“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.

Sri Lanka & Thailand slapped on biodiversity day

June 6, 2017

Yala leopard. Source: Amila Tennakoon https://www.flickr.com/photos/lakpura/15654125258

The former Dir­ect­or-Gen­er­­al of Sri Lanka’s Depart­ment of Wild­life Con­ser­va­tion (DWC) ques­tioned wheth­er Yala Nation­al Park can sus­tain tour­ism num­bers skyrock­et­ing more than 1,000% in sev­en years – from 48,368 vis­it­ors in 2008 to 545,007 in 2015. Dr Sum­ith Pil­ap­itiya was tack­ling over-vis­it­a­­tion and its con­sequences on biod­iversity at an event to mark the Inter­na­tion­al Day for […]

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Why is Jammu & Kashmir failing to develop ecotourism?

June 1, 2017

A meadow in Bangus Valley, one of the areas identified by the Jammu & Kashmir Forest Department as holding strong ecotourism potential. Source: Wikimedia / Wasiq 9320

The Indi­an state of Jam­mu and Kash­mir (J&K) is allegedly fail­ing to walk the talk when it comes to devel­op­ing its eco­tour­ism poten­tial. “The much-talked-about pro­mo­tion of eco­tour­ism in J&K along the lines of Karnataka and oth­er states of India has remained con­fined to offi­cial state­ments of the PDP-BJP Coali­tion Gov­ern­ment,” accord­ing to a scathing […]

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Could a primate be driven to extinction by “ecotourism”?

May 26, 2017

Could the endangered red-shanked douc langur ('Pygathrix nemaeus') be pushed to extinction by ecotourism? Source: GreenViet

Sci­ent­ists have warned that an endangered prim­ate may be pushed into extinc­tion by the devel­op­ment of con­crete build­ings for, iron­ic­ally, a “lux­ury eco-tour resort com­plex”. Some 237 herds of red-shanked douc langurs (Pygath­rix nemaeus), com­pris­ing more than 1,300 indi­vidu­als, are liv­ing in the Sơn Trà Nature Reserve in Đà Nẵng, Viet­nam, reports VNS. The Da […]

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Apo Island, Philippines to levy new fees on tourists

May 25, 2017

Sea turtle 'pawikan' off the shores of Apo Island. Source: Wikimedia / Jun V Lao

The famed dive des­tin­a­tion of Apo Island in Dauin, Negros Ori­ent­al, Phil­ip­pines, will levy new fees for tour­ists, accord­ing to the Phil­ip­pine News Agency. The fees, agreed upon by the Pro­tec­ted Area Man­age­ment Board (PAMB), would include moor­ing fees for boats used by tour­ists; for diving, swim­ming, snorkel­ing and oth­er activ­it­ies. Jose Bry­an Arranguez, Community […]

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Kerala tourism director Kiran a champion of accessibility

May 24, 2017

When it comes to accessibility, Kerala Tourism refuses to be a backwater. Source: Kerala Tourism

A Dir­ect­or at the Depart­ment of Tour­ism in the Indi­an state of Ker­ala is lead­ing by example by mak­ing all state-admin­istered tour­ism facil­it­ies access­ible to all. The Times of India reports that in line with its policy of “bar­ri­er-free tour­ism”, the Ker­ala tour­ism depart­ment will make all its facil­it­ies, includ­ing parks and hotels, “dis­­­abled-friendly” before taking […]

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On biodiversity day is it OK to ask: “Are people wildlife too?”

May 22, 2017

idb 2017 logo en2 mark

Today (May 22) is the Inter­na­tion­al Day for Bio­lo­gic­al Diversity (biod­iversity day). This year, the United Nations (UN) has linked the day with tour­ism under the theme “Biod­iversity and Sus­tain­able Tour­ism”; chosen to coin­cide with the Inter­na­tion­al Year of Sus­tain­able Tour­ism for Devel­op­ment. The UN web page about the day states: “Diversity in spe­cies, ecosystems […]

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