What is good tourism? “Good Tourism” & “GT” Travel September-October 2025

Wel­come to the Septem­ber-Octo­ber 2025 wrap of “Good Tour­ism” & “GT” Travel news, insights, and exper­i­ences shared by friends and Part­ners of The “Good Tour­ism” Blog.[You too can share.]

What is good tourism?

The “Good Tour­ism” Blognev­er defines ‘good tour­ism’. Your cor­res­pond­ent would nev­er be so bold. The fact is that what’s good for one stake­hold­er may not be good for another.

Travel & tour­ism is a com­plex industry, so it is a good idea to open one’s mind to per­spect­ives one may nev­er oth­er­wise encounter.

This is the “Good Tour­ism” mis­sion.It’s “GT”. Andgo!

“Good Tourism” Insights: Informed perspectives on tourism

The “Good Tour­ism” Blogpub­lishes informed opin­ions on the issues facing the travel & tour­ism industry, everyone’s busi­ness. “GT” Insights are diverse per­spect­ives writ­ten by, for, and about our sec­tor. Here are the most recent:

Is debate dead?Not if tourism students have asay

In the after­math of Charlie Kirk’s shock­ing and very pub­lic murder, mil­lions of fol­low­ers mourned (and con­tin­ue to mourn), a few extrem­ists cel­eb­rated (and con­tin­ue to cel­eb­rate), while many shrugged and poin­ted to why it was Mr Kirk’s fault.

Still oth­ers, like Saverio Francesco Ber­to­lu­cci, worry about the state of debate in the West, where one’s sin­cerely-held opin­ions can lit­er­ally get one killed.

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight.(You too canwrite a “GT” Insight.)

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Can content creators promote peace through tourism in Israel and Palestine?

As the fra­gile first phase of a new peace deal com­mences in Gaza, Ahmed Abdel Fat­tah pon­ders the poten­tial for social media con­tent cre­at­ors to con­sol­id­ate con­nec­tions and pro­mote peace through tour­ism in Israel and Palestine.

Thanks to “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­nerTourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lionsfor invit­ing Dr AbdelFat­tah to write this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. (You can write one too.)

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Unveiling freedom: Muslim women tourists in theWest

Travel is often about break­ing free. In this spir­it, accord­ing to Ahmed Abdel Fat­tah, West­ern des­tin­a­tions offer veiled Muslim women tour­ists a unique chance to explore who they are, chal­lenge the norms of their own soci­et­ies, and exper­i­ence a refresh­ing sense of freedom.

Thanks to “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­nerTourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lionsfor invit­ing Dr AbdelFat­tah to write this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. (You can write one too.)

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What does good tourism mean toyou?

Have you ever wanted to write a thought­ful piece about the state of the tour­ism industry; how we got here; how we can make it bet­ter (or avoid theworst)?

Has a lack of con­fid­ence in your writ­ing held you back? Well, please don’t letit.Your cor­res­pond­ent is here to helpyou.

If you sub­mit a draft that com­plies with the simple“GT” Insight guidelines, I will per­son­ally copy edit your work and ensure that you are happy with it before I click ‘Pub­lish’.

The freedom toshare

Just as “Good Tour­ism” nev­er defines ‘good tour­ism’, “GT” will nev­er judge any­one who would, in good faith, share their insights, ideas, expert­ise, exper­i­ence, and wis­dom. It’s part of “GT’s” mis­sion to offer a plat­form for truly diverse per­spect­ives and opinions:

• Fromestab­lished lead­ersin aca­demia and industry toyoung peoplewith the gump­tion to express themselves;
• From eliteglob­al organ­isa­tionsto the most mod­estmicro busi­nesses(like “GT”);
• From the world’s ‘WEIRD’ (west­ern, edu­cated, indus­tri­al­ised, rich, and demo­crat­ic) places to the ‘LDCs’ (least developed coun­tries) in the ‘Glob­alSouth’;
• (From those whoadoreacronyms and cat­egor­ies to those whodes­pisethem;-))
• Fromthe centreand fromthe mar­gins.

No, “GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” publishes.

Join the “GT” net­work.Con­tact “GT” »

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“GT” Insight Bites

A “GT” Insight Bites post is a com­pil­a­tion of short responses to an identic­al set of pro­pos­i­tions and/or ques­tions, and/or a col­lec­tion of short opin­ion pieces that travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers are wel­come to sub­mit at any time (BiteX). Here are the most recent Bites:

What is ‘authenticity’ in travel & tourism?

‘Authen­ti­city’ is the ideal for many trav­el­lers, influ­en­cers, and com­ment­at­ors. But what is it? Can des­tin­a­tion mar­ketersand tour­ism pro­fes­sion­alspack­age it and sell it … authentically?

Thanks toProf Valer­ia MinghettiandDr Sham­iso Nyajekafor tak­ing the time to share their thoughts on the ques­tion. Their responses appear in the order received.

And thanks toDr Seye­deh Fate­meh Mosta­favi Shirazifor an insight into the chal­lenges of domest­ic over­tour­ism in north­ern Iran. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bite_X.

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Overtourism and overimmigration are thesame?

‘Over­tour­ism’ and ‘over­im­mig­ra­tion’ are sub­ject­ive terms that mean essen­tially the samething.

Dis­cuss.

Thanks toChris Kit­tish­in­nak­uppe,Nic­olaus Sulistyo,andJohn Mor­ris Wil­li­amsfor tak­ing the time to con­sider the ques­tion. Their responses appear in the order received.

And thanks toKev­in Phunfor think­ing about the authen­ti­city of intent when pur­su­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity cer­ti­fic­a­tion. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bite_X.

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Share a “GT” Travel Experience or “GT” Travel Postcard

Are you a ‘tour­ism insider’keen to share some of the exper­i­ences thatgot you inter­ested andkeepyouinter­ested in the travel & tour­ism industry?

Have you ever wanted to write a travel blogabout aninspir­ing travel exper­i­ence … and have it published?

You areinvitedto shareyour travel pas­sion with dis­cern­ing trav­el­lers, and joina list of oth­erdis­tin­guished “GT” Friendswho have done justthat.

It could be a“GT” Travel Exper­i­ence(500 – 1,000 words) or a“GT” Travel Post­card(your favour­ite photo from a trip accom­pan­ied by an exten­ded cap­tion of up to 300words).

It doesn’t mat­ter if youthinkyou can’t write. I will per­son­ally copy-edit your draft and ensure that you are happy with it before I hit the ‘pub­lish’ button.

It’s all part of the“GT” Travel Exper­i­ence.

Join the “GT” net­work.Con­tact “GT” »

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Good news from friends

Good news in travel & tour­ism from the won­der­ful organ­isa­tions that make “GT” pos­sible. Here is some of what happened recently in the “Good Tour­ism” network:

‘Tourism’s Horizon’ book explores tourism’s humanity and agency

Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions — the Substack blog and “Good Tour­ism” Part­ner — has pub­lished a book of the same name com­piled by its founder Jim Butcher.

In the book, mass tour­ism is a “dynam­ic cul­tur­al & social phe­nomen­on that touches every­one”, tour­ists have human­ity, and hosts have agency. In an era of ‘crit­ic­al tour­ism stud­ies’, some might say that’s refreshing.

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Green Destinations appoints Kevin Phun lead expert for Southeast Asia, Pacific

Green Des­tin­a­tions has appoin­ted Kev­in Phun as lead inde­pend­ent expert for South­east Asia and the Pacific.

Mr Phun will engage des­tin­a­tions, busi­nesses, and experts in Green Des­tin­a­tions and Good Travel Alli­ance programs.

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SUNx’ BIG IDEA for World Tourism Day 2025: Dodo4Kids

SUN^xMaltahad a “BIG IDEA” for World Tour­ism Day 2025:Dodo4Kids.

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How to turn plastic waste into products, learnings, livelihoods in Vietnam

In the heart of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, plastic waste is more than an envir­on­ment­al issue; it is a com­munity challenge.

Anh Duong Cen­ter is facing up to the chal­lenge by turn­ing plastic waste into products,learn­ings, and livelihoods.

Their innov­at­ive school-based mod­el has earned recog­ni­tion from the 2025EXO Found­a­tionSus­tain­ab­il­ity Awards.

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As Bali runs dry, can tourism help replenish itswater?

The travel & tour­ism industry can be expec­ted to hon­our the human right to water, par­tic­u­larly in com­munit­ies and des­tin­a­tions in which it oper­ates. Industry stake­hold­ers need not see this as a bur­den, but rather as a com­pel­ling oppor­tun­ity to mean­ing­fully engage with loc­al people on secur­ing tra­di­tion­al water sup­plies, all the while devel­op­ing more sus­tain­able water and waste man­age­ment sys­tems of theirown.

Nic­olaus Sulistyo sheds light on IDEP Foundation’s Bali Water Pro­tec­tion ini­ti­at­ive; anEXO Found­a­tionSus­tain­ab­il­ity Award winner.

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Thai waterways to become quieter, cleaner as electric engine secures finance

A social enter­prise design­ing low-car­bon, com­munity-based tour­ism exper­i­ences has launched Thailand’s first elec­tric long­tail boat engine, the EV Boat, redu­cing car­bon emis­sions by 96% and cut­ting fuel costs dramatically.

With a USD 20,000 micro­loan from EXO Foundation’sReset Tour­ism Fund, POSITIV Group will scale up EV Boat pro­duc­tion, train loc­al oper­at­ors, expand green job oppor­tun­it­ies, and take the product to mar­ket, cre­at­ing a rep­lic­able mod­el for sus­tain­able tour­ism across South­eastAsia.

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The importance of good partnerships

To help you nav­ig­ate dire straits,take the tem­per­at­ure in an uncer­tain cli­mate, and keep your head when all about you are los­ing theirs, it’s wise toseek out good part­ners.

“GT” Partnership places are strictly limited!

“GT” is a good part­ner.There is a“GT” Part­ner­shippack­age for any organ­isa­tion — big or small; pub­lic or private; com­mer­cial or not-for-profit — because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

All “GT” Part­nersenjoyout­stand­ing value, includ­ing Part­ner mes­sages, and theoppor­tun­ityto con­trib­ute news to the“GT” news­let­terand to these ‘What is good tour­ism?’wraps.

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If there are com­ments on any “GT” post, you will find them below the main con­tent of that post. You need to be signed infirst.

The “GT” Blog requiresregis­tra­tionand sign in to make com­ment, read com­ments, and reply to com­ments. Why? Because“GT” is a ‘safe space’ for diverse per­spect­ives and respect­ful, friendly debate.

You will NOT be bannedforyour off-the-wall opin­ions or your weird sense of humour (with­in reas­on; even if the capri­cious algorithms of our big tech over­lords pun­ish the publisher).

How­ever,you WILL be bannedfor enga­ging inargu­mentum ad hom­inem. If you dis­agree with some­thing, always tackle the argu­ment not the indi­vidu­al mak­ingit.

Join the “Good Tour­ism” community

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Friends indeed

“Friends indeed” are worthy travel & tour­ism industry fun­draisers and char­it­able causesthat are asso­ci­ated with or sug­ges­ted by “GT” Part­ners and friends. Please help them if you can. Share the page with your net­works. And link to it from your website.

Stay healthy, smile, have a good time … And when you travel, remember:

#KnowNotNo … It’s not ‘no’. It’s ‘know’.

Gotta go? Then go!
If you’ve time, go slow
If you don’t, try low
Do what you know is good
And know there is more toknow

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Featured image(top ofpost)

What is good tour­ism? Per­haps you’ll find the answer in the “Good Tour­ism” & “GT” Travel wrap Septem­ber-Octo­ber 2025. Per­haps not. In any case, share good tour­ism as you would a plate of hum­mus. Pic by Chris­toph­er Alvar­enga (CC0) via Unsplash.

Donations, diversity, disclosure

To help your cor­res­pond­ent keep his energy-effi­cient lights on, please con­sider a private one-off gift or ongo­ing dona­tion. THANK YOU to those whohave!

You are a tour­ism stake­hold­er — yes, YOU! — so what’s your view?Do you dis­agreewith any­thing you have read on “GT”? Join the con­ver­sa­tion.Com­ment below orshare your “Good Tour­ism” Insights.Diversity of thought is wel­comeonThe “Good Tour­ism” Blog.And your ori­gin­al con­tent sup­ports an inde­pend­ent publisher.

Part­ner with “GT”.

Note:It is “GT’s” policy to fully dis­close Part­ner or sponsored con­tent. If an item asso­ci­ated with a “GT” Part­ner is not dis­closed as such, then it either met the“GT” Insight guidelines(includ­ing “avoid sales pitches”) or it was a simple oversight.

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