Responsible travel & tourism

Scroll down for posts that have been tagged with “respons­ible travel & tourism”.

Respons­ible travel is “con­duc­ted in such a man­ner as to not harm or degrade the cul­tur­al or nat­ur­al envir­on­ment of the places vis­ited”, accord­ing to Travel-Industry-Dictionary.comRespons­ible tour­ism is “mak­ing bet­ter places for people to live in and bet­ter places for people to vis­it”, sug­gests the Respons­ible Tour­ism Part­ner­ship.

Respons­ible tour­ism and respons­ible travel are approaches to tour­ism that pri­or­it­ise sus­tain­ab­il­ity, eth­ic­al prac­tices, and social respons­ib­il­ity. These types of tour­ism aim to min­im­ise neg­at­ive impacts on the envir­on­ment and loc­al com­munit­ies and max­im­ise pos­it­ive out­comes for all involved.

Respons­ible tour­ism and respons­ible travel can take many forms, includ­ing eco­tour­ism, cul­tur­al tour­ism, and volun­teer tour­ism. These types of tour­ism often involve close engage­ment with loc­al com­munit­ies, respect­ing loc­al cul­tures, and sup­port­ing loc­al busi­nesses and con­ser­va­tion efforts.

In recent years, respons­ible tour­ism and respons­ible travel have gained pop­ular­ity among trav­el­lers seek­ing mean­ing­ful exper­i­ences that have a pos­it­ive impact. How­ever, it is essen­tial for trav­el­lers to do their research to choose reli­ably respons­ible tour­ism options that align with their values.

“GT” tends to (though prob­ably incon­sist­ently) apply the respons­ible travel & tour­ism tag where the con­tent dis­cusses the respons­ib­il­ity of the trav­el­ler or tour­ist rather than the sup­ply-side stake­hold­er. There is of course plenty of con­tent (and tags) that address the respons­ib­il­ity of the travel & tour­ism industry to do no harm and make things bet­ter; tags such as “sus­tain­able tour­ism and regen­er­at­ive tour­ism” for example.

Tags are inform­al. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog tries not to get bogged down with ter­min­o­logy and defin­i­tions. If you dis­agree with tags applied (or not applied) to a post, feel free to com­ment on it or any post you think has been incor­rectly or insuf­fi­ciently tagged. “GT” encour­ages good-faith debate and discussion.

As we build back better, is sustainable tourism enough to regenerate nature?

September 8, 2020

Elephants and the community (c. Mahouts Elephant Foundation)

Sus­tain­able tour­ism is a com­plex puzzle with lots of mov­ing parts. Toss in regen­er­at­ive prin­ciples and it becomes even more con­found­ing. For­tu­nately there are those who think deeply about import­ant parts of the puzzle, such as anim­al wel­fare con­sult­ant Daniel Turn­er of ANIMONDIAL. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Mr Turn­er shares how our industry might […]

Read More As we build back better, is sustainable tourism enough to regenerate nature?

Pivots to make a difference: What ITA is doing to educate, inspire, satiate

July 10, 2020

As we navigate our way through a tunnel of trouble, how can we pivot and position ourselves with grace and with style to make a difference at the other end? Image (c) Kelley Louise.

A travel entre­pren­eur pas­sion­ate about storytelling and social good, Kel­ley Louise is the exec­ut­ive dir­ect­or and founder of Impact Travel Alli­ance, a com­munity for eco- and socially-con­­s­cious trav­el­lers. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Kel­ley tells us how the not-for-profit is mak­ing the best of chal­len­ging times to edu­cate trav­el­lers. Thanks to “GT” Insight Part­ner Second […]

Read More Pivots to make a difference: What ITA is doing to educate, inspire, satiate

How to change an iconic travel & tourism experience … for good

June 24, 2020

From the roadside. Mount Sefton, Mt Cook National Park, New Zealand. Image by Bernard Spragg (CC0) via Picryl. https://picryl.com/media/mount-sefton-mt-cook-np-nz-68cc04

Mak­ing things bet­ter rarely neces­sit­ates tear­ing everything down and start­ing again. Josie Major of GOOD Travel (no rela­tion) describes how research and a little ima­gin­a­tion can turn a quint­es­sen­tial New Zea­l­and travel exper­i­ence — the road trip — into some­thing poten­tially much bet­ter for every­one. Thanks to “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner Second Look World­wide for invit­ing Josie to con­trib­ute this “GT” […]

Read More How to change an iconic travel & tourism experience … for good

Has ‘Future of Tourism’ failed host communities?

June 18, 2020
7 Comments

Are host communities being ground down by the tourism industrial complex? Caption by "GT". Image by Andrius Petrucenia (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia. "GT" cropped it and applied a rouge filter. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mincer_(3075035).jpeg

The Future of Tour­ism Coali­tion is rather like a pub­lic rela­tions pyr­am­id scheme. The earli­er one signs up to it, the great­er the PR bene­fit. After every­one rushes in it will no longer be news­worthy. So if you’re going to sign up for it, do so after you read this hot take. Or wait until […]

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Online courses by The Centre for Responsible Tourism Singapore: ‘Reinventing tourism learning’

June 4, 2020
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Centre for Responsible Tourism Singapore logo and two images

“GT” Friend Kev­in Phun of new “GT” Part­ner The Centre for Respons­ible Tour­ism Singa­pore (CRTS) has developed a series of short online courses for aspir­ing respons­ible tour­ism prac­ti­tion­ers — or any­one inter­ested in the sub­ject — to estab­lish a found­a­tion of know­ledge and a frame­work for think­ing about vari­ous aspects of respons­ible tour­ism.  “GT” 20% dis­count coupon: GTB-20-OFF Courses […]

Read More Online courses by The Centre for Responsible Tourism Singapore: ‘Reinventing tourism learning’

Supply lines: A former soldier’s take on tourism’s failure to win hearts & minds

May 26, 2020

PangSoong Lodge nature trail. Image supplied by author.

How does a spe­cial forces sol­dier become an out­spoken pro­ponent for and awar­ded prac­ti­tion­er of sin­cerely respons­ible tour­ism? In this “GT” Insight, Shane K Beary takes us back to his past before ask­ing us to con­sider his vis­ion for the future; a more equit­able com­munity-based travel & tour­ism industry. And it’s all about the sup­ply chain. […]

Read More Supply lines: A former soldier’s take on tourism’s failure to win hearts & minds