“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.

Tourism & ‘climate emergency’: It’s the metrics, stupid

May 18, 2021

It's the metrics, stupid. Image: Storm cloud background by FelixMittermeier (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/storm-clouds-clouds-cumulus-3499982/ Stat overlay by postman85 (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/graph-pie-chart-business-finance-963016/

Geof­frey Lip­man of “Good Tour­ism” Part­ner SUNx shares a unique “GT” Insight into a TRINET dis­cus­sion cur­rently under­way about tour­ism and cli­mate change.  TRINET is the Tour­ism Research Inform­a­tion Net­work, an email dis­tri­bu­tion list that links glob­al tour­ism schol­ars.  This is an adapt­a­tion of Prof Lip­man’s recent post to TRINET in which he argues why […]

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From the ashes: The role of solidarity in Binna Burra’s tourism recovery

May 13, 2021
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Binna Burra terrace sunset. Image supplied by author.

After a dev­ast­at­ing fire fol­lowed by glob­al pan­dem­ic, the ongo­ing recov­ery of Binna Burra Lodge in Queens­land, Aus­tralia was­n’t pos­sible without the sup­port of people near and far who feel a con­nec­tion to the place, its his­tory, and its land­scape. The story illus­trates the power and value of good­will, an intan­gible asset that mani­fes­ted at […]

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How virtual tourism can make the travel & tourism industry more sustainable

May 11, 2021
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How virtual tourism can make the travel & tourism industry more sustainable

Many people think that vir­tu­al tour­ism is a tem­por­ary hype; an activ­ity that will quickly fade away as phys­ic­al travel resumes post-pan­­dem­ic. But, accord­ing to tour­ism expert and edu­cat­or Hay­ley Stain­ton, vir­tu­al tour­ism is here to stay and it can help to cre­ate a more sus­tain­able industry. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [Thanks to Jim Butcher for […]

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Deeper than buzz: ‘Slow tourism’ in the Monti Sibillini

April 29, 2021
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Lone hiker in the Monti Sibillini National Park. Photo courtesy of (c) Roberto Aureli.

Slow and steady … not too much change and nev­er too quickly … order and mod­er­a­tion … respect for long-stand­ing sources of susten­ance and shel­ter … pride in cul­ture, her­it­age, and tra­di­tion … Con­ser­vat­ive val­ues are often com­pat­ible with sus­tain­ab­il­ity in rur­al set­tings. Marco Ramaz­zo­tti dis­cov­ers that the buzz phrase ‘slow tour­ism’ describes what Monti […]

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Tourism & hosts’ well-being: Moving beyond GDP towards a better life

April 27, 2021
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Arriving at happiness? By Jacqueline Munguía (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/1pAwJiCD60c Graph climber overlay by Peggy_Marco (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/refugees-economic-migrants-1015309/

Every­one wants to be happy, or at least con­tent. Travel & tour­ism has long proven to deliv­er that to its cus­tom­ers. But what about about the res­id­ents of places they travel to and through?  In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, uni­ver­sity pro­fess­or Larry Dwyer iden­ti­fies a prom­ising hol­ist­ic frame­work for bench­mark­ing broad­er soci­et­al well-being.  Dr Dwyer […]

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How can a circular tourism economy help repurpose heritage buildings?

April 22, 2021

A home. Abandoned. By Tama66 (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/users/tama66-1032521/

Aban­doned build­ings can be an eye­sore, a blight on a land- or city­scape, and even an embar­rass­ment to many loc­als. Yet they are all a part of a place’s his­tory and her­it­age. While very few would argue that all are worth sav­ing, many her­it­age build­ings do indeed deserve a new lease of life and may […]

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