“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.

Considering a career in tourism? Important things you should know in 2024

March 5, 2024

So, you want a career in tourism? Map image by Harish Sharma (CC0) from Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/spread-of-education-world-map-3245801/

In 2024, what is the most import­ant thing that a young per­son should under­stand before embark­ing upon a career in tour­ism? It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites ques­tion. Your cor­res­pond­ent put the ques­tion to the travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers in the “GT” net­work, invit­ing emailed writ­ten responses of no more than 300 words.  Thanks to the nine human respondents […]

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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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Prolonging anticipatory happiness: How can destinations exceed expectations?

February 22, 2024

Prolonging anticipatory happiness: How can destinations exceed expectations? Packed and ready. Pic by Arnel Hasanovic (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/clothing-items-and-pair-of-shoes-in-luggage-Nl-SXO4FAHw "GT" added the words.

The abil­ity to deliv­er on or exceed expect­a­tions determ­ines wheth­er your des­tin­a­tion will cap­ture a repeat vis­it­or and/or their pos­it­ive word-of-mouth … or a much more vir­al neg­at­ive sen­ti­ment.  In his unique and inim­it­able style, K Michael Hay­wood explores the theme and advoc­ates for the twin approach of com­munit­ies-as-des­t­in­a­­tions and des­tin­a­tions-in-action.  “New friends and new […]

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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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What did tourism learn from the COVID-19 pandemic?

February 8, 2024

What was the main lesson of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has the travel & tourism industry learned it? Base image generated by DALL-E, which was prompted for a surrealist image of a viral particle in front of a classroom. "GT" added 'Lessons'.

What was the main les­son of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, and has the travel & tour­ism industry learned it? It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites ques­tion. Your cor­res­pond­ent put the ques­tion to the travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers in the “GT” net­work, invit­ing emailed writ­ten responses of no more than 300 words.  Thanks to the 10 respond­ents who shared their thoughts […]

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