Today ecotourism is a very trendy and politically correct way to travel. There is a strong movement to put green in travel. Tourism companies are rushing to put the green label on their products — after all, it’s lucrative. Travel and tourism is the largest business sector in the world economy and is responsible for over 230 million jobs and over 10% of the worldwide GDP. According to the World Tourism Organization, international tourist arrivals were up 2% to 924 million in 2008 and generated about $856 billion …

Think you have to pull up your sleeves and work on building orphanages in rural Africa or teach children devastated by poverty and AIDS in southeast Asia to give back when you travel? Not so. Responsible travel and travel philanthropy is all about giving back to the people and places you travel to AND there are endless ways you can do that. Voluntourism is just one of the more evident ways. Anyone CAN take a trip that gives back, even while enjoying travel luxuries.
This month Conde Nast Traveler features “Eight …

Responsible tourism is a hot topic that sparks passionate discussions on why we should do it and those in the tourism industry have long debated on how best to do it.
Recently, Shane K Beary, CEO of Track of the Tiger T.R.D. (Tourism Resources Development) in Thailand, sent us an article on the opportunity for responsible tourism during this current economic crisis and his proposal of an alternative structure to implement responsible tourism.
What do you think of his views? Do you agree with them?
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The Global Financial Crisis, Responsible Tourism Development & …

Photo by joka2000
The Partnership for Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC Partnership), a coalition of 32 organizations is working together to create an increased understanding of sustainable tourism practices and pushing for the adoption of universal sustainable tourism principles.
Recently, Erika Harms, the Executive Director of UN Foundation and a key figure behind the global movement for sustainable tourism criteria and certification, spoke at a conference in Berlin about the importance of sustainable tourism.
According to Harms, sustainable tourism is not a luxury; rather, it is a necessity, just like health and quality …

The Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) has released a guide helping travelers figure out how to minimize “unintended consequences” of giving while on vacation. Travelers’ intention to help, interact and learn are all good, but sometimes “misguided contributions can perpetuate cycles of dependency, cause corruption, burden communities with unwanted or inappropriate donations, and require recipients to spend time and resources to handle “gifts” they didn’t request or cannot use,” according to CREST.

CREST asked a dozen tour operators and tourism organizations who work with local community projects how they respond to …

Most volunteer tourists are eager to go out into the world to help serve communities. Equally important to doing good is traveling good. As a voluntourist, you need to consider how you can be responsible toward the places you travel to and toward the local host organizations you volunteer with.
Traveling responsibly in a foreign country involves evaluating the social, economic, and environmental implications of your travel. Experiencing cultural diversity is one of the main reasons why you travel and you need to make sure that these differences are respected, maintained …

The travel industry is filled with buzzwords that essentially segment the industry into different niches. You’ve heard of cultural tourism, culinary tourism, educational tourism, ecotourism, adventure tourism, and volunteer tourism or voluntourism.
Here is another emerging travel concept – humanitourism, described as “travel combining humanitarian projects with adventure tours designed to create longer term relationships between travelers and communities.” The core idea of humanitourism is recreational altruism, so is it a variant of voluntourism? Is humanitourism a hybrid of volunteer travel and adventure travel? Does humanitourism work to dissolve the …