“Good Tourism” Insights

Dancers, singers, and drummers from a local women’s cooperative welcome visitors to the Red Rocks Cultural Center in Nyakinama village, Rwanda. Pic by David Gillbanks.

Dan­cers, sing­ers, and drum­mers from a loc­al women’s cooper­at­ive wel­come vis­it­ors to the Red Rocks Cul­tur­al Cen­ter in Nyak­i­n­ama vil­lage, Rwanda. Pic by Dav­id Gillbanks.

“Good Tour­ism” Insights are ori­gin­al posts by aca­dem­ics, experts, and prac­ti­tion­ers who are keen to share their sus­tain­able tour­ism and respons­ible tour­ism insights, expert­ise, and exper­i­ences, in plain Eng­lish, for the bene­fit of all travel & tour­ism stakeholders.

Each “GT” Insight rep­res­ents the opin­ion of its author, NOT neces­sar­ily the opin­ion of The “Good Tour­ism” Blog, its Part­ners, or its pub­lish­er. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog neither pays nor is paid for any “GT” Insight. 

Any­one with an informed and sin­cerely-held opin­ion about travel & tour­ism is wel­come to sub­mit a “GT” Insight for pub­lic­a­tion. The “GT” Insight guidelines are very simple.

Why sustainability certification is a process or journey, not a destination

May 23, 2023

Is sustainability certification a journey rather than a destination? Singapore garden image by Paula Prekopova (CCO) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/Mt9DbRm2KmA

Organ­isa­tions can reap bene­fits while pur­su­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity cer­ti­fic­a­tion, which can extend far bey­ond the acquis­i­tion of the cer­ti­fic­ate itself, accord­ing to Kev­in Phun. We have often heard that: “Suc­cess is a jour­ney, not a des­tin­a­tion”.  The second part of the quote is: “The doing is often more import­ant than the out­come.” BrainyQuote attrib­utes these words […]

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Regaining control: Venice takes ‘smart’ measures to manage mass tourism

May 16, 2023

Regaining control: Venice takes ‘smart’ measures to manage mass tourism. Picture © Henrique Ferreira

It is widely acknow­ledged that Venice needs to do some­thing to man­age mass tour­ism.  The ques­tion is: ‘What?’ Will deploy­ing tech­no­lo­gies that meas­ure vis­it­or flows help Venice devel­op more effect­ive strategies to man­age them? Anna Richardot invest­ig­ates what Venice is doing in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. To say that Venice suf­fers from mass tour­ism is an […]

Read More Regaining control: Venice takes ‘smart’ measures to manage mass tourism

Off-piste: Lack of public access to Scottish ski resorts reinforces divides

May 9, 2023
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Cannae go 'off-piste' to a Scottish ski resort

Scot­land’s ski resorts offer breath­tak­ing scenery and exhil­ar­at­ing out­door exper­i­ences. How­ever, they are dif­fi­cult to access for many Scots. Alastair Naughton, a con­cerned cit­izen and avid ski­er, believes that Vis­itScot­land should advoc­ate for invest­ment in access­ible, afford­able, and low-emis­­sion pub­lic trans­port infra­struc­ture.  I love ski­ing, although I have not been able to get up to […]

Read More Off-piste: Lack of public access to Scottish ski resorts reinforces divides

Cruise ships: Blessing or blight?

May 2, 2023

Cruise ships: Blessing or blight? A DALL‑E-generated "watercolour of small islands and a cruise ship"

Are cruise ships a bless­ing or a blight? Why? Your cor­res­pond­ent put these simple ques­tions about cruise ships to “GT’s” diverse net­work of travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers — “GT” Insight authors, “GT” Part­ners, and their invit­ees — and reques­ted writ­ten responses of no more than 300 words.  Thanks to those who chose to par­ti­cip­ate. Their answers appear in the order […]

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Where is the line between cultural explorer and voyeur? The ‘Batwa Experience’

April 25, 2023

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda, where the Batwa once lived. Image courtesy Nomadic Skies

Where is the line between cul­tur­al explor­a­tion and exploit­at­ive voyeur­ism while trav­el­ling among indi­gen­ous peoples?  In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Gav­in Ander­son explores the danger and prom­ise of travel & tour­is­m’s involve­ment with indi­gen­ous people through the lens of his recent work with the Bat­wa of south­w­est Uganda. I first met the Bat­wa, the indigenous […]

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Why travel & tourism content marketing? Efficient and effective if target-oriented

and April 19, 2023

Tourism content marketing hit or miss? Image by 15299 (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/dart-board-game-dartboard-aim-102880/

Travel & tour­ism con­tent mar­ket­ing may be an under­val­ued and poorly used ele­ment in the stra­tegic mar­ket­ing mix; par­tic­u­larly among des­tin­a­tions that want to increase the ‘qual­ity’ and ‘yield’ of their vis­it­ors, and private-sec­t­or stake­hold­ers who claim they don’t have the time or resources for it. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Zohreh Khos­ravi and Dav­id Gillbanks […]

Read More Why travel & tourism content marketing? Efficient and effective if target-oriented