“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.

How can tourism safeguard intangible cultural heritage? A peek at Penghu

May 12, 2020
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Penghu fish traps. The iconic double love heart formation. By chingtao0007 (CC0) via Needpix. https://www.needpix.com/photo/1171932/penghu-beach-love-free-pictures-free-photos-free-images-royalty-free-free-illustrations

In this fresh “GT” Insight, respons­ible tour­ism and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment spe­cial­ist Kev­in Phun takes a peek at the pis­cat­ori­al pro­fi­cien­cies of the people of Penghu, Taiwan to dis­cuss how the tan­gible and intan­gible should be con­sidered inter­con­nec­ted when plan­ning sus­tain­able cul­tur­al her­it­age tour­ism attrac­tions. Intan­gible cul­tur­al her­it­age (ICH) refers to aspects of peoples’ cul­tures that […]

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Turn down the volume: How to plan for a sustainable tourism recovery after C‑19

May 6, 2020
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Leatherback hatching at Khao Lampi - Hat Thai Mueng national park. Image courtesy of (c) Phuket Marine National Parks Operations Center 2 / https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2624818794469718&set=pcb.2624819491136315&type=1&theater

Bangkok-based travel & hos­pit­al­ity entre­pren­eur and sus­tain­able tour­ism advoc­ate Willem Niemeijer sees an oppor­tun­ity in the SARS-CoV­­‑2 crisis; an oppor­tun­ity to rebal­ance tour­ism with more sens­ible man­age­ment and less vis­it­or volume. But make your plans swiftly because Mr Niemeijer reck­ons recov­ery will be faster than many think. The lock­down meas­ures in place to keep the […]

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Why travel matters and why I will continue to make travel matter after COVID-19

April 2, 2020

Connections matter. Image (CCO) via PxFuel. https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-jywzc

Accord­ing to its founder Kar­en Sim­monds, inde­pend­ent lux­ury travel agency Travel Mat­ters was built upon the strong sense of respons­ib­il­ity she feels for des­tin­a­tions. In this fresh “GT” Insight, Ms Sim­monds sum­mar­ises her agency’s ori­gin story and philo­sophy and what she’s doing to help com­munit­ies more vul­ner­able to the coronavir­us COVID-19 pan­dem­ic than hers.  I set […]

Read More Why travel matters and why I will continue to make travel matter after COVID-19

How “Feel Good” positions, promotes Germany as a sustainable tourism destination

March 31, 2020

Couple at an accessible viewpoint overlooking Saarschleife (Saar Loop) in the German region of "Saarland", which is certifiably sustainable. Image by Jens Wegener; supplied by GNTB.

As Innov­a­tions Man­ager for the Ger­man Nation­al Tour­ist Board, Olaf Schlieper is the chief scout for issues and trends in travel & tour­ism. One area he is par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in is sus­tain­ab­il­ity. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Mr Schlieper gives us an idea as to why and how Ger­many is pos­i­tion­ing itself as a sustainable […]

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As we sit out COVID-19, let’s think about a fair & fail-safe treatment or vaccine for overtourism

March 21, 2020
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Top image by Geralt (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/vaccine-chemist-outbreak-4946479/ Bottom image by Duncan Hull (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr, which "GT" cropped among other things. https://www.flickr.com/photos/dullhunk/29569046192

Dur­ing this coronavir­us COVID-19 pan­dem­ic we are see­ing some­thing we have wit­nessed many times before — the fickle­ness of travel & tour­ism demand — exacer­bated by enforced travel restric­tions. As gov­ern­ments around the world shut down travel, bor­ders, and gath­er­ings of vari­ous sizes to “flat­ten the curve” of coronavir­us con­ta­gion and buy time to devel­op treat­ments and vac­cines, your […]

Read More As we sit out COVID-19, let’s think about a fair & fail-safe treatment or vaccine for overtourism

Signatories to Tourism Declares Climate Emergency on “system change”, “regulatory action”

March 3, 2020
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Climate Emergency. Melbourne climate march for our future. By John Englart (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/takver/46178192802/

Cli­mate change is real. How do we respond? The first four points in the Tour­ism Declares Cli­mate Emer­gency declar­a­tion are per­son­al under­tak­ings or organ­isa­tion­al com­mit­ments to plan and to change and to share and to col­lab­or­ate in rela­tion to a sig­nat­ory’s declar­a­tion of cli­mate emer­gency.  All power to them! How­ever the fifth point in the declaration […]

Read More Signatories to Tourism Declares Climate Emergency on “system change”, “regulatory action”