“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.

Totally awesome: Destinations’ urgent need to rediscover the ‘totality of awe’

May 22, 2024

Millions flock to the best locations to be awed by the total eclipse of the sun. Image by Sima Ghaffarzadeh (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/solar-eclipse-child-sun-kid-2689087/ GT cropped it and added "Awe ..."

A col­lect­ive sense of small­ness, con­nec­ted­ness, and awe eli­cited by the April 8 sol­ar eclipse reminded K Michael Hay­wood of the poten­tial that des­tin­a­tions have to inspire awe; from the authen­t­ic every­day that host com­munit­ies may take for gran­ted, to the loc­al effects of lar­ger forces that none of us can afford to ignore. It’s […]

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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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Venice ‘bookable’: Italians lose freedom of movement

May 8, 2024
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Are Venice’s new day-tripper rules and regulations having the desired effect? Or are they unreasonably restricting Italians' freedom of movement? Venice carnival masks image by Leo (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/venice-mask-venice-venice-carnival-4764619/ "GT" added "Halt!"

Are Venice’s new day-trip­per rules hav­ing the desired effect? Or are they unreas­on­ably restrict­ing Itali­ans’ free­dom of move­ment? This is Domin­ic Standish’s second “Good Tour­ism” Insight at the invit­a­tion of Tourism’s Hori­zon, a “GT” Insight Part­ner. [You too can write a “GT” Insight. Your organ­isa­tion can also become a “GT” Part­ner.] Book­ings and fees Since April 25, […]

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“GT” Insight Bites: What constitutes ‘progress’ for travel & tourism in 2024?

April 2, 2024

What constitutes ‘progress’ for the travel & tourism industry where you work, or that you have identified through your observations, study, or research? Footprint photo by Jeremy Bishop (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/brown-sand-with-heart-shaped-stones--mMEEkgj5fU

In 2024, what con­sti­tutes ‘pro­gress’ for the travel & tour­ism industry where you work, or that you have iden­ti­fied through your obser­va­tions, study, or research? It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites ques­tion. Your cor­res­pond­ent put the ques­tion to the travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers in the “GT” net­work, invit­ing responses of no more than 300 words.  Thanks to the 18 […]

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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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Why aren’t Kenya tourism authorities taking a responsible approach to growth?

March 19, 2024

Are Kenya tourism authorities as responsible as they could be? Mt Kilimanjaro from Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Pic by Sergey Pesterev (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/green-leaf-tree-near-mountain-covered-by-snow-at-daytime-DWXR-nAbxCk

Tour­ism officer Doreen Nyam­weya wor­ries about the stra­tegic dir­ec­tion of Kenya tour­ism. Ms Nyam­weya won­ders wheth­er nation­al tour­ism author­it­ies are ‘imprisoned’ by out­dated think­ing, con­fused about Kenya’s pos­i­tion in the world, and dis­con­nec­ted from host com­munit­ies. With Kenya’s tour­ism sec­tor boom­ing again, calls for respons­ible approaches to tour­ism mar­ket­ing and man­age­ment are gain­ing momentum.  Different […]

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