“Good Tourism” Insight Interviews

A “GT” Insight Inter­view is presen­ted in a simple Q&A format or is a sum­mary of an inter­view whose full tran­script is avail­able. In the spir­it of The “Good Tour­ism” Blog, the inter­view­er ensures that the inter­viewee’s con­sidered answers are faith­fully rep­res­en­ted. ‘Gotcha’ journ­al­ism is not, and nev­er will be, a strategy employed by “GT”.

Prof Valeria Minghetti on peer review, overtourism, regenerative tourism, and how to succeed


Professor Valeria Minghetti: "[B]e curious. Never stop asking yourself questions. Curiosity and the desire to find solutions is what makes a difference ..."

“Nev­er stop ask­ing your­self ques­tions. Curi­os­ity and the desire to find solu­tions is what makes a dif­fer­ence,” accord­ing to Valer­ia Minghetti. Such an atti­tude will take young­sters a long way in travel & tour­ism, she reck­ons. And it must be redoubled at the very highest levels of aca­demia and industry. Saverio F Ber­to­lu­cci inter­viewed Prof Minghetti […]

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Emil Kukalj on balanced tourism, overtourism, ideology, pragmatism, and possibility


Emil Kukalj on balanced tourism, overtourism, pragmatism, and possibility

Emil Kukalj reck­ons ideo­logy is only use­ful if it is action­able and leads to net pos­it­ive res­ults. Saverio F Ber­to­lu­cci inter­viewed Mr Kukalj for a Tourism’s Hori­zon Inter­view. For this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Mr Ber­to­lu­cci reflects. [The full tran­script is on Substack.] Who is Emil Kukalj? I was delighted to dis­cuss research and devel­op­ment with an estab­lished figure […]

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Prof Dimitrios Buhalis on ‘overtourism’ and the ‘democratisation of tourism’

February 29, 2024
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Professor Dimitrios Buhalis on the ‘democratisation of tourism’ vs ‘overtourism’ ... “[T]here is no such thing as overtourism!”

There’s always a ten­sion between rights and respons­ib­il­it­ies; the prom­ise of free­dom for one­self and the poten­tial to infringe upon oth­ers.  This is play­ing out in debates about travel & tour­ism, and about what ‘pro­gress’ looks like.  For Dimitri­os Buhal­is, prag­mat­ic prob­lem-solv­ing is key to achiev­ing win-win out­comes … for the bil­lions who won’t be denied […]

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Prof Julio Aramberri on freedom, progress, and academia’s ‘scissors crisis’

February 20, 2024

Julio Aramberri. Picture (c) by Antonio Heredia for an 'El Mundo' article, May 22, 2020. https://www.elmundo.es/opinion/2020/05/22/5ec7cd5f21efa0e55b8b45b0.html

Julio Ara­m­berri reck­ons con­tem­por­ary tour­ism aca­demia tends to focus on either “point­less prag­mat­ism” or “shrill reproof”; the excesses of ‘Right’ and ‘Left’. But ‘pro­gress’ is nuanced and can be poin­ted to in amus­ing ways: “Little could Marx ima­gine that the wish­ful ‘work­ers of all lands, unite’ carved in his Highg­ate grave would come true … […]

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Prof Soile Veijola on tourism studies, overtourism, the present, and the future

February 13, 2024
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Professor Soile Veijola. Photo by Kaisa Sirén.

For all its diverse onto­lo­gies and epi­stem­o­lo­gies, tour­ism aca­demia and research have not influ­enced industry prac­tice as much as it could have, accord­ing to Soile Vei­jola. That puts her hopes of an ‘eth­ic­al turn’ in tour­ism at risk and has her wor­ried about the future of the phe­nomen­on. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight.

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Prof Michael Hall on inspirations, fears, and tourism studies’ legitimacy problem

January 25, 2024

Prof Michael Hall on inspirations, fears, and tourism studies’ legitimacy problem. He reckons there's "probably less genuine debate than ever before" in tourism studies.

There is much to fear about the future of travel, accord­ing to Michael Hall, includ­ing the risks that attend its growth, and the rise of intol­er­ance. He also wor­ries about a lack of “genu­ine debate” in tour­ism stud­ies.  Pro­fess­or Hall par­ti­cip­ated in a Tourism’s Hori­zon Inter­view. For this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Jim Butcher sum­mar­ises the highlights. […]

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