International “Good Tourism” news

Here you will find glob­ally-rel­ev­ant news about The “Good Tour­ism” Blog’s Part­ners and friends — espe­cially their sus­tain­able tour­ism and/or respons­ible travel activ­it­ies — plus “Good news in tour­ism” and cov­er­age of inter­na­tion­al 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 of inter­na­tion­al import­ance 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 Kangaroo Island and elsewhere, beware the lure of the luxury ecotourist

March 12, 2019

Admiral's Arch in Flinders Chase National Park on Kangaroo Island. Image by Michael Baragwanath via Pixabay

Cater­ing to lux­ury eco­tour­ism is at odds with the wild and undeveloped nature of nation­al parks that loc­als want, accord­ing to Freya Hig­­gins-Des­­bio­lles of the Uni­ver­sity of South Aus­tralia. Kangaroo Island, less than 130 kilo­metres from Adelaide, is one of Australia’s eco­lo­gic­al jew­els. Tour­ism Aus­tralia describes it as a “pristine wil­der­ness”, with cliffs, beaches, wetlands […]

Read More On Kangaroo Island and elsewhere, beware the lure of the luxury ecotourist

It’s time: Tourism event organisers & moderators must shut down selfish speakers

March 8, 2019

It is time tourism event organisers and session moderators shut down selfish speakers. Featured image: "Finite World" by Joel Penner (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/featheredtar/3077913104 "GT" cropped it.

The 2019 Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil (GSTC) Asia-Pacific Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Con­fer­ence, Feb­ru­ary 28-March 2, was an enjoy­able event atten­ded by a good num­ber of pas­sion­ate pro­fes­sion­als from across the Asia Pacific region.  And there was ample oppor­tun­ity in the pro­gram to mingle and to net­work, which many (most?) people would count as the primary reason […]

Read More It’s time: Tourism event organisers & moderators must shut down selfish speakers

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

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?

Vale Ian Oelrichs, “strategic thinker & visionary”

February 25, 2019
3 Comments

Endemic tourism concept co-creator, Ian Oelrichs, passed away Feb 24, 2019

Co-cre­at­or of the concept of “endem­ic tour­ism”, Ian Oel­richs OAM passed away Feb­ru­ary 24, 2019.  A land­scape archi­tect and urb­an design­er by trade, Mr Oel­richs had more than 40 years of exper­i­ence in devel­op­ment, nat­ur­al resource man­age­ment, and tour­ism. (Linked­In.) In 2011 Mr Oel­richs received the Medal of the Order of Aus­tralia (OAM) hon­our for his […]

Read More Vale Ian Oelrichs, “strategic thinker & visionary”

Five insights that could move tourism closer to sustainability: Lecturer

February 21, 2019

insights sustainable toursm destination Rotorua Hotpool New Zealand Thermal Wonderland

Jason Paul Mika of Mas­sey Uni­ver­sity shares five insights on the role of tour­ism in sus­tain­able devel­op­ment: Tour­ism is New Zealand’s biggest export earner, con­trib­ut­ing 21% of for­eign exchange earn­ings. The latest data show tour­ists added NZ$39.1 bil­lion to the eco­nomy and the industry has seen a 44% increase over the past five years. But […]

Read More Five insights that could move tourism closer to sustainability: Lecturer