Good news in tourism May 10 – 16, 2020

… because it’s every­one’s business! 

Pub­lished Sunday to be ready Monday, “Good news in tour­ism” is the per­fect pick-me-up for the start of a new week in travel & tour­ism. And go!

Import­ant “Good Tour­ism” (“GT”) stuff first: 

In a fresh “GT” Insight pub­lished on Tues­day, respons­ible tour­ism and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment spe­cial­ist Kev­in Phun took a peek at the pis­cat­ori­al pro­fi­cien­cies of the people of Penghu, Taiwan to dis­cuss how the tan­gible and intan­gible should be con­sidered inter­con­nec­ted when plan­ning sus­tain­able cul­tur­al her­it­age tour­ism attrac­tions.

Khiri Reach, the char­it­able arm of new “GT” Part­ner Khiri Travel, is act­ively help­ing com­munit­ies in Asia impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Accord­ing to Khiri Reach chief Nia Klatte, their “ini­tial instinct” was to help people in mar­gin­al­ised com­munit­ies, many of whom have had long-stand­ing rela­tion­ships with Khiri Travel; fam­il­ies, artis­ans, and com­munity-based pro­jects. For example, Khiri Reach has donated gro­cery pack­ages to 250 fam­il­ies in Grand­pass, a sub­urb of Colombo, Sri Lanka; and in Myan­mar, Khiri staff are help­ing loc­al volun­teer groups set up two social enter­prises: KuMel Volun­teer Con­nec­tion and Hon­ey­bee Arts & Crafts. 

Yes, you read that cor­rectly; a new “GT” Part­ner. Indeed “GT” has two new part­ners: Khiri Travel and Anurak Com­munity Lodge. And that’s good news … So, join them! Part­ner with “GT”. (You know you want to.)

Rant alert. Scroll to next sub-head­ing to skip …

Mean­while, des­pite the crisis facing the travel & tour­ism industry, there are still those among us who would ask pro­spect­ive trav­el­lers dream­ing of jump­ing on the next avail­able flight to “check their priv­ilege”, or words to that effect. Well, per­haps those who would ask such a thing should check their memor­ies. Have they for­got­ten that at stake are live­li­hoods reli­ant on those who would fol­low their travel dreams; par­tic­u­larly the live­li­hoods of those in more … under­priv­ileged … parts of the world? 

“Check your priv­ilege” … Ser­i­ously? That sen­ti­ment was wear­ing thin among reas­on­able, ration­al, com­pas­sion­ate people even before this health and eco­nom­ic crisis. The last thing our industry needs as we plan for recov­ery is pro­spect­ive trav­el­lers not mak­ing travel plans for fear of feel­ing judged. 

This still applies: It’s not “no”. It’s “know”.

COVID ops in Australia and New Zealand

What happened else­where, as SARS-CoV­‑2 took its grand tour of the world, informed Australia’s and New Zealand’s seem­ingly suc­cess­ful policy responses to it. (And, no small thing, Aus­trali­an sci­ent­ists are work­ing on some of the most prom­ising can­did­ate vac­cines against COVID-19.) So it would make sense, before rush­ing in, for des­tin­a­tions else­where to observe what Oz and NZ do as they take cau­tious meas­ures to resus­cit­ate their travel, tour­ism, and hos­pit­al­ity industries … 

While a travel bubble between Aus­tralia and New Zea­l­and may take weeks or even months to mater­i­al­ise, both coun­tries are open to even­tu­ally includ­ing Pacific nations. The “tour­ism giant of the Pacific”, Fiji, is cer­tainly keen. How­ever, Pacific nations less depend­ent on tour­ism are also less inter­ested in blow­ing bubbles prematurely.

New Zea­l­and Tour­ism Min­is­ter Kelvin Dav­is announced a NZD400 mil­lion (USD240 mil­lion) “tar­geted Tour­ism Recov­ery Fund” which will include a domest­ic tour­ism cam­paign. “When form­ing this response pack­age, my col­leagues and I care­fully con­sidered feed­back from industry. Ini­tial, wide-ran­ging con­sulta­tion iden­ti­fied a strong desire for a deep look at the future of tour­ism, but also sig­ni­fic­ant short-term pressures.”

West­ern Aus­tralia Premi­er Mark McGow­an said the state’s suc­cess in fight­ing the spread of coronavir­us meant it was ready to “take the next step” from Monday (May 18). While the state bor­der is to remain closed, the tem­por­ary intrastate bor­ders will be reduced from 13 to four. Social gath­er­ings of up to 20 people will be per­mit­ted, includ­ing dine-in ser­vice in res­taur­ants and cafes provided they adhere to a four-square-metre-per-per­son dens­ity rule.

In South Aus­tralia, rur­al tour­ism oper­at­ors recor­ded a surge in book­ings after the state gov­ern­ment encour­aged intrastate travel to region­al areas.

The state gov­ern­ment of Vic­tor­ia, Aus­tralia has announced a AUD150 mil­lion (USD96.5 mil­lion) fund for its “exper­i­ence eco­nomy”; sport, tour­ism, and culture.

In Queens­land, Aus­tralia, tour­ism recov­ery, accord­ing to Tour­ism Port Douglas Dain­tree, will hap­pen in stages: region­al drive, intrastate, inter­state, and inter­na­tion­al. TPDD boss Tara Ben­nett says her team is work­ing on col­lat­er­al tar­get­ing region­al mar­kets inter­ested in “food tour­ism, access­ible travel, sus­tain­ab­il­ity, busi­ness events and des­tin­a­tion wed­dings”.

More COVID ops

Aus­tralia and New Zea­l­and bene­fit from being pros­per­ous island nations with rel­at­ively small pop­u­la­tions that can pre­sum­ably afford to take a cau­tious approach to reopen­ing. Most of the rest of the world don’t have the same advant­ages and are talk­ing about open­ing up faster. Some appear to be in a hurry; at least by the stand­ards of poli­cy­mak­ing in Oz and NZ.

Some 49 organ­isa­tion­al mem­bers of the European Her­it­age Alli­ance launched a mani­festo on May 9 call­ing for the urgent and col­lect­ive mobil­isa­tion of “the trans­form­a­tion­al power of cul­ture and cul­tur­al her­it­age to provide mean­ing and inspir­a­tion for Europe’s green and inclus­ive recov­ery”. The part entitled “Exper­i­en­cing Europe” is all about tour­ism: “… we fully sup­port the appeal for a major “EU tour­ism res­cue plan” […] Tour­ism needs cul­tur­al her­it­age and cul­tur­al her­it­age needs tourism.”

Com­ment­ing on the mani­festo, Chris Flynn, boss of “GT” Insight Part­ner the World Tour­ism Asso­ci­ation for Cul­ture & Her­it­age (WTACH) said: “We totally agree with the sen­ti­ment of the mani­festo and would be keen to sup­port any ini­ti­at­ive that focuses on the role of tour­ism.” [Remind­er: Register here for upcom­ing instal­ments of the webin­ar series “Keep­ing the Dream Alive”, which has been organ­ised by WTACH to help travel & tour­ism through the COVID-19 crisis. Or listen to pod­cast record­ings of past episodes.]

“What is good for the tour­ism industry is often good for the whole of France,” said Prime Min­is­ter Edou­ard Phil­ippe on Thursday in a press con­fer­ence announ­cing an EUR18 bil­lion (USD19.4 bil­lion) res­cue plan for the sector.

The Asso­ci­ation of Por­tuguese Travel Blog­gers (ABVP) will help relaunch tour­ism in Por­tugal by tak­ing mem­bers on trips to what ABVP Pres­id­ent Filipe Morato Gomes describes as “so-called low-dens­ity ter­rit­or­ies, where the activ­ity of small rur­al tour­ism busi­nesses and res­taur­ants has a great impact on loc­al eco­nom­ies”. He says it is travel blog­gers’ “humble con­tri­bu­tion” to tour­ism recovery. 

Mean­while, as hotels in Por­tugal’s Algarve region reopen and book­ings rise, Tur­ismo de Por­tugal has intro­duced a seal of approv­al for oper­at­ors that meet gov­ern­ment hygiene stand­ards. “In addi­tion, the board is plan­ning to hand out a spe­cial traveller’s pass allow­ing vis­it­ors to get tested for COVID-19 even before they begin their holidays.”

Tour­ism stake­hold­ers on Malay­sia’s tour­ism-depend­ent Langkawi Island have come up with pack­ages aimed at attract­ing domest­ic trav­el­lers; “front­liners and civil ser­vants” are a prime tar­get. Emer­ging themes include longer vis­its and more cul­tur­al con­tent to sup­ple­ment the island’s nat­ur­al beauty. Langkawi Devel­op­ment Author­ity (LADA) CEO Hezri Adnan said they would hold con­sultat­ive meet­ings focused on solu­tions, not “moan­ing and groaning”.

In India, Ker­ala Tour­ism is look­ing to tap the poten­tial of “unex­plored” des­tin­a­tions in the state; as much for Ker­al­ites as for inbound mar­kets. Ker­ala Tour­is­m’s RT mis­sion has cre­ated videos about these places along with their arts, cul­tures, and cuisines. Goa Tour­ism, mean­while, has launched a state-wide sur­vey of tour­ism stake­hold­ers ask­ing about the extent of their losses, cur­rent needs, and their expect­a­tions of government.

From June 1, Parks Canada and Envir­on­ment & Cli­mate Change Canada will “gradu­ally resume some oper­a­tions at selec­ted nation­al parks, nation­al wild­life areas, nation­al his­tor­ic sites, his­tor­ic water­ways, and nation­al mar­ine con­ser­va­tion areas”.

An “Integ­rated Tour­ism Con­tin­gency Plan” is reportedly ready for the “pos­sible open­ing” of tour­ism in Khy­ber Pakh­tunkh­wa, a north­west­ern province of Pakistan.

In the USA, 75% of respond­ents to a nation­al sur­vey reck­on they will drive to their first post-lock­down des­tin­a­tion. That’s why Wis­con­sin Tour­ism Sec­ret­ary-design­ee Sara Meaney reck­ons her state bene­fits from being access­ible by car and by hav­ing many out­door attrac­tions. “We are optim­ist­ic that with the right mes­saging and with the appro­pri­ate safety and health [guidelines] in place in our busi­nesses and our des­tin­a­tions, we can very safely drive the rebound,” she said, pun intended. 

Sim­il­arly, Cit­rus County Vis­it­ors Bur­eau boss John Prich­er reck­ons his county is bet­ter posi­tioned for recov­ery than most in Flor­ida because of plenty of “out­door activ­it­ies such as boat­ing, hik­ing and cyc­ling that lend them­selves to few­er crowds”.

In Clear­wa­ter, Flor­ida more relaxed muni­cip­al reg­u­la­tions — from allow­ing ban­ner sig­nage and sand­wich boards that announce reopen­ings to let­ting seat­ing spill out into car parks to help res­taur­at­eurs main­tain min­im­um phys­ic­al dis­tances — are all designed to help busi­nesses bounce back, accord­ing to officials.

In Col­or­ado, Breck­en­ridge Tour­ism Office boss Lucy Kay reck­ons book­ings are look­ing stronger for late July, August, and Septem­ber. Her office is work­ing on expand­ing its respons­ible tour­ism mes­saging to include con­tent about masks and phys­ic­al distancing.

Offi­cials at the Grand Canyon Nation­al Park in Ari­zona say they are increas­ing access to some view­points, but com­mer­cial ser­vices and accom­mod­a­tion remain closed. “Vis­it­ors are being told to plan to be self-suf­fi­cient, bring­ing food, water and hand sanitizer.”

As evid­enced by sev­er­al oth­er news items dur­ing the week, nation­al and state parks all over the USA have already opened or are plan­ning to open up to vis­it­ors. And why not? Vit­am­in D is good for you.

You can lead a horse to water …

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How about reflect­ing on your achieve­ments, mis­takes, and les­sons learned; out­lining your vis­ion for the future of travel & tour­ism; telling the story of your “Good Tour­ism” jour­ney, whatever “good” means to you; shar­ing your “GT” Insights? ← Opportunity.

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Provincial potential

Provinces in north­ern Cam­bod­ia are poten­tial eco­tour­ism des­tin­a­tions that need “sus­tain­able devel­op­ment with high respons­ib­il­ity”, accord­ing to Tour­ism Min­is­ter Thong Khon. Mon­dulkiri province in the north has iden­ti­fied 39 attrac­tions includ­ing water­falls, eth­nic minor­ity cul­tures, moun­tains, val­leys, and wild­life sanc­tu­ar­ies that will be of interest to an inter-min­is­teri­al tour­ism plan­ning committee.

Iran’s Cul­tur­al Her­it­age, Tour­ism & Han­di­crafts Min­is­ter Ali-Asghar Moun­es­an has iden­ti­fied the coastal Sis­t­an-Bal­uchest­an province as among his top tour­ism devel­op­ment pri­or­it­ies. “I con­sider it as a safe province with sig­ni­fic­ant val­ues in terms of cul­ture, his­tory, han­di­crafts, and tourism.”

Odds & ends

Good news bits ‘n pieces that don’t eas­ily fit into this week’s arbit­rary clusters:

An Asso­ci­ation of Social Tour­ism has been estab­lished in Uzbek­istan. “Among its main tasks are hold­ing char­ity events for people with dis­ab­il­it­ies and chil­dren from poor fam­il­ies, help­ing to cre­ate con­di­tions for travel of people with dis­ab­il­it­ies.”

Stay healthy, smile, and have a good week!

Fea­tured image (top of post): Temples and the golden sun. Myan­mar. By 12019 via Pixabay.

To help your cor­res­pond­ent keep his energy-effi­cient lights on, please con­sider a private one-off gift or ongo­ing dona­tion. THANK YOU to those who have! <3

You are a tour­ism stake­hold­er — yes, YOU! — so what’s your view? Do you dis­agree with any­thing you have read on “GT”? Join the con­ver­sa­tion. Com­ment below or share your “Good Tour­ism” Insights. Diversity of thought is wel­come on The “Good Tour­ism” Blog. 

Dis­claim­er 1: It is “GT’s” policy to fully dis­close partner/sponsor con­tent. If an item is not dis­closed as part­ner or spon­sor-related then it will have caught “GT’s” atten­tion by some oth­er more organ­ic means. Part­ner with “GT”. You know you want to.

Dis­claim­er 2: None of the stor­ies linked from this week’s post have been fact-checked by “GT”. All ter­min­o­logy used here is as the linked sources used it accord­ing to the know­ledge and assump­tions they have about it. Please com­ment below if you know there has been buzzword-wash­ing or blatant non­sense relayed here, but be nice about it as the linked sources might get offen­ded. (“GT” won’t.) And as for “GT” bring­ing it to your atten­tion so that you might be the one to set the record straight, you are welcome! 🙂