“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.

Taming the beautiful monster: What ‘critical tourism studies’ means to me

March 23, 2021
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Dragon's eye. Image by Victoria_Borodinova (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/dragon-fantasy-eye-3916633/

Some observ­ers of the ‘cul­ture wars’ in the west will be sus­pi­cious of the word ‘crit­ic­al’ in aca­dem­ic con­texts due to con­tro­ver­sial ‘crit­ic­al the­ory’ and its influ­ence. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Meghan L Mul­doon explains what ‘crit­ic­al tour­ism stud­ies’ means to her. (And can a crit­ic­al tour­ism schol­ar love trav­el­ling? Dr Mul­doon does.) [Thanks to […]

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Women’s travel & tourism livelihoods matter too: What I’m doing about it

March 18, 2021

"Regardless of identity or political labels, indications are that most women support equality ..." Image by geralt (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/arrows-trend-businesswoman-woman-2167840/

In her second “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Kar­en Sim­monds sets out her con­cerns about women in travel & tour­ism and broad­er soci­ety and how she’s tak­ing action. As I write, we have recently cel­eb­rated Inter­na­tion­al Women’s Day on March 8. I was encour­aged to see its theme and hasht­ag, #ChoosetoChal­lenge, being used in vari­ous circles. Here […]

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What do the people want? Reimagining Pacific Island travel & tourism

, and March 16, 2021
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Reimagining pacific island tourism for host communities. Image (c) Pedram Pirnia

Thanks to its pan­­dem­ic-induced pause, travel & tour­ism has an oppor­tun­ity to rein­vent itself to bet­ter serve the aspir­a­tions of des­tin­a­tion com­munit­ies, accord­ing to Apis­a­lome Movono, Regina Scheyvens, and Soph­ie Auck­ram. The Mas­sey Uni­ver­sity research­ers draw on their ongo­ing study of five Pacific Island states to argue why the industry should be more attuned to […]

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The PR challenge of opening Thailand safely to inbound travel & tourism

March 11, 2021
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Smiling eyes of a Bangkok taxi driver. Image by David Gillbanks

The COV­­ID-induced travel & tour­ism depres­sion has hit Thai­l­and hard. Ranked eighth in terms of inter­na­tion­al vis­it­or arrivals in 2019, Thai­l­and is the poorest of the des­tin­a­tions in the top 10. It is no won­der then that an industry-led pub­lic rela­tions cam­paign advoc­at­ing for a safe reopen­ing has emerged: #OpenThai­l­and­Safely. Head­ing up its mes­saging and […]

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Losing Lutruwita: Tourism troubles in Tasmania’s World Heritage wilderness

March 9, 2021

At the centre of a controversy is Halls Island on Lake Malbena in the middle of Walls of Jerusalem National Park, which is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, Tasmania, Australia. Image by Rob Blakers (c) supplied by Tom Allen of the Wilderness Society Tasmania.At the centre of a controversy is Halls Island on Lake Malbena in the middle of Walls of Jerusalem National Park, which is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, Tasmania, Australia. Image by Rob Blakers (c) supplied by Tom Allen of the Wilderness Society Tasmania.

The World Her­it­age wil­der­ness of Lut­ruwita (the palawa kani name for the island of Tas­mania) is under threat from col­lu­sion between state gov­ern­ment and private tour­ism interests, accord­ing to Tom Allen. The Wil­der­ness Soci­ety cam­paign man­ager reck­ons tour­ism does best when it com­ple­ments not com­prom­ises nat­ur­al val­ues. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. Upon sign­ing the […]

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WWOOF! An alternative tourism in times of turmoil

March 3, 2021

Insta-worthy WWOOFing experiences; a screen capture from the WWOOF Instagram page

Not to be con­fused with dog­ging, WWOOF­ing is a rur­al tour­ism concept that com­bines volun­tour­ism with organ­ic farm­ing and cul­tur­al exchange. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, former WWOOF­er and cur­rent aca­dem­ic Yana Wen­gel explains why WWOOF and oth­er altern­at­ive forms of tour­ism could be just what we need. [Thanks to Joseph M Cheer for invit­ing Dr […]

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