“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.

It’s time to address tourism’s invisible burden

March 21, 2019

To catch a glimpse of Mona Lisa at Musée du Louvre, Paris ... Max Fercondini (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_petit_crowd_to_see_the_dame.jpg "GT" cropped it.

A free report will be released next week — Des­tin­a­tions at Risk: The Invis­ible Bur­den of Tour­ism — by the Travel Found­a­tion, Cor­nell Uni­ver­sity, and Epler­Wood Inter­na­tion­al. Travel Found­a­tion Chair­man Noel Josephides explains why it was com­mis­sioned in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. Thanks mainly to the phe­nomen­on known as over­tour­ism, the future of our industry has become […]

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Can pro-social tourism foster empathy & cross-cultural understanding?

and March 20, 2019

Can pro-social tourism foster empathy & understanding? Pic by Lourdes Zamanillo Tamborrel

To build empathy and under­stand­ing between hosts and guests, “pro-social” tour oper­at­ors should facil­it­ate more con­ver­sa­tions — a “GT” Insight by Mon­ash Uni­ver­sity PhD can­did­ate Lourdes Zama­nillo Tam­bor­rel and Dr Joseph M Cheer. Accord­ing to the United Nations World Tour­ism Organ­isa­tion (UNWTO), tour­ism accounts for around 10 per cent of glob­al gross domest­ic product (GDP) and thirty percent […]

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The cause of overtourism & how tourism can avoid choking on success

February 19, 2019
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Tourist go home messages are getting louder and more frequent as overtourism becomes a problem too big to ignore. Image by Duncan Hull (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/dullhunk/29569046192

World Tour­ism Asso­ci­ation for Cul­ture & Her­it­age (WTACH) Pres­id­ent & CEO Chris Flynn weighs in on the over­tour­ism dis­cus­sion in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. Mr Flynn iden­ti­fies the cause of over­tour­ism and how the tour­ism industry might avoid more of it. We are hear­ing more and more about “over­tour­ism” and the neg­at­ive impact it is having […]

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Overtourism overturned: How Calviá, Majorca turned its tourism fortunes around

February 8, 2019
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Overtourism no more? The beach at Magalluf, a major holiday resort in the municipality of Calviá Wikimedia. By Rafael Ortega Díaz (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia. Cropped and enhanced by "GT". https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1899528

Richard Shep­ard reck­ons “over­tour­ism” is an old prob­lem and that there are plenty of proven solu­tions. As he dis­cusses in this “GT” Insight, all that’s required is the “polit­ic­al and social will” to imple­ment them.  “Tour­ists go home” That’s not a rarely heard sen­ti­ment lately. You might think that over­tour­ism, based on the head­lines this past year, […]

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Posted in Insights & Best Practices, "Good Tourism" in Europe, "Good Tourism" in Spain, "GT" Destinations & Places
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Goodbye freeloading, hello free thinking; the Travel Foundation asks “Who pays?”

May 26, 2018
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Little Venice quay flooded with tourists

When you next go on vaca­tion, who will pay? It’s a simple ques­tion and you may think the answer is obvi­ous: you, the cus­tom­er. But are trav­el­lers cov­er­ing their costs? Experts at a roundtable event organ­ised by Cor­nell Uni­ver­sity were asked that ques­tion and they answered with a resound­ing “no”. All those around the table — aca­dem­ics and representatives […]

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Terrorism and tourism’s diabolical relationship

November 17, 2017

Terrorism and tourism's diabolical relationship

Ayşegül Acar, research assist­ant at Kar­abük Uni­ver­sity, Tur­key, and doc­tor­al stu­dent at Istan­bul Uni­ver­sity, explores the dis­com­fit­ing rela­tion­ship between ter­ror­ism and tour­ism in this “GT” Insight. Bombs explod­ing one after anoth­er, vehicles plough­ing through masses of people, media cov­er­age, and the responses of those in power; they all cre­ate ten­sion, inter­na­tion­al con­flict, dis­order, and political […]

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