“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.

From overtourism to no tourism in Seychelles: What now for conservation?

October 27, 2020
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Seychelles is well known for its natural beauty (Photo: Nature Seychelles, Peter Chadwick)

Acclaimed envir­on­ment­al­ist and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment pro Dr Nirmal Shah has no solu­tion to con­ser­va­tion’s budget crisis in the COVID-19 era. And no-one else appears to have any answers either. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, the Nature Seychelles chief offers a brief his­tory of eco­tour­ism in Africa’s most pros­per­ous nation and lets us in on the […]

Read More From overtourism to no tourism in Seychelles: What now for conservation?

Accessible tourism for all: The new mantra in Nepal

October 20, 2020

The author, Pankaj Pradhananga, pushes a wheelchair. © Four Season Travel & Tours

For people with dis­ab­il­it­ies Nepal was once a des­tin­a­tion to avoid. This has changed. And quickly. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Pankaj Pra­dhananga shares how Nepal’s repu­ta­tion as an access­ible and inclus­ive des­tin­a­tion has rap­idly ascen­ded. In the first epis­ode of my talk show ‘Bey­ond Lim­its’, Jezza Wil­li­ams from New Zea­l­and shared his exper­i­ence exploring […]

Read More Accessible tourism for all: The new mantra in Nepal

Tourism in crisis, tourism in need, & the hopeful pivots of the purpose-driven

and October 14, 2020

Elephant Conservation Center, Sayaboury, Laos. Image by Jimmy Beunardeau; supplied by authors.

Even the most altru­ist­ic of tour­ism organ­isa­tions is strug­gling to sur­vive in des­tin­a­tions that have been reli­ant on inter­na­tion­al tour­ism money to take care of anim­als, places, and people. How­ever neces­sity is a par­ent of innov­a­tion and, as Tour­ism In Need co-founders Robert Pow­ell and Ameer Vir­ani have found out, there are plenty of both […]

Read More Tourism in crisis, tourism in need, & the hopeful pivots of the purpose-driven

Two tourism democratisation challenges to consider as we plan for recovery

October 6, 2020

Two tourism democratisation challenges to consider as we plan for recovery

Sus­tain­able tour­ism con­sult­ant Tim O’Donoghue leads the col­lab­or­at­ive efforts of Teton County, Wyom­ing, USA to become a sus­tain­able des­tin­a­tion. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Mr O’Donoghue iden­ti­fies two core chal­lenges to achiev­ing com­munity con­sensus around tour­ism devel­op­ment plan­ning and des­tin­a­tion man­age­ment. Most com­munit­ies that are travel des­tin­a­tions have seen their tour­ism eco­nom­ies grow organ­ic­ally and […]

Read More Two tourism democratisation challenges to consider as we plan for recovery

Tourism in crisis: How local staff supported their communities in Myanmar

September 24, 2020
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Ku Mel project team image featured in "Tourism in crisis: How our local staff supported their communities in Myanmar"

In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Nia Klatte of Khiri Reach, the char­it­able arm of “GT” Part­ner Khiri Travel, shares how her organ­isa­tion’s Myan­­mar-based teams stepped up to sup­port host com­munit­ies dur­ing the COV­­ID-related travel & tour­ism clos­ures. This pan­dem­ic has shown us again how big our respons­ib­il­ity is for the people with whom we work; […]

Read More Tourism in crisis: How local staff supported their communities in Myanmar

As we build back better, is sustainable tourism enough to regenerate nature?

September 8, 2020

Elephants and the community (c. Mahouts Elephant Foundation)

Sus­tain­able tour­ism is a com­plex puzzle with lots of mov­ing parts. Toss in regen­er­at­ive prin­ciples and it becomes even more con­found­ing. For­tu­nately there are those who think deeply about import­ant parts of the puzzle, such as anim­al wel­fare con­sult­ant Daniel Turn­er of ANIMONDIAL. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Mr Turn­er shares how our industry might […]

Read More As we build back better, is sustainable tourism enough to regenerate nature?