“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 a small South African backpackers is making a big community-based difference

February 28, 2020
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Elundini Backpackers homestead. Image supplied by author.

The Hogs­back region in the East­ern Cape of South Africa attracts vis­it­ors to its indi­gen­ous forests, lush moun­tain­ous land­scape, and breath­tak­ing hikes. Lieve Claessen and part­ner Elli­ot Son­jani oper­ate Elundini Back­pack­ers in a rur­al com­munity at the edge of Hogs­back. In this won­der-filled “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Lieve shares some of the ongo­ing chal­lenges facing Elundini […]

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Dare to share, not declare: Travel & tourism and the reality of climate change

February 23, 2020

share cloud image for Dare to share, not declare: Travel & tourism and the reality of climate change

Cli­mate change is real. It comes with costs. Cli­mate policy also comes with costs. The trick is to find a sens­ible bal­ance.  So said com­pas­sion­ate ration­al­ist Bjorn Lom­borg in a con­ver­sa­tion with former Deputy PM of Aus­tralia John Ander­son, which was pub­lished Fri­day on You­Tube.  Dr Lom­borg, who is Pres­id­ent of the Copen­ha­gen Con­sensus Center, […]

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How a community-based tourism & homestay network empowers women in Nepal

February 4, 2020

Women who manage the Panauti Community Homestay with some members of the CHN team

Tour­ism impact and sus­tain­ab­il­ity expert Aady­aa Pandey dis­cusses a few of the chal­lenges over­come by Nepal’s Com­munity Homestay Net­work (CHN). And she cel­eb­rates its pos­it­ive impacts. Thanks to “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner Second Look World­wide for invit­ing Aady­aa to con­trib­ute this inspir­ing “GT” Insight about a social enter­prise that arose from a mod­est yet wildly […]

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How tourism & fishing help to save Irrawaddy dolphins in Myanmar

January 21, 2020

Fisherman standing in canoe holding net, waiting for the right time to cast it. Burma, Myanmar, Mandalay Division, Irrawaddy, Ayeyarwady river, fishing with dolphins.

The Liv­ing Irrawaddy Dol­phin Pro­ject (LIDP) is a social busi­ness sup­port­ing the pro­tec­tion of Irrawaddy dol­phins in Myanmar’s Aye­yar­wady Dol­phin Pro­tec­ted Area. LIDP is devel­op­ing a mod­el for dol­phin con­ser­va­tion through com­munity-based eco­tour­ism. Co-founder Paul Eshoo wrote this great “Good Tour­ism” Insight. UPDATE, June 2021: Giv­en the polit­ic­al situ­ation in Myan­mar and COVID-19 “GT” was […]

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Why ‘The “Good Tourism” Blog’ won’t be declaring a climate emergency

January 16, 2020
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Illustration of woman on suitcase in stormy sea being attacked by gulls. By unknown (CC0) via pxfuel https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-qgjsy

The short answer is: It’s not “GT’s” role! At writ­ing, 26 tour­ism organ­isa­tions and five indi­vidu­als had declared a glob­al cli­mate emer­gency on behalf of the multi-tril­lion dol­lar travel & tour­ism industry. Among the sig­nat­or­ies is “GT” Friend Susanne Beck­en who, in her declar­a­tion and plan, quotes Greta Thun­berg: “I don’t want your hope, I […]

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How bees, trees, & tourism reduce human-wildlife conflict in Uganda

January 7, 2020

Looking relaxed. Chimp, Kibale, Uganda by Rod Waddington (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rod_waddington/23355595510/

James Nadi­ope estab­lished the Africa Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Care Found­a­tion to address the prob­lem of human-wild­life con­flicts tak­ing place around Kibale Nation­al Park in west­ern Uganda. AST­CF’s first pro­ject was at Kahangi vil­lage, where com­munity con­sulta­tion led to the emer­gence of both tra­di­tion­al and mod­ern solu­tions to old prob­lems. One of those solu­tions was, of course, […]

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