Best Practices, "Good Tourism" in Oceania, "GT" Destinations & Places, “Good Tourism” in Australia
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You can’t furlough an elephant: How Laos’ ECC is surviving the COVID crisis

February 8, 2022

One can't simply furlough a bull elephant and his mahout. Image supplied by the Elephant Conservation Center in Sayaboury, Laos.

What would you do if rev­en­ues dried up but you had dozens of ele­phants to look after? The Ele­phant Con­ser­va­tion Cen­ter (ECC) in Say­a­boury, Laos faced this situ­ation as COVID-19 lock­downs and travel bans bit in March 2020. ECC found­ing part­ner Sébas­tien Duffil­lot shares what they did. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [Thanks to “GT” Destination […]

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Posted in Insights & Best Practices, "Good Tourism" in Asia, "Good Tourism" in Laos, "GT" Destinations & Places
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Tourism’s common challenge: How do we create ‘community shared value’?

February 1, 2022

A common challenge. Image by sasint (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/sunset-men-silhouettes-helping-1807524/

Are there needs, wants, and desires com­mon to all (or most) indi­vidu­als with­in your com­munity? How might travel & tour­ism serve them? K Michael Hay­wood explores the chal­lenge all des­tin­a­tions face if they wish to cre­ate ‘com­munity shared value’. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too can write a “GT” Insight.] Des­tin­a­tions Inter­na­tion­al, the pro­fes­sion­al asso­ci­ation for […]

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From dystopia, utopia: COVID-19, collapse, and new hope for tourism’s future

January 25, 2022

Does COVID-19 represent a turning point for tourism? Image by geralt (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/signpost-waypoint-hope-hopelessness-466935/

Through the lens of sci­ence fic­tion, his own writ­ings about travel & tour­ism, and the mus­ings of con­tem­por­ary thinkers, tour­ism futur­ist Ian Yeo­man won­ders wheth­er the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic rep­res­ents a turn­ing point for our industry. If so, which path will we take? Dr Yeo­man is hope­ful. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight.  [Thanks to Jim Butcher for inviting […]

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‘Jouissance’: The pleasure & pain of ‘ethical donor tourism’ in Africa

and January 18, 2022
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Zebra stripes at Dikhololo Game Reserve, Brits, South Africa. Photo by David Clarke (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/sN6d60TySV0

Some of the very wealthy among us love to live large in Africa’s mag­ni­fi­cent land­scape, to observe (and hunt) its icon­ic wild­life. While they are there it is good that they give gen­er­ously to eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, phil­an­throp­ic, and con­ser­va­tion pro­jects, no? Are we miss­ing some­thing? Aca­dem­ics Stasja Koot and Robert Fletch­er think so.  It’s a “Good […]

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