“Good Tourism” news from Oceania

Here you will find news about The “Good Tour­ism” Blog’s Part­ners and friends in Aus­tralia, New Zea­l­and, Pap­ua New Guinea, and oth­er Pacific nations — espe­cially their sus­tain­able tour­ism and/or respons­ible travel activ­it­ies — plus “Good news in tour­ism” and cov­er­age of travel & tour­ism industry events in the Ocean­ia region to which “GT” is invited or oth­er­wise involved. Ad hoc sponsored news posts are also very welcome.

Before Decem­ber 2019, “GT” would sum­mar­ise under-repor­ted news stor­ies or thought-pro­vok­ing fea­ture art­icles of import­ance to the Ocean­ia region by non-industry media. The sources were well-attrib­uted and linked. Any con­tent repub­lished in full was avail­able rights-free for that pur­pose from the likes of The Con­ver­sa­tion or the Thom­son Reu­ters Found­a­tion.

Palau tackles over-tourism with responsible tourism

September 12, 2017

Palau tackles over-tourism via responsible tourism and sustainable tourism. Palau. By LuxTonnerre (CC BY 2.0) via Wikimedia.

The UNWTO & WTM Min­is­ters’ Sum­mit will debate over-tour­ism, Novem­ber 7, at WTM Lon­don 2017. While seni­or fig­ures pre­pare their talk­ing points, the Microne­sian archipelago of Palau is mak­ing moves now to com­bat the phe­nomen­on. Accord­ing to Repub­lic of Palau Pres­id­ent Tommy E Remen­gasau, Jr, in his intro­duct­ory mes­sage for the Palau Respons­ible Tour­ism Policy […]

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South Pacific, UNDP “green tourism” partnership

September 5, 2017

South Pacific, UNDP “green tourism” partnership

South Pacific Tour­ism Organ­isa­tion (SPTO) and the United Nations Devel­op­ment Pro­gramme (UNDP) have partnered to pro­mote “green tour­ism” in the South Pacific. A Let­ter of Agree­ment (LOA) was signed between the two agen­cies in Suva, Fiji last week out­lining a com­mit­ment to “take respons­ible approaches through energy, water and waste reduc­tion” and to “con­trib­ute to […]

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Whale shark tracking shows upside for Ningaloo ecotourism industry

August 31, 2017

Whale shark tourism. Whale shark Ningaloo ecotourism Western Australia. Source: ECOCEAN

Swim­ming with whale sharks could become a year-round eco­tour­ism activ­ity for the Nin­ga­loo Coast region of West­ern Aus­tralia (WA), accord­ing to ECOCEAN research sci­ent­ist Sam­antha Reyn­olds. By emphas­ising the poten­tial for an eco­nom­ic activ­ity, the Phys.org story is a refresh­ing hint at how an envir­on­ment­al­ist cause can ally with sci­ence and the tour­ism industry. Reynolds […]

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Great Barrier Reef tourism reprieve but resorts in trouble

July 8, 2017

Great Barrier Reef tourism. A variety of colourful corals on Flynn Reef near Cairns. By Toby Hudson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11137678

Great Bar­ri­er Reef tour­ism oper­at­ors hope UNESCO’s decision not to list the nat­ur­al won­der “in danger” will reverse a drop in vis­it­or num­bers, accord­ing to a Cour­i­er Mail story. “UNESCO’s World Her­it­age Com­mit­tee endorsed Australia’s Reef 2050 plan to pro­tect the icon­ic asset, avoid­ing ­inter­na­tion­al embar­rass­ment for the $6.4 bil­lion-a-year tour­ist draw­card. “How­ever, the WHC […]

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Pacific ecotourism hampered by economic realities?

June 28, 2017
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Most Pacific eco­tour­ism pro­jects are short term because they are driv­en by purely con­ser­va­tion con­cerns while neg­lect­ing prof­it­ab­il­ity. Pacific-region eco­tour­ism pro­grams are frag­men­ted, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to get a clear pic­ture of pro­gress. And there is a lack of fund­ing and pro­mo­tion of eco­tour­ism in the region. Accord­ing to a South Pacific Tour­ism Organ­isa­tion (SPTO) […]

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APEC tourism ministers to “ensure sustainable and inclusive growth”

June 21, 2017

APEC tourism minister adopted a statement on sustainable tourism

The second of four pri­or­ity areas out­lined in a state­ment adop­ted by Asia-Pacific Eco­nom­ic Cooper­a­tion (APEC) tour­ism min­is­ters, June 19, is: “Ensure sus­tain­able and inclus­ive growth in the travel and tour­ism sec­tor by encour­aging socially and cul­tur­ally respons­ible tour­ism”. Adop­ted at the APEC High Level Policy Dia­logue on Sus­tain­able Tour­ism held in Quang Ninh province, […]

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