Wishwashing tourism

With ‘gre­en­wash­ing’ and oth­er forms of empty rhet­or­ic and inef­fect­ive poli­cy­mak­ing allegedly rampant, is the travel & tour­ism industry, its stu­dents and con­sult­ants, engaged in ‘wish­wash­ing’: hop­ing motiv­a­tions and incent­ive struc­tures are bet­ter aligned to our wishes than what they are in the real world?

Yes? No? Some­times? Maybe? Offer examples.

And that is your “GT” Insight Bites chal­lenge. Write up to 300 words about wish­wash­ing tour­ism in the com­ments at any time. [The dead­line for free copy edit­ing, lay­out, and pre­view in time for the Bites com­pil­a­tion has passed.]

UPDATE March 19, 2025 — Your “Good Tourism” Insight Bites

Thanks to the 11 respond­ents — edu­cat­ors, exec­ut­ives, experts, and entre­pren­eurs  — who took the time to share their thoughts on the ques­tion. Their answers appear in the order received. And thanks to Anishka Narula-Nielsen for her “GT” Insight BiteX.

‘Sustainability fatigue’: When wishes fail

Wolfgang Georg Arlt, CEO, COTRI (China Outbound Tourism Research Institute); Director, Meaningful Tourism Center, Nepal

Med­ic­al sci­ence delays indi­vidu­al death; a sus­tain­able eco­nomy delays spe­cies extinction. 

Open Linked­In and social media, and you’ll find count­less posts: “If only tour­ists would under­stand sus­tain­ab­il­ity,” or “Trav­el­lers are learn­ing!”, believ­ing this solves cli­mate change and overtourism.

Wish­ing for a bet­ter world is noble, but as effect­ive as writ­ing to Santa or burn­ing incense. Many tire of “green” talk without see­ing pos­it­ive impact, des­pite eat­ing less meat, cyc­ling, and tak­ing trains. 

We must com­mu­nic­ate that all efforts are vital, but our goal is to delay tip­ping points like the col­lapse of the Atlantic Meri­di­on­al Over­turn­ing Cir­cu­la­tion (AMOC) or per­ma­frost thaw.

This concept mir­rors medi­cine, where we extend life, know­ing death is inev­it­able. Reach­ing 80 or 90 years instead of 30 or 40 is val­ued, as it should be with our plan­et’s lifespan.

‘Wish­wash­ing’ — telling people small actions will fix everything — leads to ‘sus­tain­ab­il­ity fatigue’. Believ­ing stop­ping flights (done by few) or recyc­ling toi­let water (impossible for many) will save us is dan­ger­ous. It ignores the scale of the problem.

The gap between indi­vidu­al action and sys­tem­ic change must be acknow­ledged. We need to focus on large scale indus­tri­al change, as well as beha­vi­our­al change.

We must push for sus­tain­able avi­ation fuel and a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy, but with the clearly com­mu­nic­ated goal of pro­long­ing human­ity’s exist­ence, know­ing the point of no return is likely past. We fight to delay, not pre­vent, our even­tu­al fate, mir­ror­ing the dinosaurs. 

We must be hon­est about the chal­lenges. We need to make it clear that the goal is to buy time, and that we must use that time wisely.

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From wish to real-world alignment

K Michael Haywood, publisher, ‘Destinations-in-Action’, Canada

Con­sult­ants are hired to help ful­fill wishes in real world set­tings. Fail­ures are rarely admit­ted and nev­er dis­cussed in pub­lic. So why now? Post-mortems on mis­align­ments determ­ine how ideal­ism might find com­mon ground with the prac­tic­al­it­ies of realism.

Here are two pro­jects (that I com­pleted four dec­ades ago) that failed to be appro­pri­ately implemented: 

• A redesign of the Guelph Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Fest­iv­al, and
• The devel­op­ment of a Stra­tegic Tour­ism Plan for Elora, Ontario.

Let’s start with the terms of ref­er­ence. Ques­tions arose, changes were made, our pro­pos­als were accep­ted and everything seemed hunky-dory. Pro­jects pro­ceeded as planned; rela­tions with cli­ents remained amic­able; final reports and recom­mend­a­tions were delivered on time and with applause at com­munity meetings. 

Then, vir­tu­ally no word from any­one. We wondered, what went wrong? What did we not do?

Now we know. 

• Pre-mortems need to ascer­tain and under­stand the needs, wants, expect­a­tions and cul­ture of each stake­hold­er group…even those who might be in opposition. 
• Com­mu­nic­a­tions must be ongo­ing and trans­par­ent; hid­den agen­das exposed; the expli­cit and impli­cit purpose(s) and ambi­tions of those in con­trol need to be known.
• Costs/benefits and derived value — mater­i­ally, eco­nom­ic­ally, fin­an­cially, socially, cul­tur­ally, sus­tain­ably — must be in evid­ence pri­or to, and on com­ple­tion of, the project.
• Instabil­it­ies: Forces or trends that could derail the pro­ject need to be ascertained.
• The real chal­lenge requires deep know­ledge of expec­ted per­form­ance to be derived from a range of pos­sible product/market fits.
• A clear appre­ci­ation of the cli­ents‘ oper­at­ing sys­tems and cul­tures pre­de­ter­mines suc­cess, the will­ing­ness and cap­ab­il­ity to imple­ment the recommendations.

Per­haps Adele‘s song, “Rolling in the Deep”, best expresses the depth of des­pair that comes from the obstacles that hinder dreams from being ful­filled. We could’ve had it all … If only …

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Sustainability starts in the classroom

Regina Raj, Vice Principal, an international school, Indonesia

The travel & tour­ism industry loves to wear a green halo, but is it truly com­mit­ted to sus­tain­ab­il­ity or just enga­ging in wish­wash­ing, a glossy illu­sion of progress? 

It’s a can of worms no one really wants to open, but here we are. 

Stu­dents take sus­tain­ab­il­ity ser­i­ously, caring about respons­ible tour­ism, eth­ic­al busi­ness prac­tices, and pro­tect­ing the envir­on­ment. Yet, they often grow frus­trated when they real­ise that many busi­nesses focus more on appear­ances than real impact. 

Are they truly com­mit­ted, or just say­ing what sounds good?

Many young pro­fes­sion­als enter the industry wear­ing rose-col­oured glasses, hop­ing to drive change, only to face gre­en­wash­ing, cost-cut­ting, and res­ist­ance to real sus­tain­ab­il­ity efforts. 

Some busi­nesses and gov­ern­ments have taken steps for­ward, but is it enough? Without real com­mit­ment, wish­wash­ing will continue. 

I remem­ber the fiasco cre­ated by Mar­ri­ott International’s announce­ment that by 2019, it would remove plastic straws and stir­rers from its hotels to cut waste. 

The move was meant to reduce plastic waste. Yet, while they proudly ditched plastic straws, they con­veni­ently kept stock­ing their hotels with tiny plastic toi­letry bottles and excess­ive pack­aging because, appar­ently, straws were the only real problem. 

If Marriott’s goal was truly sus­tain­ab­il­ity, why stop at plastic straws?

If we want real change, sus­tain­ab­il­ity must start in schools. From kinder­garten to sec­ond­ary school, chil­dren should learn to value green prac­tices as a way of life, not just a trend. 

A great example is Singapore’s Eco-Schools Pro­gramme, which teaches stu­dents waste reduc­tion, energy sav­ing, and eco-tourism. 

If we teach these val­ues early, young people won’t just hope for sus­tain­ab­il­ity, they’ll demand it, ques­tion gre­en­wash­ing, and push for real change. 

Is the industry pre­pared for a future where gre­en­wash­ing no longer fools anyone?

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Sustainability is a work in progress

Krizia Clemente, Product and Account Manager, Khiri Travel Vietnam

The travel industry is genu­inely striv­ing for more sus­tain­able and respons­ible prac­tices, though there will always be room for growth. 

The concept of ‘wish­wash­ing’ can be seen when good inten­tions are in place, but the gap between goals and real-world exe­cu­tion can feel wider than expected.

For example, many com­pan­ies in the travel and tour­ism industry are increas­ingly pro­mot­ing eco-friendly tours and sus­tain­ab­il­ity ini­ti­at­ives. While these efforts are encour­aging, the infra­struc­ture in some des­tin­a­tions is not yet fully equipped to sup­port sus­tain­able prac­tices. Nev­er­the­less, this is a pos­it­ive sign that the industry is begin­ning to recog­nise the import­ance of sus­tain­ab­il­ity, though it remains a work in progress.

Sim­il­arly, there is a grow­ing focus on ini­ti­at­ives that pro­mote cul­tur­al sens­it­iv­ity and respons­ible tour­ism. More and more travel busi­nesses are work­ing to cre­ate con­nec­tions with loc­al com­munit­ies and entre­pren­eurs. While some exist­ing struc­tures may harm the envir­on­ment and dis­rupt loc­al com­munit­ies, there is an increas­ing emphas­is on giv­ing loc­al busi­nesses a voice, which in turn cre­ates more mean­ing­ful oppor­tun­it­ies for them.

Lastly, trav­el­lers are more con­scious than ever about sus­tain­ab­il­ity, which is push­ing the industry to meet these expect­a­tions. Often, eco-friendly travel options can be more expens­ive, but there is a grow­ing demand, and this is obli­ging com­pan­ies to make these options more access­ible and afford­able over time.

The travel industry is act­ively work­ing to align its motiv­a­tions with sus­tain­able prac­tices. While we’re still evolving, the jour­ney towards more mean­ing­ful and respons­ible tour­ism is well under­way. The key is to keep build­ing on these pos­it­ive steps, know­ing that small changes can lead to big impacts in the long run.

[Khiri Travel is a val­ued “Good Tour­ism” Partner]

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The think-do gap in sustainable travel

Greg Richards (Tilburg University) & Wendy Morrill (WYSE Travel Confederation), The Netherlands

Youth travel research reveals a stark ‘think-do gap’ in sus­tain­ab­il­ity. Des­pite express­ing strong envir­on­ment­al con­cerns, young trav­el­lers’ actions often con­tra­dict their stated inten­tions. The WYSE New Hori­zons sur­vey high­lights this paradox.

A grow­ing num­ber of 16 – 29-year-olds pri­or­it­ise sus­tain­able travel, with nearly a quarter deem­ing it “extremely import­ant” in 2023, up from 15% in 2017. How­ever, this con­cern rarely trans­lates into con­crete action. 

Even envir­on­ment­ally-aware indi­vidu­als travel fre­quently, with only 3.6% likely to pur­chase car­bon off­sets and 6.1% buy­ing eco-friendly products. Not­ably, 65% repor­ted no envir­on­ment­al con­cerns, even when trav­el­ling by air. 

A strik­ing 60% of those who claimed sus­tain­able travel was “extremely import­ant” admit­ted envir­on­ment­al con­cerns did not influ­ence their travel beha­viour. Trav­el­lers desir­ing sus­tain­able life­styles travel just as often as oth­ers. Fre­quent inter­na­tion­al trips are com­mon among those claim­ing envir­on­ment­al awareness. 

Only those who developed per­son­al aware­ness of their envir­on­ment­al impact dur­ing their trips (35%) reduced their travel frequency.

Meas­ur­ing the ‘think-do gap’ is dif­fi­cult. Those act­ing on per­son­al aware­ness travel less and may be under­rep­res­en­ted in typ­ic­al travel sur­veys. Yet, these indi­vidu­als are more likely to sup­port sus­tain­ab­il­ity ini­ti­at­ives when they do travel. 

Is clos­ing this gap a mat­ter of fos­ter­ing aware­ness through travel exper­i­ences, iron­ic­ally, or provid­ing more access­ible sus­tain­able options? Does the pre­val­ence of ‘wish­wash­ing’ obstruct the travel industry from effect­ively address­ing this discrepancy?

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‘Not only unfair but also dismissive’

Dorji Dhradhul, author and creativist, Bhutan (former Director General, Bhutan Tourism)

The idea that tour­ism pro­fes­sion­als, stu­dents, and con­sult­ants are enga­ging in “wish­wash­ing” is not only unfair but also dis­missive of the real work being done in the industry. As a tour­ism pro­fes­sion­al myself, I firmly believe that the major­ity of us are deeply com­mit­ted to sus­tain­able, respons­ible, and mean­ing­ful tour­ism practices.

While gre­en­wash­ing does exist, it does not mean that the entire travel & tour­ism sec­tor oper­ates on empty rhet­or­ic. Many organ­isa­tions and indi­vidu­als are mak­ing tan­gible efforts to align busi­ness goals with sustainability.

Take, for instance, the com­munity-based tour­ism ini­ti­at­ives in Bhutan. Com­pan­ies like travel.bhutan have made strong com­mit­ments to respons­ible tour­ism integ­rat­ing sus­tain­able prac­tices into their core oper­a­tions rather than just using them as mar­ket­ing tools.

Tour­ism stu­dents and con­sult­ants are also driv­ing change. Uni­ver­sit­ies now emphas­ise sus­tain­ab­il­ity in their cur­ricula, and con­sult­ants work act­ively to help busi­nesses trans­ition towards green­er models.

If we were merely engaged in wish­ful think­ing, we wouldn’t see major hotel chains elim­in­at­ing single-use plastics or des­tin­a­tions enfor­cing stricter vis­it­or reg­u­la­tions to pro­tect fra­gile eco­sys­tems, such as over­tour­ism meas­ures in Venice or the Galápagos.

The real­ity is that true tour­ism pro­fes­sion­als recog­nise the need for action, not just words. We acknow­ledge chal­lenges, but we work towards prac­tic­al solu­tions. Dis­miss­ing these efforts as “wish­wash­ing” under­mines the ded­ic­a­tion of those genu­inely striv­ing for a bet­ter tour­ism industry.

If some indi­vidu­als are only pre­tend­ing to care, they do not rep­res­ent the field. The rest of us are in this for real, and our work speaks louder than empty accusations.

A great example is Bhutan’s sus­tain­able tour­ism policy and prac­tice of ‘High Value Low Volume’, where a vis­it­or pays USD 100 per day as a sus­tain­able devel­op­ment fee. If pay­ing USD 100 per day per per­son is not authen­t­ic, what is?

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For women: Is tourism a powerful tool, or an unfulfilled promise?

Shamiso Nyajeka, Head of Department, Kirirom Institute of Technology, Cambodia

March is a time to cel­eb­rate women’s achieve­ments, reflect on pro­gress, and dis­cuss ongo­ing chal­lenges. Con­fer­ences and dis­cus­sions take place world­wide, but how many of the most vul­ner­able women even know these con­ver­sa­tions are hap­pen­ing? How many are aware of the policies and con­ven­tions designed to empower them? More import­antly, how effect­ive are these in address­ing real challenges?

With less than five years until 2030, the dead­line for the UN Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (SDGs), tour­ism con­tin­ues to be cham­pioned as a driver of most of the goals, includ­ing Goal 5: Achieve gender equal­ity and empower all women and girls. It is hailed as a tool for eco­nom­ic empower­ment, offer­ing jobs, fin­an­cial inde­pend­ence, and oppor­tun­it­ies for women to thrive.

This nar­rat­ive often high­lights inspir­ing suc­cess stor­ies, like women-led cooper­at­ives in Cam­bod­ia, Tur­key, and Morocco, or the fin­an­cial inde­pend­ence gained by Maa­sai women through cul­tur­al tour­ism in Kenya. But, as edu­cat­ors shap­ing future industry lead­ers, could we be unin­ten­tion­ally present­ing an ideal­ised ver­sion of tourism’s role? Are we cre­at­ing false expect­a­tions by overly focus­ing on these suc­cess stor­ies without fully address­ing the indus­tries’ deep­er inequalities? 

Tour­ism does cre­ate jobs for women, but many are low-pay­ing, sea­son­al, and insec­ure. Women remain under­rep­res­en­ted in lead­er­ship and own­er­ship, while gender-based viol­ence, exploit­a­tion, and work­place har­ass­ment per­sist. Bar­ri­ers such as lim­ited access to cap­it­al, train­ing, and net­works fur­ther hinder women entre­pren­eurs. Inter­sec­tion­al factors — race, eth­ni­city, and dis­ab­il­ity add addi­tion­al lay­ers of disparity. 

Are we glossing over these sys­tem­ic issues, which policies alone can­not fix? Could we be set­ting up our stu­dents for dis­il­lu­sion­ment when they enter the industry and face reality? 

Tour­ism can be a power­ful tool for gender equal­ity, but only if we acknow­ledge and address these uncom­fort­able truths. Oth­er­wise, will it remain anoth­er unful­filled promise?

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‘Bridging the gap between vision and reality’

Ivana Damnjanović, sustainable & transformational travel expert, educator, researcher, & experience designer; co-owner, Tchardak Brewery, Serbia

There are two sides to this coin: hope and dis­il­lu­sion­ment. Both shape our per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al jour­neys, indi­vidu­ally and col­lect­ively as an industry.

Hope fuels our aspir­a­tions. Without it, wishes, goals, and the paths to achiev­ing them would be mean­ing­less. Hope lets us strive, believ­ing change is pos­sible. But can we be blamed for want­ing the world to play along with our vision?

This is where ‘wish­wash­ing’ comes in; the tend­ency to believe that motiv­a­tions and incent­ive struc­tures are bet­ter aligned with our aspir­a­tions than they truly are. 

In travel & tour­ism, we cel­eb­rate sus­tain­ab­il­ity ini­ti­at­ives, des­tin­a­tion stew­ard­ship, and trans­form­a­tion­al travel. Over dec­ades, we have built frame­works like the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (SDGs) and exper­i­ence design for beha­viour change. But are these aspir­a­tions driv­ing real trans­form­a­tion, or are we select­ively see­ing pro­gress through an optim­ist­ic lens?

In a VUCA (volat­ile, uncer­tain, com­plex, and ambigu­ous) world, we some­times shield ourselves through cog­nit­ive bias, or by stay­ing with­in like-minded circles. This can make scattered sus­tain­ab­il­ity efforts seem more impact­ful than they are. For instance, a des­tin­a­tion may high­light its com­mit­ment to sus­tain­ab­il­ity while fail­ing to address mass tourism’s under­ly­ing struc­tur­al issues.

The real­ity check is unavoid­able: tourism’s sus­tain­ab­il­ity efforts have yet to be truly effect­ive. Acknow­ledging this often leads to disillusionment. 

But we have a choice: to face real­ity with eyes wide open, or closed. That choice does not absolve us from try­ing harder and wiser. On the con­trary, it demands it.

Finally, as edu­cat­ors — wheth­er ment­or­ing stu­dents or pro­fes­sion­als — we must nur­ture hope while also expos­ing what doesn’t work. Hope without action breeds com­pla­cency, but facing hard truths can be a spring­board for transformation. 

Recog­nising wish­wash­ing is the first step in bridging the gap between vis­ion and reality.

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‘Make smaller promises that have bigger local impacts’

Natalie Van Ogtrop, Sustainability Manager, YAANA Ventures, Thailand

It is easy to acci­dent­ally fall into gre­en­wash­ing nowadays, or in this case wish­wash­ing, because all tour­ism busi­nesses are pushed to include sus­tain­ab­il­ity with­in their busi­ness mod­els; stu­dents at uni­ver­sit­ies are encour­aged to think about sus­tain­ab­il­ity in all shapes and forms; and con­sult­ants are often not taken ser­i­ously at all if they fail to men­tion the term ‘sus­tain­ab­il­ity’. 

Obtain­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity cer­ti­fic­a­tion and par­ti­cip­at­ing in a car­bon off­set pro­gram are good examples of the most fre­quent ini­ti­at­ives busi­nesses take part in. These are def­in­itely a good start­ing point, how­ever, hold­ing a cer­ti­fic­ate or con­trib­ut­ing to an off­set pool is not neces­sar­ily going to make the world a bet­ter place. 

It’s about all the oth­er ini­ti­at­ives a busi­ness decides to act­ively par­ti­cip­ate in. I say ‘act­ively’ because there is a big dif­fer­ence between report­ing some­thing for the sake of report­ing, and going out there and tak­ing action to pro­tect or restore the envir­on­ment, or to improve the lives of loc­al communities. 

To avoid wish­wash­ing, busi­nesses can make smal­ler prom­ises that have big­ger loc­al impacts. They can start by com­mit­ting to help one fam­ily, small busi­ness, or loc­al pro­gram, defin­ing what a suc­cess­ful out­come would look like, and expand­ing once they have achieved their goal. 

By act­ively enga­ging with sur­round­ing com­munit­ies and mak­ing use of the resources read­ily avail­able, busi­nesses can effect great­er change than through a car­bon off­set­ting pro­gram over which they have less control. 

At the end of the day, almost every­one in the travel & tour­ism industry is try­ing their best to con­trib­ute to a more sus­tain­able future. 

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‘Stop viewing sustainability as a performance’

Chris Kittishinnakuppe, Head of Marketing & Sales, VHG Hospitality Asia, Thailand

All things con­sidered, the travel & tour­ism busi­ness is headed toward a bet­ter future. But that’s only if we see real change. 

To that end we must give up empty dreams and con­cen­trate on expli­cit loc­al pledges. Loc­al ini­ti­at­ives, when sup­por­ted and nur­tured, have the poten­tial to drive sig­ni­fic­ant change and bring about a more sus­tain­able future for the travel industry. This poten­tial should give us hope and optim­ism for the future of sus­tain­able tourism.

Dir­ect action toward a cer­tain end is quite dif­fer­ent to ‘wish­wash­ing’, where we mis­takenly believe that incent­ives and motiv­a­tions align more with our goals than they genu­inely do. Like ‘gre­en­wash­ing’, which typ­ic­ally involves over­stat­ing envir­on­ment­al efforts, ‘wish­wash­ing’ is when we over­state the import­ance of well-mean­ing but inef­fec­tu­al ini­ti­at­ives along any hoped-for out­come: envir­on­ment­al, social, cul­tur­al, fin­an­cial, or any­thing else.

Cer­ti­fic­a­tion and car­bon off­sets are great begin­ning points for com­pan­ies pur­su­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity, for example, but they will not be enough to bring about long-term change in and of them­selves. Bey­ond cer­ti­fic­a­tion and off­sets, the extent and depth of a com­pany’s dir­ect action to estab­lish a more sus­tain­able oper­at­ing envir­on­ment defines its real value.

Com­pan­ies must stop view­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity as a per­form­ance and instead focus on mak­ing fun­da­ment­al changes. This shift in per­spect­ive can inspire and motiv­ate com­pan­ies to take sig­ni­fic­ant actions, rather than, for example, depend­ing on some dis­tant pro­gram over which they have little dir­ect influence. 

There is a lead­er­ship-by-example ele­ment to dir­ect loc­al action too. Oth­er stake­hold­ers will be more pre­pared to increase their involve­ment when they see good, pos­it­ive change occur­ring in their neighbourhood.

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“GT” Insight Bite_X (‘_X’ is up to you)

The “Good Tour­ism” Blog offers a great oppor­tun­ity to any travel & tour­ism stake­hold­er who wishes to express them­self in writ­ing for the bene­fit of “GT’s” open-minded readers. 

To fea­ture in the next “GT” Insight Bites com­pil­a­tion, send no more than 300 words (300 words or few­er (</=300 words)) on any tour­ism-related idea or con­cern you may have. 

Don’t use AI. if you lack con­fid­ence in writ­ing in plain Eng­lish, “GT’s” pub­lish­er will per­son­ally help with copy edit­ing. “GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” publishes.

Send your “GT” Insight Bite and pic­ture to [email protected].

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‘The White Lotus’ effect: Thailand’s tourism boom or bust?

Anishka Narula-Nielsen, founder, Roots and Routes Consulting, UK

HBO’s The White Lotus is the latest pop cul­ture phe­nomen­on to fuel a tour­ism surge. This time, Thai­l­and takes centre stage, with lux­ury resorts in Koh Samui, Phuket, and Bangkok already see­ing a spike in interest imme­di­ately after the release of the first two episodes.

It’s excit­ing, but also concerning.

We have seen this before. The Beach turned Maya Bay into an over-tour­is­ted cas­u­alty. Venice, Dubrovnik, and Bali have all felt the double-edged sword of a Hol­ly­wood spotlight. 

When a des­tin­a­tion goes vir­al, it attracts trav­el­lers, which is great until it isn’t. Without thought­ful man­age­ment, it can erode the very exper­i­ence that made it desirable.

Dur­ing the pan­dem­ic and its after­math, Thailand’s eco­sys­tems had time to breathe. Maya Bay’s clos­ure allowed its mar­ine life to regen­er­ate. Many oth­er des­tin­a­tions had a chance to reset. Are we about to undo that progress?

Instead of fall­ing into the same over­tour­ism traps, Thai­l­and has a chance to take a dif­fer­ent path to ensure that The White Lotus bene­fits des­tin­a­tions without over­whelm­ing them. 

How can we help spread the eco­nom­ic bene­fits and pre­serve the integ­rity of these places?

• Encour­age vis­it­or dis­pers­al bey­ond Koh Samui and Phuket, 
• Imple­ment sus­tain­able tour­ism lim­its at fra­gile hot­spots, and 
• Pro­mote loc­ally-owned exper­i­ences. 

Resorts can play a role by integ­rat­ing con­ser­va­tion ini­ti­at­ives into guest stays, ensur­ing that high-end travel con­trib­utes to long-term sus­tain­ab­il­ity rather than short-term strain.

Thai­l­and does have a rare second chance. The White Lotus effect can be a boon, not a bust, but only if the industry plays it right. The ques­tion is: Will they seize the opportunity?

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What do you think? 

In a com­ment below share your own thoughts about wish­wash­ing in travel & tour­ism. SIGN IN or REGISTER first. (After sign­ing in you will need to refresh this page to see the com­ments section.) 

Or write a “GT” Insight or “GT” Insight Bite of your own. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

This is an open invit­a­tion to travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers from any back­ground to share their thoughts in plain Eng­lish with a glob­al industry audience.

“GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” pub­lishes. “GT” is where free thought travels.

If you think the tour­ism media land­scape is bet­ter with “GT” in it, then please … 

Featured image (top of post)

Wish­wash­ing tour­ism. Image by Michaela, at home in Ger­many • Thank you very much for a like (CC0) via Pixabay.

Previous “GT” Insight Bites

• But­ler­’s conun­drum: Air travel and ‘sus­tain­able’ tourism
• What is tourism’s biggest oppor­tun­ity and/or threat where you are in 2025?
• “GT” Insight Bites: Nostalgia
• “GT” Insight Bites: Geo­pol­it­ics and tourism
• Tour­ism stake­hold­ers: Who has an out­sized voice? Who has no voice? Who cares?
• Would you abol­ish taxes on tips?
• Three crit­ics walk into a bar …
• How are emer­ging tech­no­lo­gies trans­form­ing the travel & tour­ism industry?
• What does it mean to be crit­ic­al of tourism?
• What con­sti­tutes ‘pro­gress’ for travel & tour­ism in 2024?
• Con­sid­er­ing a career in tour­ism? Import­ant things you should know in 2024
• What did tour­ism learn from the COVID-19 pandemic?
• In 2024, what are the best oppor­tun­it­ies for tour­ism over the next five years?
• Tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years to 2028
• On empower­ment, pro­mo­tion, and the power of expression
• On enrich­ment, repat­ri­ation, the double-edged blade, and war
• On tour­ism tech­no­logy, pro­gress, and loc­al benefit-sharing
• Hey, travel & tour­ism, are you ‘neo­co­lo­ni­al­ist’?
• Who’s the new boss? Asia Pacific tour­ism industry asso­ci­ation seeks leader
• ‘The hos­pit­al­ity industry offers a great career.’ Really?
• Cruise ships: Bless­ing or blight?
• Tour­ist vs trav­el­ler: What’s the difference?
• The heads of fin­ance, oper­a­tions, and PR walk into their boss’s office … 
• Yes, Tour­ism Minister
• What are tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years?
• ‘Tour­ism is built on the back­bone of white suprem­acy’. What do you think?
• Really, what’s the dif­fer­ence? ‘Sus­tain­able tour­ism’ vs ‘regen­er­at­ive tourism’
• Want a career in tour­ism? Import­ant things you should know
• Diverse per­spect­ives on travel & tour­ism and a fairer world
• Diverse per­spect­ives on eco­nom­ic degrowth and tourism
• Diverse per­spect­ives on vis­it­or dispersion

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