Responsible travel & tourism

Scroll down for posts that have been tagged with “respons­ible travel & tourism”.

Respons­ible travel is “con­duc­ted in such a man­ner as to not harm or degrade the cul­tur­al or nat­ur­al envir­on­ment of the places vis­ited”, accord­ing to Travel-Industry-Dictionary.comRespons­ible tour­ism is “mak­ing bet­ter places for people to live in and bet­ter places for people to vis­it”, sug­gests the Respons­ible Tour­ism Part­ner­ship.

Respons­ible tour­ism and respons­ible travel are approaches to tour­ism that pri­or­it­ise sus­tain­ab­il­ity, eth­ic­al prac­tices, and social respons­ib­il­ity. These types of tour­ism aim to min­im­ise neg­at­ive impacts on the envir­on­ment and loc­al com­munit­ies and max­im­ise pos­it­ive out­comes for all involved.

Respons­ible tour­ism and respons­ible travel can take many forms, includ­ing eco­tour­ism, cul­tur­al tour­ism, and volun­teer tour­ism. These types of tour­ism often involve close engage­ment with loc­al com­munit­ies, respect­ing loc­al cul­tures, and sup­port­ing loc­al busi­nesses and con­ser­va­tion efforts.

In recent years, respons­ible tour­ism and respons­ible travel have gained pop­ular­ity among trav­el­lers seek­ing mean­ing­ful exper­i­ences that have a pos­it­ive impact. How­ever, it is essen­tial for trav­el­lers to do their research to choose reli­ably respons­ible tour­ism options that align with their values.

“GT” tends to (though prob­ably incon­sist­ently) apply the respons­ible travel & tour­ism tag where the con­tent dis­cusses the respons­ib­il­ity of the trav­el­ler or tour­ist rather than the sup­ply-side stake­hold­er. There is of course plenty of con­tent (and tags) that address the respons­ib­il­ity of the travel & tour­ism industry to do no harm and make things bet­ter; tags such as “sus­tain­able tour­ism and regen­er­at­ive tour­ism” for example.

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

Online courses by The Centre for Responsible Tourism Singapore: ‘Reinventing tourism learning’

June 4, 2020
One Comment

Centre for Responsible Tourism Singapore logo and two images

“GT” Friend Kev­in Phun of new “GT” Part­ner The Centre for Respons­ible Tour­ism Singa­pore (CRTS) has developed a series of short online courses for aspir­ing respons­ible tour­ism prac­ti­tion­ers — or any­one inter­ested in the sub­ject — to estab­lish a found­a­tion of know­ledge and a frame­work for think­ing about vari­ous aspects of respons­ible tour­ism.  “GT” 20% dis­count coupon: GTB-20-OFF Courses […]

Read More Online courses by The Centre for Responsible Tourism Singapore: ‘Reinventing tourism learning’

Supply lines: A former soldier’s take on tourism’s failure to win hearts & minds

May 26, 2020

PangSoong Lodge nature trail. Image supplied by author.

How does a spe­cial forces sol­dier become an out­spoken pro­ponent for and awar­ded prac­ti­tion­er of sin­cerely respons­ible tour­ism? In this “GT” Insight, Shane K Beary takes us back to his past before ask­ing us to con­sider his vis­ion for the future; a more equit­able com­munity-based travel & tour­ism industry. And it’s all about the sup­ply chain. […]

Read More Supply lines: A former soldier’s take on tourism’s failure to win hearts & minds

Why travel matters and why I will continue to make travel matter after COVID-19

April 2, 2020

Connections matter. Image (CCO) via PxFuel. https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-jywzc

Accord­ing to its founder Kar­en Sim­monds, inde­pend­ent lux­ury travel agency Travel Mat­ters was built upon the strong sense of respons­ib­il­ity she feels for des­tin­a­tions. In this fresh “GT” Insight, Ms Sim­monds sum­mar­ises her agency’s ori­gin story and philo­sophy and what she’s doing to help com­munit­ies more vul­ner­able to the coronavir­us COVID-19 pan­dem­ic than hers.  I set […]

Read More Why travel matters and why I will continue to make travel matter after COVID-19

Dare to share, not declare: Travel & tourism and the reality of climate change

February 23, 2020

share cloud image for Dare to share, not declare: Travel & tourism and the reality of climate change

Cli­mate change is real. It comes with costs. Cli­mate policy also comes with costs. The trick is to find a sens­ible bal­ance.  So said com­pas­sion­ate ration­al­ist Bjorn Lom­borg in a con­ver­sa­tion with former Deputy PM of Aus­tralia John Ander­son, which was pub­lished Fri­day on You­Tube.  Dr Lom­borg, who is Pres­id­ent of the Copen­ha­gen Con­sensus Center, […]

Read More Dare to share, not declare: Travel & tourism and the reality of climate change

Why ‘The “Good Tourism” Blog’ won’t be declaring a climate emergency

January 16, 2020
2 Comments

Illustration of woman on suitcase in stormy sea being attacked by gulls. By unknown (CC0) via pxfuel https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-qgjsy

The short answer is: It’s not “GT’s” role! At writ­ing, 26 tour­ism organ­isa­tions and five indi­vidu­als had declared a glob­al cli­mate emer­gency on behalf of the multi-tril­lion dol­lar travel & tour­ism industry. Among the sig­nat­or­ies is “GT” Friend Susanne Beck­en who, in her declar­a­tion and plan, quotes Greta Thun­berg: “I don’t want your hope, I […]

Read More Why ‘The “Good Tourism” Blog’ won’t be declaring a climate emergency

It’s not ‘no’. It’s ‘know’. A travel tip for good tourists and responsible travellers

January 9, 2020
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It's not 'no'. It's 'know.' A "Good Tourism" travel tip; travel advice for good tourists & responsible travellers.

How can one be a good tour­ist and a respons­ible trav­el­ler?  An easy-to-remem­ber rhyme might help; one that acknow­ledges that there is always more to know and there­fore nev­er gets old.  What do you think about this as a catch-all travel tip or philo­sophy for trav­el­lers? Update, June 2021: If you clicked over from The “GT” […]

Read More It’s not ‘no’. It’s ‘know’. A travel tip for good tourists and responsible travellers