Plans to create a huge ski resort that would require blowing up part of the Alps are on hold after major pushback from locals coming to grips with warming. A growing grassroots movement is now standing up to the powerful ski industry, arguing that it sacrifices untouched landscapes for ever grander projects that ignore the looming climate crisis.
Renown journalist and author Elizabth Becker identified the threat of ‘overtourism’ in her book 'OVERBOOKED: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism', published in 2013. In this interview with Sustainability Leaders, she shares what inspired her to write her book and discusses how governments, the cruise industry and the media need to step up to the challenge to make tourism more sustainable.
Ruth Dolla, Official Spokesperson, Visit Sweden, talks to ETTravelWorld about how sustainability is a part of the Swedish lifestyle and is reflected in every aspect that a tourist experiences. By supporting tourism companies that offer sustainable experiences, a tourist is able to contribute to the circular economy and the experiences that they take back might inspire them and others to keep on living sustainably making tourism a tool for sustainable development.
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.
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. . In this post, Malcolm talks about how Scotland has managed opening up to visitors, and more generally about the trend towards transformational travel.