“Good Tourism” news & events

Enjoy “GT’s” monthly “Good news in tour­ism” posts, which sum­mar­ise a month’s worth of “GT” Insights, “GT” Travel, “GT” Part­ner news, and your comments.

Also find here Partner/Sponsor mes­sages from The “Good Tour­ism” Blo­g’s Part­ners and friends plus cov­er­age of travel & tour­ism industry events to which “GT” is invited or oth­er­wise involved. Ad hoc sponsored news posts are also very welcome.

“GT” retired its weekly “Good news in tour­ism” posts in April 2021. The weekly posts fea­tured brief sum­mar­ies of and links to pos­it­ive industry news from off-piste sources. Before Decem­ber 2019, “GT” would sum­mar­ise under-repor­ted news stor­ies or thought-pro­vok­ing fea­ture art­icles by non-industry media. The sources were well-attrib­uted and linked. Any con­tent “GT” repub­lished in full was avail­able for that pur­pose from the likes of The Con­ver­sa­tion and Thom­son Reu­ters Found­a­tion.

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?
Posted in "GT" news & events, "Good Tourism" Events, "GT" news from Asia, "GT" news international
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Most elephant tourism activities are “not bad” in moderation: Experts

February 28, 2019

ACEWG appears to be tackling the valid concerns around elephant tourism head-on. Image: ACEWG

If there was a defin­it­ive point to come out of the ses­sion on ele­phant tour­ism at the 2019 Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil (GSTC) Asia-Pacific Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Con­fer­ence today in Chi­ang Mai, it would be that there are no defin­it­ive points. Exactly what con­sti­tutes appro­pri­ate, prag­mat­ic stand­ards for ele­phant wel­fare is yet to be determ­ined. Given […]

Read More Most elephant tourism activities are “not bad” in moderation: Experts
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Thailand Tourism Minister Weerasak props up GSTC conference opening

February 28, 2019

Thailand Tourism Minister Weerasak Kowsurat

HE Weer­a­sak Kowsur­at, Thail­and’s Min­is­ter of Tour­ism and Sport brought props to his open­ing speech for the 2019 Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil (GSTC) Asia-Pacific Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Con­fer­ence today in Chi­ang Mai. Des­pite micro­phone issues break­ing his flow, Mr Weer­a­sak used the props to make his point. He brought to the podi­um a bag made from fishing […]

Read More Thailand Tourism Minister Weerasak props up GSTC conference opening
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“Good Tourism” supports the second World Heritage mini-conference

February 25, 2019

Lamington blue spiny crayfish encountered on the Coomera circuit walking track in the Binna Burra section Lamington National Park in Queensland, Australia. Photo by Tatters (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Flickr. "GT" cropped and enhanced the image. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tgerus/12250342224/in/photostream/

UPDATE (May 16, 2019). The organ­isers have decided to post­pone the planned two-day mini-con­­fer­­ence at Binna Burra Lodge in Octo­ber 2019 and make it a three-day event in 2020 — from Tues­day, Octo­ber 13 to Thursday, Octo­ber 15. The first World Her­­it­age-themed mini-con­­fer­­ence took place over three days at the Binna Burra Lodge in Octo­ber 2018.  The top­ic was ‘Man­aging the growth of […]

Read More “Good Tourism” supports the second World Heritage mini-conference
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