“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.

Zambia’s untapped tourism potential & its prospects for a green economy

November 23, 2021
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Sunset over the Luangwa River, a tributary of the Zambezi. Photo by Ian McGrory (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/62CtkV44DuY Zambia wordmark by syafrani_jambe (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/state-international-flag-zambia-2732088/

Zim­b­ab­wean schol­ar Sham­iso Nyajeka makes a strong pitch for the devel­op­ment of a respons­ible, sus­tain­able, and eco­­nom­ic­ally-inclus­ive travel & tour­ism industry in Zam­bia, where deep poverty per­sists des­pite a luc­rat­ive min­ing tra­di­tion.  It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight.  [Thanks to Jim Butcher for invit­ing Ms Nyajeka to write a “GT” Insight.] Nestled at the inter­sec­tion of cent­ral, east­ern, and […]

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Posted in Insights & Best Practices, "Good Tourism" in Africa, "Good Tourism" in Zambia, "GT" Destinations & Places
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Science, mahout traditions may help save Asian elephants from extinction in Laos

and November 16, 2021

Elephant family crossing a river. Captive breeding technology and mahout knowledge may help save Asian elephants in Laos. Image supplied by Anabel Lopez Perez.

Asi­an ele­phants are at risk of extinc­tion in the wild and in cap­tiv­ity. That they are not repla­cing their num­bers in cap­tiv­ity may come as a sur­prise to many. This is why con­­ser­­va­­tion-ori­en­ted cap­tive breed­ing pro­grams are import­ant to the spe­cies. Wild­life bio­lo­gist Ana­bel Lopez Perez of Laos’ Ele­phant Con­ser­va­tion Cen­ter and Hol­lis Bur­b­ank-Ham­­marlund of […]

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Posted in "GT" Destinations & Places, "Good Tourism" in Asia, "Good Tourism" in Laos, Insights & Best Practices
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Smart clusters: How tourism destinations can organise for a better future

November 9, 2021

Our Milky Way is a cluster of stars that includes ours. Image by Greg Rakozy (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/oMpAz-DN-9I

How can travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers work and play bet­ter togeth­er with­in des­tin­a­tions to ensure optim­al out­comes?  K Michael Hay­wood sug­gests clus­ter­ing. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too can write a “GT” Insight.] There is strong evid­ence link­ing pos­it­ive busi­ness per­form­ance and out­comes with soci­et­al out­comes and life-affirm­­ing val­ues. Nev­er­the­less, many tour­ism enter­prises remain […]

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Three steps travel companies can take to contend with climate change

October 26, 2021
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Contrails. How can the travel & tourism industry contend with climate change? (Image by Free-Photos (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/contrails-trail-airplane-plane-1210064/

How does one take mean­ing­ful action to back up a poten­tially hypo­crit­ic­al declar­a­tion about cli­mate? This is a ques­tion that travel & tour­ism com­pan­ies must con­tend with right now, par­tic­u­larly those that rely on air travel for their products and cus­tom­ers. Tour­ism schol­ar Francesca Gal­lone sug­gests three steps that com­pan­ies can take to walk their […]

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‘Real-life tourism’: The essence of regenerative tourism

October 19, 2021

Sharing culture. Regenerative 'real-life' tourism at Kohutapu Lodge, NZ.

Bron­wyn Hutchis­on would like to see more examples of regen­er­at­ive tour­ism in prac­tice. In her second “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Ms Hutchis­on sheds light on a fam­ily-run lodge and tour oper­a­tion in New Zea­l­and whose regen­er­at­ive prac­tices, it is claimed, are rooted in Māori beliefs and cus­toms. Regen­er­at­ive tour­ism is evolving as the new catch-cry for […]

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Posted in Insights & Best Practices, "Good Tourism" in Oceania, "GT" Destinations & Places, “Good Tourism” in New Zealand
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Can tourism destinations-as-communities be better & smarter by design?

October 12, 2021

Can destinations-as-communities be better & smarter by design? Image by Gerd Altmann (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/cyber-artificial-intelligence-brain-4062449/

What does it mean to col­lab­or­at­ively design tour­ism at the com­munity level? And to what end? If it is to strive towards a ‘good’, ‘bet­ter’, ‘smarter’ tour­ism, what does that look like? Retired uni­ver­sity pro­fess­or K Michael Hay­wood shares his vis­ion.  It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [Thanks to Jim Butcher for invit­ing Prof Hay­wood to write a “GT” […]

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