“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.

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
Posted in "GT" news & events, "GT" news from Oceania, "GT" news international
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Homeless Dubliners to give tours with a difference as tourism booms

March 9, 2019

Featured image: Patrick McEvoy, Eddie Dooner, and Ronya Arya Phoenix, are training up to become tour guides with My Streets Ireland , a social enterprise. By Emma Batha, Thomson Reuters Foundation. "GT" cropped it.

New tours of Dub­lin, Ire­land to be launched mid-March will be led by home­less people trained up as guides by a social enter­prise. They will offer unique per­spect­ives to some of the more than 6 mil­lion vis­it­ors expec­ted in the Irish cap­it­al in 2019. Report by the Thom­son Reu­ters Found­a­tion. Dub­lin’s Phoenix Park boasts the […]

Read More Homeless Dubliners to give tours with a difference as tourism booms
Posted in "GT" news & events, "GT" news from Europe
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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
Posted in "GT" news & events, "Good Tourism" Events, "GT" news international

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?
Posted in "GT" news & events, "Good Tourism" Events, "GT" news from Asia
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