Good news in travel & tourism October-December 2024

This ‘Good news in travel & tour­ism’ wraps up three months of “Good Tour­ism” & “GT” Travel news, insights, and exper­i­ences: Octo­ber, Novem­ber, and Decem­ber 2024.

Share ‘Good news’ as you would a water­mel­on on a hot sum­mer­’s day …

It’s “GT”. And go!

(Click/touch an item on the shar­ing menu to go straight to it. And don’t for­get to share.)

What does ‘good tourism’ mean to you?

Did you ever want to write a thought­ful piece about the state of the tour­ism industry; how we got here; how we can make it bet­ter (or avoid the worst)?

Has a lack of con­fid­ence in your writ­ing held you back? Well, please don’t let it. Your cor­res­pond­ent is here to help you. 

If you sub­mit a draft that com­plies with the simple “GT” Insight guidelines, I will per­son­ally copy edit your work and ensure that you are happy with it before I click ‘Pub­lish’.

The freedom to share

Just as “Good Tour­ism” nev­er defines ‘good tour­ism’, “GT” will nev­er judge any­one who would, in good faith, share their insights, ideas, expert­ise, exper­i­ence, and wis­dom. It’s part of “GT’s” mis­sion to offer a plat­form for truly diverse per­spect­ives and opinions: 

• From estab­lished lead­ers in aca­demia and industry to young people with the gump­tion to express themselves; 
• From elite glob­al organ­isa­tions to the most mod­est micro busi­nesses (like “GT”);
• From the world’s ‘WEIRD’ (west­ern, edu­cated, indus­tri­al­ised, rich, and demo­crat­ic) places to the ‘LDCs’ (least developed coun­tries) in the ‘Glob­al South’;
• (From those who adore acronyms and cat­egor­ies to those who des­pise them ;-))
• From the centre and from the mar­gins.

No, “GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” publishes.

Join the “GT” net­work. Con­tact “GT” »

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“GT” Insights: Informed perspectives on tourism

The “Good Tour­ism” Blog pub­lishes informed opin­ions on the issues facing the travel & tour­ism industry, everyone’s busi­ness. “GT” Insights are diverse per­spect­ives writ­ten by, for, and about our sec­tor. Here are the most recent:

Preserving Nigeria’s cultural heritage through authenticity

Today, ‘Octo­ber First’, is Nigeria’s Nation­al Inde­pend­ence Day. To mark the occa­sion, UK-based Nigeri­an aca­dem­ic Shola Osinaike makes a case for con­nect­ing Nigeria’s cul­tur­al her­it­age to its prom­ising future through authen­t­ic exper­i­ences in tour­ism, edu­ca­tion, and technology.

Thanks to “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions for invit­ing Dr Osinaike to write this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. (You too can write a “GT” Insight.)

• Niger­ia: The ‘Giant of Africa’
• Storytelling, a corner­stone of Nigeria’s cul­tur­al heritage
• Nigeria’s authen­t­ic cul­tur­al experiences
• Tech­no­logy, a power­ful ally
• Edu­ca­tion is vital. But so is tourism.
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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The human touch: Why Scotland should keep its visitor information centres open

VisitScotland’s plan to close its vis­it­or inform­a­tion centres (‘iCentres’) misses the mark, accord­ing to Alastair Naughton who pens his fourth “Good Tour­ism” Insight.

[You too can write a “GT” Insight.]

VisitScotland’s pro­pos­al to close all its iCentres by 2026 is a mis­guided strategy that fails to recog­nise the diverse needs of tourists. 

While it is true that many trav­el­lers plan their trips online, an online-only approach to provid­ing inform­a­tion over­looks sev­er­al cru­cial factors:

• ‘One size fits all’ nev­er works
• The digit­al divide
• The value of loc­al knowledge 
• Spon­taneity in travel
• The human element
• Retail val­ues mul­tiple touchpoints
• VisitScotland’s ‘col­lab­or­a­tion’ strategy
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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A matter of taste: Travellers, tourists, and ‘tourism for peace’

Does being a ‘trav­el­ler’ or a ‘tour­ist’ have any­thing to do with ‘tour­ism for peace’?

Jim Butcher ques­tions Fabio Carbone’s cari­ca­ture of arrog­ant tour­ists and his claim that only trav­el­lers hold the keys to world peace. 

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. (You too can write a “GT” Insight.)

• A grand claim
• A breed apart
• ‘Hell is oth­er people’
• People make tourism
• A mat­ter of taste
• Tour­ism for peace?
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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For real: Barcelona’s housing crisis caused by anti-hospitality policy, not tourism

Prop­erty man­age­ment pro­fes­sion­al Saverio Francesco Ber­to­lu­cci shares his views on Barcelona’s hous­ing crisis and the anti-tour­ism polit­ics at play in his adop­ted home city. 

Pub­lished in col­lab­or­a­tion with Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions, a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner, it’s Mr Bertolucci’s sev­enth “GT” Insight.

[You too can write a “GT” Insight.]

• On the anti-tour­ism radar
• The polit­ics of housing
• Wak­ing up in Barcelona
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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Wasn’t me! Defining tourism sub-sector responsibilities for EU ESG reporting

How can the European Union’s (EU) travel and hos­pit­al­ity sec­tors estab­lish clear respons­ib­il­ity bound­ar­ies while ensur­ing envir­on­ment­al, social, and gov­ernance (ESG) account­ab­il­ity across the entire tour­ism value chain? 

Robin Boustead shares his first “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too can write a “GT” Insight.]

• Loom­ing dead­lines, fines, (pris­on?)
• Defin­ing respons­ib­il­ity boundaries
• Ensur­ing ESG account­ab­il­ity across the value chain
• Bal­an­cing respons­ib­il­ity and accountability
• Ulti­mate goal
• What do you think? 
• About the author

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“GT” Insight Bites

A “GT” Insight Bites post is a com­pil­a­tion of short responses to an identic­al set of pro­pos­i­tions and/or ques­tions, and/or a col­lec­tion of short opin­ion pieces that travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers are wel­come to sub­mit at any time (BiteX). Here are the most recent Bites:

Would you abolish taxes on tips?

Abol­ish­ing taxes on tips is a prom­ise made by both US pres­id­en­tial can­did­ates. Based on where you are, and your exper­i­ence of tour­ism and hos­pit­al­ity, what do you think of the policy?

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites question.

Thanks to the five respond­ents — pro­fess­ors, pro­fes­sion­als, prac­ti­tion­ers — who took the time to share their thoughts on the ques­tion. Their answers appear in the order received.

And thanks to Richard But­ler for his “GT” Insight BiteX, and Rieki Crins for her “GT” Travel Exper­i­ence. (You too can share your opin­ions and inspir­a­tions with “GT”.)

• ‘And an end to fossil fuel subsidies’
  • Geof­frey Lip­man, co-founder, act­iv­ist, Malta 
• ‘Go after those who don’t pay taxes at all’
  • John Mor­ris Wil­li­ams, hotel group gen­er­al man­ager, Laos
• ‘Fair and appro­pri­ate pri­cing is much preferable’
  • Richard But­ler, emer­it­us pro­fess­or, Scotland
• ‘Tips are a life­line for many workers’
  • Sham­iso Nyajeka, aca­dem­ic, head of depart­ment, Cambodia
• ‘Prac­tic­al bene­fits may be limited’
  • Richard A Shep­ard, trust­ee, chief exec­ut­ive, UK
• “GT” Insight BiteX (‘X’ is up to you)
• Mass tour­ism ‘more sus­tain­able per cap­ita than many oth­er forms’
  • Richard But­ler, emer­it­us pro­fess­or, Scotland
• “GT” Travel Experiences
• ‘Thai people are the kind­est in the world’
  • Rieki Crins, founder, edu­cat­or, author, Netherlands
• What do you think about taxes on tips? 

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Tourism stakeholders: Who has an outsized voice? Who has no voice? Who cares?

Among tour­ism stake­hold­ers, who has an out­sized voice, and who has no voice? Why is this import­ant where you live and work?

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites question.

Thanks to the 12 respond­ents — pro­fess­ors, pro­fes­sion­als, prac­ti­tion­ers, pub­lish­ers — who took the time to share their thoughts on the ques­tion. Their answers appear in the order received.

And thanks to Rieki Crins for her “GT” Insight BiteX. (You too can write for “GT”.)

• ‘Most import­ant voice’ rarely heard
  • Robin Boustead, founder, Nepal
• The game-changers
  • Saverio F Ber­to­lu­cci, busi­ness devel­op­ment man­ager, Spain
• The ‘very found­a­tion’ remains voiceless
  • Willem Niemeijer, founder, Thailand
• It’s time to speak up for ‘stake­hold­er management’
  • K Michael Hay­wood, writer, pub­lish­er, emer­it­us pro­fess­or, Canada
• ‘Bal­anced rep­res­ent­a­tion essential’
  • Dorji Dhradhul, author, Bhutan
• ‘Bal­an­cing stake­hold­er voices crucial’
  • Owen Mor­ris, part­ner­ship devel­op­ment man­ager, Thailand
• Power imbal­ances ‘cre­ate ten­sion and conflict’
  • Edwin Magio, doc­tor­al research­er, UK
• Dis­cord­ant voices
  • Herb Hiller, writer, pub­lish­er, USA
• Is mine an out­sized voice?
  • John Roberts, hotel exec­ut­ive, Thailand
• ‘Those who can’t hol­i­day are the stake­hold­ers we should hear’
  • Duncan M Simpson, writer, pub­lish­er, UK
• Side­lined com­munit­ies seek rep­res­ent­a­tion in the face of manipulation
  • Doreen Nyam­weya, tour­ism officer, Kenya
• ‘I’m here for the listeners’
  • Dav­id Gill­banks, writer, pub­lish­er, Australia
• “GT” Insight BiteX (‘X’ is up to you)
• How do we encour­age tour cus­tom­ers to slow down?
  • Rieki Crins, founder, edu­cat­or, Netherlands
• What do you think? 

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“GT” Insight Bites: Geopolitics and tourism

Like it or not, geo­pol­it­ics affects travel pat­terns. How can the tour­ism industry where you are bet­ter bal­ance the polit­ic­al sens­it­iv­it­ies of loc­al and inter­na­tion­al stakeholders?

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites question.

Thanks to pro­fess­ors K Michael Hay­wood and C Michael Hall who took the time to share their thoughts on a very big ques­tion. Their answers appear in the order received. (You too can share your opin­ions and inspir­a­tions with “GT”.)

To add to this com­pil­a­tion, your cor­res­pond­ent asked four AIs to answer the same ques­tion. Three of them answered as if they were loc­ated where I am. Did they pre­sume to answer for me? I asked those three to remove ref­er­ences to my location.

• Nav­ig­at­ing geo­pol­it­ic­al risks and opportunities
  • K Michael Hay­wood, emer­it­us pro­fess­or & pub­lish­er, Canada
• ‘Geo­pol­it­ics’ hides rights and justice issues
  • C Michael Hall, pro­fess­or, New Zealand
• ‘Adopt a nuanced, pro­act­ive approach’ to bal­ance sensitivities
  • Chat­G­PT
• Bal­an­cing sens­it­iv­it­ies ‘requires a nuanced approach’
  • Copi­lot
• ‘Strike a del­ic­ate bal­ance’ to nav­ig­ate complexity
  • Gem­ini
• Bal­an­cing sens­it­iv­it­ies ‘requires stra­tegic approaches’
  • Grok
• What do you think? 

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“GT” Travel Experiences: Informed inspiration for travellers

The “GT” Travel Blog pub­lishes informed inspir­a­tion and top tips for trav­el­lers from tour­ism insiders. Here are the latest:

Postcard from Thailand: ‘Thai people are the kindest in the world’

“Thai­l­and is kind of a second home for me. I have been vis­it­ing the coun­try for more than 40 years.

“Although Thai­l­and receives so many tour­ists every year, I real­ise that most vis­it­ors have no clue about the etiquette and way of life of the Thai. This is a shame because they miss the essence of Thai culture.

“Sadly, in the over­run tour­ist traps of the coun­try, the fine Thai cul­ture has been pushed away to accom­mod­ate vis­it­ors’ bad behaviour.

“If you learn the real Thai cul­ture — open your mind and do not judge — a magic­al world will open. Avoid the tour­ist traps, and you will exper­i­ence a very soph­ist­ic­ated culture.” 

Con­tin­ue read­ing at “GT” Travel Blog.

Dr Rieki Crins is the founder of the Learn­ing Exchange Found­a­tion, The Neth­er­lands, and of the Bong­de Insti­tute of Hos­pit­al­ity and Tour­ism, Bhutan.

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Share a “GT” Travel Experience or “GT” Travel Postcard

Are you a ‘tour­ism insider’ keen to share some of the exper­i­ences that got you inter­ested and keep you inter­ested in the travel & tour­ism industry?

Have you ever wanted to write a travel blog about an inspir­ing travel exper­i­ence … and have it published?

You are invited to share your travel pas­sion with dis­cern­ing trav­el­lers, and join a list of oth­er dis­tin­guished “GT” Friends who have done just that.

It could be a “GT” Travel Exper­i­ence (500 – 1,000 words) or a “GT” Travel Post­card (your favour­ite photo from a trip accom­pan­ied by an exten­ded cap­tion of up to 300 words).

It doesn’t mat­ter if you think you can’t write. I will per­son­ally copy-edit your draft and ensure that you are happy with it before I hit the ‘pub­lish’ button.

It’s all part of the “GT” Travel Exper­i­ence.

Join the “GT” net­work. Con­tact “GT” »

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Good news from friends

Good news in travel & tour­ism from the won­der­ful organ­isa­tions that make “GT” pos­sible. Here is some of what happened recently in the “Good Tour­ism” network:

SUNx, Murmuration partnership to support creation of tourism climate action plans

SUN^x (Strong Uni­ver­sal Net­work) and Mur­mur­a­tion have com­bined forces to sup­port tour­ism des­tin­a­tions and busi­nesses in rap­idly cre­at­ing cli­mate action plans. This is an imme­di­ate response to the Baku Tour­ism Declaration.

Murmuration’s power­ful cli­mate risk mod­el­ling tech­no­logy and SUN^x Cli­mate Friendly Travel Ser­vices’ AI solu­tions will deliv­er high qual­ity, data led, cli­mate action plans at low cost. In addi­tion, the part­ners offer cli­mate response train­ing and cli­mate risk mod­el­ling … con­tin­ue reading

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Anurak Community Lodge wins Amazing Thailand responsible tourism award

Anurak Com­munity Lodge in south­ern Thai­l­and has won the Tour­ism Author­ity of Thai­l­and 2024 Respons­ible Tour­ism Award in the “Respons­ible Tour­ism Accom­mod­a­tion” category.

Willem Niemeijer, Anurak co-founder and CEO of Anurak own­er-oper­at­or YAANA Ven­tures, received the award from Thailand’s Min­is­ter of Tour­ism and Sports, Sor­a­wong Thi­enthong, at World Travel Mar­ket in Lon­don, Novem­ber 5.

• ‘Hol­ist­ic approach’
• In good company
• About Anurak Com­munity Lodge
• About YAANA Ventures

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Cardamom Tented Camp in Cambodia adds three premium river view tents

Car­damom Ten­ted Camp’s new accom­mod­a­tions offer serene river views and an intim­ate wild­life exper­i­ence in Cambodia’s largest nation­al park, where “your stay keeps the forest standing”.

• ‘Unpar­alleled con­nec­tion to nature’
• ‘A front-line con­ser­va­tion effort’
• About Car­damom Ten­ted Camp
• Awards and accolades
• About YAANA Ventures

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Top five most visited “GT” posts of 2024 (& top 10 all-time “GT” & “GT” Travel posts)

The last time I put togeth­er lists such as these was in Decem­ber 2021 when many were des­per­ately hop­ing for a bet­ter new year after a tough two. 

We saw a bounce in 2022. Now, in Decem­ber 2024, as much of the tour­ism world has fully recovered, many are wor­ried about over­tour­ism again! 

In this moment, let’s be thank­ful for what’s good about the travel & tour­ism industry while vow­ing to keep a close eye on what’s not-so-good.

On that note of grat­it­ude, thank you to all the won­der­ful Part­ners of “Good Tour­ism” for mak­ing it pos­sible for me to help all the bril­liant “GT” guest authors and “GT” Travel guest authors express them­selves in plain Eng­lish. And a big thanks must go to them too for dar­ing to share their insights on a determ­inedly trans­par­ent plat­form for diverse perspectives.

And thank YOU for reading!

• Top five most vis­ited “Good Tour­ism” Blog posts pub­lished in 2024
  • Con­sid­er­ing a career in tour­ism? Import­ant things you should know in 2024
  • The hap­pi­ness factor: Social tour­ism is sus­tain­able tourism
  • Prof Dimitri­os Buhal­is on ‘over­tour­ism’ and the ‘demo­crat­isa­tion of tourism’
  • What does it mean to be crit­ic­al of tourism?
  • What did tour­ism learn from the COVID-19 pandemic?
• Top 10 most vis­ited “Good Tour­ism” Blog posts of all time
• Top 10 most vis­ited “GT” Travel Blog posts of all time
• What do you think? 

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The importance of good partnerships

To help you nav­ig­ate dire straits, take the tem­per­at­ure in an uncer­tain cli­mate, and keep your head when all about you are los­ing theirs, it’s wise to seek out good part­ners.

“GT” is a good part­ner. Veri­fy that with a “GT” Part­ner and then look at part­ner­ship oppor­tun­it­ies. There’s a pack­age for every­one — big or small; pub­lic or private; com­mer­cial or not-for-profit — because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business. 

All “GT” Part­ners enjoy out­stand­ing value, includ­ing the oppor­tun­ity to con­trib­ute news to the “GT” news­let­ter and to these ‘good news’ wraps of a month or two of “GT” content.

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Your comments

“Inter­est­ing range of views,” writes pro­fess­or emer­it­us Richard But­ler of Tour­ism Area Life Cycle mod­el fame in the com­ments sec­tion of the “GT” Insight Bites com­pil­a­tion about oppor­tun­it­ies and threats to tour­ism in 2025. 

“How do we square the first response re air travel and the second and fourth pos­it­ive responses about tour­ism in [[South­east] Asia where many of the vis­it­ors rely on air trans­port to get there from their origins?

“If any­one can resolve the con­tra­dic­tions, they will solve one of the great conun­drums of sup­posed ‘sus­tain­able’ tour­ism; travel to most self-styled sus­tain­able des­tin­a­tions is almost always mostly by air.”

If there are com­ments on any “GT” post, you will find them below the main con­tent of that post. You need to be signed in first. 

The “GT” Blog requires regis­tra­tion and sign in to make com­ment, read com­ments, and reply to com­ments. Why? Because “GT” is a ‘safe space’ for diverse per­spect­ives and respect­ful, friendly debate. 

You will NOT be banned for your off-the-wall opin­ions or your weird sense of humour (with­in reas­on; even if the capri­cious algorithms of our big tech over­lords pun­ish the publisher). 

How­ever, you WILL be banned for enga­ging in argu­mentum ad hom­inem. If you dis­agree with some­thing, always tackle the argu­ment not the indi­vidu­al mak­ing it.

Join the “Good Tour­ism” community

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Friends indeed

“Friends indeed” are worthy travel & tour­ism industry fun­draisers and char­it­able causes that are asso­ci­ated with or sug­ges­ted by “GT” Part­ners and friends. Please help them if you can. Share the page with your net­works. And link to it from your website.

Stay healthy, smile, have a good time … And when you travel, remember:

#KnowNotNo … It’s not ‘no’. It’s ‘know’.

Gotta go? Then go!
If you’ve time, go slow
If you don’t, try low
Do what you know is good
And know there is more to know

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Featured image (top of post)

Share ‘Good news’ in travel & tour­ism Octo­ber to Decem­ber 2024 as you would a water­mel­on. Image by Kenta Kiku­chi (CC0) via Unsplash.

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Donations, diversity, disclosure

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! 

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. And your ori­gin­al con­tent sup­ports an inde­pend­ent publisher.

Part­ner with “GT”.

Note: It is “GT’s” policy to fully dis­close Part­ner or sponsored con­tent. If an item asso­ci­ated with a “GT” Part­ner is not dis­closed as such, then it either met the “GT” Insight guidelines (includ­ing “avoid sales pitches”) or it was a simple oversight.

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