Tourism elephants and their mahouts

Scroll down for posts tagged with “tour­ism ele­phants and their mahouts”.

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

You can’t furlough an elephant: How Laos’ ECC is surviving the COVID crisis

February 8, 2022

One can't simply furlough a bull elephant and his mahout. Image supplied by the Elephant Conservation Center in Sayaboury, Laos.

What would you do if rev­en­ues dried up but you had dozens of ele­phants to look after? The Ele­phant Con­ser­va­tion Cen­ter (ECC) in Say­a­boury, Laos faced this situ­ation as COVID-19 lock­downs and travel bans bit in March 2020. ECC found­ing part­ner Sébas­tien Duffil­lot shares what they did. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [Thanks to “GT” Destination […]

Read More You can’t furlough an elephant: How Laos’ ECC is surviving the COVID crisis
Posted in Insights & Best Practices, "Good Tourism" in Asia, "Good Tourism" in Laos, "GT" Destinations & Places
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Top five most visited “GT” Insights & “GT” Travel Experiences of 2021 (& all time)

December 21, 2021

Five! Image by yohoprashant (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/colorful-five-fingers-kid-fingers-4043709/

Most of the past year — two years — has been ter­ribly tough for many; espe­cially travel & tour­ism people.  I can’t really say much more about it than I said at the cor­res­pond­ing time last year:  Good rid­dance 2021 … 2022 had bet­ter be bet­ter … blah blah … But, as I wrote at the end of 2020, it’s import­ant to […]

Read More Top five most visited “GT” Insights & “GT” Travel Experiences of 2021 (& all time)
Posted in "GT" news & events, "GT" news international
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Science, mahout traditions may help save Asian elephants from extinction in Laos

and November 16, 2021

Elephant family crossing a river. Captive breeding technology and mahout knowledge may help save Asian elephants in Laos. Image supplied by Anabel Lopez Perez.

Asi­an ele­phants are at risk of extinc­tion in the wild and in cap­tiv­ity. That they are not repla­cing their num­bers in cap­tiv­ity may come as a sur­prise to many. This is why con­­ser­­va­­tion-ori­en­ted cap­tive breed­ing pro­grams are import­ant to the spe­cies. Wild­life bio­lo­gist Ana­bel Lopez Perez of Laos’ Ele­phant Con­ser­va­tion Cen­ter and Hol­lis Bur­b­ank-Ham­­marlund of […]

Read More Science, mahout traditions may help save Asian elephants from extinction in Laos
Posted in "GT" Destinations & Places, "Good Tourism" in Asia, "Good Tourism" in Laos, Insights & Best Practices
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Thailand’s tourism elephants lose when pragmatism gives way to politics, ideology

June 1, 2021
One Comment

Fundraising livestreams are the best hope for unemployed elephants in Thailand. Pic supplied by John Roberts.

The best hope for Thail­and’s unem­ployed tour­ism ele­phants now are livestreams and the gen­er­os­ity of donors. As travel resumes, ele­phant expert John Roberts fears that loc­al polit­ics and act­iv­ist ideo­logy will con­tin­ue to be a bar­ri­er to optim­al out­comes.  It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight.  It is always fool­ish to gaze into a crys­tal ball and […]

Read More Thailand’s tourism elephants lose when pragmatism gives way to politics, ideology
Posted in Insights & Best Practices, "Good Tourism" in Asia, "Good Tourism" in Thailand, "GT" Destinations & Places
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The five most visited “Good Tourism” posts of 2020 (& all time)

December 31, 2020
One Comment

Five! Image by yohoprashant (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/colorful-five-fingers-kid-fingers-4043742/

I jot down this irrel­ev­ant pre­amble on Decem­ber 31, 2020 … Most of the past 364 days have been ter­ribly tough for many, of course, espe­cially travel & tour­ism folk. Can­’t say much more about it than every per­son and their pet has already said — “Good rid­dance 2020 … Hope 2021 is bet­ter … blah blah […]

Read More The five most visited “Good Tourism” posts of 2020 (& all time)
Posted in "GT" news & events, "GT" news international
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Mahouts matter: The Elephant Conservation Center’s essential workers

and November 26, 2020

ECC's male elephant mahout team. Image by Anabel Lopez-Perez.

Intro­duct­ory note by Hol­lis Bur­b­ank-Ham­­marlund, Work for Wild Life Inter­na­tion­al: The concept of ‘essen­tial work­ers’ has been front and centre since the COVID-19 vir­us struck our world earli­er this year. Doc­tors, nurses, para­med­ics, as well as teach­ers, gro­cery store work­ers, trans­port­a­tion staff and so many oth­ers have been work­ing tire­lessly to sup­port essen­tial human needs […]

Read More Mahouts matter: The Elephant Conservation Center’s essential workers
Posted in "GT" Destinations & Places, "Good Tourism" in Asia, "Good Tourism" in Laos, "GT" news & events, "GT" news from Asia, Sponsored posts
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