All aboard! High-speed train offers compelling new way to travel through Laos


High-speed train offers compelling new way to travel through Laos

The romance of train travel is alive and well in Laos. The recently-com­pleted high-speed rail­way that stretches from Vien­tiane, through Laos, and into south­ern China is oper­at­ing ‘full steam’ ahead.  This excit­ing jour­ney takes you through remote vil­lages and into the heart of rur­al Laos, offer­ing up close and per­son­al views of the Laos of today […]

Read More All aboard! High-speed train offers compelling new way to travel through Laos

“GT” Insight Bites: Diverse perspectives on economic degrowth and tourism

June 21, 2022

Tourism and economic degrowth. Is the only sustainable growth degrowth? Stencil wall by kamiel79 (CC0) and question mark overlay by kropekk_pl (CC0) both via Pixabay.

Tour­ism in the post-pan­­dem­ic ‘new nor­mal’ should be informed by eco­nom­ic degrowth, say some tour­ism aca­dem­ics and industry com­ment­at­ors who believe we can and should con­sume — and travel — less. If you are an aca­dem­ic or com­ment­at­or, how would you sum­mar­ise your views on degrowth for a gen­er­al industry audi­ence? If you are a travel & tour­ism practitioner, […]

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Revitalise: Empowering inspired hospitality

June 16, 2022

Revitalise: Empowering inspired hospitality. Refreshing drink by Photo Mix via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/drink-glass-lime-mint-cold-fresh-1532300/

Hos­pit­al­ity needs to be revered and revital­ised if travel & tour­ism is to become a con­struct­ive and trans­form­at­ive force for good, accord­ing to K Michael Hay­wood.  It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too can write a “GT” Insight.] Hos­pit­al­ity demon­strates trans­form­at­ive power when people embrace the oth­er and con­trib­ute to the over­all well-being of com­munit­ies, citizens, […]

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Enrich yourself and your people with no-nonsense responsible tourism courses


Enrich-yourself-with-CRTS-short-online-courses Image by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay

Buzzwords abound in travel & tour­ism.  Singapore’s respons­ible tour­ism pion­eer, Kev­in Phun, excels in unbox­ing the premises and prac­tic­al­it­ies bundled with­in buzzwords … and in demon­strat­ing how they are rel­ev­ant. He has to be good at that in Singa­pore, a pros­per­ous city state whose inbound tour­ism stake­hold­ers might be for­giv­en for think­ing they don’t have […]

Read More Enrich yourself and your people with no-nonsense responsible tourism courses

Ourselves, others, nature: The three relationships in regenerative tourism

June 14, 2022

Ourselves, others, nature: The three relationships in regenerative tourism. Image by sasint (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/woman-kid-rain-leaf-umbrella-1807533/

At a women’s retreat that starts soon, Sonia Ter­uel would like par­ti­cipants to “rein­force [their] fem­in­ine essence, and to flow with life and the nat­ur­al cycles” so as to more effect­ively work on the three rela­tion­ships of regen­er­a­tion (and regen­er­at­ive tour­ism). In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Ms Ter­uel describes the three rela­tion­ships. [You too can write […]

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Bali is back, and so is the rest of wild Indonesia


Orangutans, Kalimantan, Indonesia

Since the long-awaited — but then very sud­den — eas­ing of travel restric­tions for travel into Indone­sia last March, Bali has seen a very quick return of trav­el­lers.  Along Bali’s south­w­est coast one will once again find the typ­ic­al beach- and Bintang-attrac­ted vis­it­or.  Beach­front hotels and beach clubs are exper­i­en­cing a book­ings rush from both domest­ic and for­eign travellers […]

Read More Bali is back, and so is the rest of wild Indonesia