“Good Tourism” news from Asia

Here you will find news about The “Good Tour­ism” Blog’s Part­ners and friends in Asia (includ­ing the Middle East) — espe­cially their sus­tain­able tour­ism and/or respons­ible travel activ­it­ies — plus “Good news in tour­ism” and cov­er­age of Asi­an travel & tour­ism industry events to which “GT” is invited or oth­er­wise involved. Ad hoc sponsored news posts are also very welcome.

Before Decem­ber 2019, “GT” would sum­mar­ise under-repor­ted news stor­ies or thought-pro­vok­ing fea­ture art­icles about or of import­ance to Asia by non-industry media. The sources were well-attrib­uted and linked. Any con­tent repub­lished in full was avail­able rights-free for that pur­pose from the likes of The Con­ver­sa­tion or the Thom­son Reu­ters Found­a­tion.

On the tiger trail, India’s women unveil and roar ahead in tourism

March 15, 2019

A group of women safari guides poses for a photo at Pench Tiger Reserve in central Madhya Pradesh state, India on May 19, 2016. Photo credit: Satpuda Foundation http://satpuda.org

Female nature-based tour­ism guides in India, such as at the Pench Tiger Reserve in Mad­hya Pra­desh, are help­ing to upend sex­ist views, accord­ing to a report by the Thom­son Reu­ters Found­a­tion. Bob­bing along a dirt track in a cent­ral Indi­an tiger reserve, Var­sha Hinge sur­veyed the land­scape for paw­prints and listened out for deer calls […]

Read More On the tiger trail, India’s women unveil and roar ahead in tourism
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Elephants are smart. What if tourism jobs were good for them?

March 14, 2019
5 Comments

A mahout feeding an elephant at the Elephant Nature Park, near Chiang Mai, Thailand. By Adbar (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mahout_Elephant_Nature_Park.JPG

Work, includ­ing offer­ing tour­ists rides, is “not bad” for ele­phants — in mod­er­a­tion — so long as it takes into account the work­load, stress, and wel­fare of each indi­vidu­al ele­phant, accord­ing to Dr Pakka­nut Ban­siddhi, Research­er, Cen­ter of Excel­lence in Ele­phant Research and Edu­ca­tion, Chi­ang Mai Uni­ver­sity. Dr Pakka­nut revealed this at the Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil con­fer­ence in […]

Read More Elephants are smart. What if tourism jobs were good for them?
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Hey, tourism! Shouldn’t the needs of host communities ALWAYS come first?

March 7, 2019

Community-based tourism. Mae Hong Son Hilltribe Trek, a Planeterra project

The prin­ciples of com­munity-based tour­ism should be at the centre of ALL cat­egor­ies of tour­ism — niche or main­strean; urb­an or rur­al; cul­tur­al or nature-based; eco- or adven­ture; gast­ro­nom­ic or party; moun­tain or beach … you get the idea. There­fore, the needs of the host com­munity must always be con­sidered before the needs of vis­it­ors.  This is […]

Read More Hey, tourism! Shouldn’t the needs of host communities ALWAYS come first?
Posted in "GT" news & events, "Good Tourism" Events, "GT" news from Asia
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Now playing: The tragicomedy of overtourism starring those who should know better

March 6, 2019

Featured image: Why call it tourist season if we can't shoot them? By David Blaikie (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonvscanon/1463378771/ "GT" cropped and enhanced it.

The two faces of tour­ism are like sock and buskin, the foot­wear and masks of ancient Greek theatre that rep­res­ent com­edy and tragedy. Accord­ing to Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil (GSTC) CEO Randy Durb­and, the tragedy is over­tour­ism. And it’s real. It under­mines the joy of travel. It puts the buskin (boot) in. “Sense of place” […]

Read More Now playing: The tragicomedy of overtourism starring those who should know better
Posted in "GT" news & events, "Good Tourism" Events, "GT" news from Asia, "GT" news international
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Canvas, sticks, & mud: Is this the future of sustainable hotels & resorts?

March 5, 2019

Sustainable accommodation can take the form of luxury in canvas, sticks, and mud. This pic from Vinetree China.

It appears to be much more com­mon in the 21st cen­tury than it was in the 20th for high-end lux­ury hotels and resorts to be delivered in the form of tents and huts and mud houses. So long as the res­ult is more sus­tain­able accom­mod­a­tion options across all price points, sus­tain­ab­il­ity advoc­ates should rejoice. CB […]

Read More Canvas, sticks, & mud: Is this the future of sustainable hotels & resorts?
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Most want to do the right thing for sustainable tourism. What is it?

March 3, 2019
One Comment

Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) CEO Randy Durband. Image: World Travel & Tourism Council (CC BY 2.0) via Wikimedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Randy_Durband,_CEO_Global_Sustainable_Tourism_Council_(26228765681).jpg

In two sen­tences the CEO of the Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil (GSTC) per­fectly summed up the com­mu­nic­a­tions oppor­tun­ity and chal­lenge facing sus­tain­ab­il­ity advoc­ates.  “Most people want to do the right thing. They just need to know what the right thing is.” Randy Durb­and said this dur­ing the theme-set­t­ing plen­ary ses­sion on the open­ing day of the […]

Read More Most want to do the right thing for sustainable tourism. What is it?
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