COVID-19

Scroll down for posts that have been tagged with “COVID-19” — the coronavir­us SARS-CoV­‑2 dis­ease and the coronavir­us SARS-CoV­‑2 pan­dem­ic — and how it has affected travel & tour­ism des­tin­a­tions and industry stakeholders.

Tags are inform­al. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog tries not to get bogged down with ter­min­o­logy and defin­i­tions so you may dis­agree with tags applied (or not applied) to a post. Feel free to com­ment on any post you think has been incor­rectly or insuf­fi­ciently tagged. “GT” encour­ages good-faith debate and discussion.

Mahouts matter: The Elephant Conservation Center’s essential workers


ECC's male elephant mahout team. Image by Anabel Lopez-Perez.

Intro­duct­ory note by Hol­lis Bur­b­ank-Ham­­marlund, Work for Wild Life Inter­na­tion­al: The concept of ‘essen­tial work­ers’ has been front and centre since the COVID-19 vir­us struck our world earli­er this year. Doc­tors, nurses, para­med­ics, as well as teach­ers, gro­cery store work­ers, trans­port­a­tion staff and so many oth­ers have been work­ing tire­lessly to sup­port essen­tial human needs […]

Read More Mahouts matter: The Elephant Conservation Center’s essential workers

How will rural tourism in India survive the COVID crisis?

November 17, 2020
One Comment

India tea plantation. By 12019 (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/tea-plantation-landscape-scenic-2220475/

Social entre­pren­eur Kumar Anubhav writes about the exist­en­tial prob­lems facing rur­al tour­ism stake­hold­ers in India, and the sur­viv­al and sus­tain­ab­il­ity solu­tion he and his friends are rolling out as Pro­ject TraViv­al; the sub­ject of this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. COVID-19 has not only changed the way we work, live, and think, but it has also changed […]

Read More How will rural tourism in India survive the COVID crisis?

A community-based tourism dilemma: COVID’s ‘new normal’ vs ‘back to normal’

November 10, 2020

Community-based tourism Myanmar. "CBT. Visit Myanmar. Visit Dawei."

Skål recently recog­nised the Inter­na­tion­al Trade Centre’s Myan­mar Inclus­ive Tour­ism Pro­ject with a sus­tain­able tour­ism award. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Pro­ject con­sult­ant Peter Richards describes the pre-pan­­dem­ic prom­ise of new com­munity-based tour­ism products, their chal­lenges now, and how com­munit­ies are hand­ling COVID safety con­cerns as they con­sider reopen­ing.  At the start of 2020, the […]

Read More A community-based tourism dilemma: COVID’s ‘new normal’ vs ‘back to normal’

Scottish tourism plans transformational path to post-COVID recovery

November 3, 2020

The Loup of Fintry. Image supplied by VisitScotland.

Vis­itScot­land chief Mal­colm Roughead shares how his organ­isa­tion has worked with host com­munit­ies and oth­er tour­ism stake­hold­ers to plot a respons­ible and sus­tain­able route out of the COVID crisis. Enjoy this “Good Tour­ism” Insight.  Scot­tish tour­ism, like the sec­tor world­wide, is in a pre­cari­ous state. The coronavir­us pan­dem­ic and its ongo­ing effects are chal­len­ging the […]

Read More Scottish tourism plans transformational path to post-COVID recovery

From overtourism to no tourism in Seychelles: What now for conservation?

October 27, 2020
One Comment

Seychelles is well known for its natural beauty (Photo: Nature Seychelles, Peter Chadwick)

Acclaimed envir­on­ment­al­ist and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment pro Dr Nirmal Shah has no solu­tion to con­ser­va­tion’s budget crisis in the COVID-19 era. And no-one else appears to have any answers either. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, the Nature Seychelles chief offers a brief his­tory of eco­tour­ism in Africa’s most pros­per­ous nation and lets us in on the […]

Read More From overtourism to no tourism in Seychelles: What now for conservation?

Tourism in crisis, tourism in need, & the hopeful pivots of the purpose-driven

and October 14, 2020

Elephant Conservation Center, Sayaboury, Laos. Image by Jimmy Beunardeau; supplied by authors.

Even the most altru­ist­ic of tour­ism organ­isa­tions is strug­gling to sur­vive in des­tin­a­tions that have been reli­ant on inter­na­tion­al tour­ism money to take care of anim­als, places, and people. How­ever neces­sity is a par­ent of innov­a­tion and, as Tour­ism In Need co-founders Robert Pow­ell and Ameer Vir­ani have found out, there are plenty of both […]

Read More Tourism in crisis, tourism in need, & the hopeful pivots of the purpose-driven