The supporters of international water aid charity, Just a Drop, have been known to cycle through ice fjords, shave their heads, jump out of planes and all manner of other ... Read more
Tourism can give rise to conflicts between local people whose home it is and groups of tourists who, despite being in the same place, sometimes have wildly different ideas about ... Read more
For several years when I was deputy travel editor at The Times, we ran a weekly slot in which we invited readers to share their favourite travelling tips. Most were ... Read more
This Thursday, August 13th, is Global Overshoot Day, which marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in ... Read more
There’s more to life than thread count and butler service. At least that’s what luxury travellers these days are telling themselves. This year’s Virtuoso Luxe Report included finding out the top reasons ... Read more
Women and children in developing countries spend an estimated 200 million hours each day collecting water. They often walk an average of 6km, in the searing heat, hauling heavy water ... Read more
This week’s blog is by Lamia Walker, Founder of Housesitmatch.com a network for housesitters, home and pet owners. Here she talks about how the idea for the company, the sharing ... Read more
It used to be easy, video was the reserve of TV advertisements, documentaries and films; whilst “going viral” was limited to that time your Nan got stuck in a rubber ... Read more
Today sees the publication of the finalists for the 2015 World Responsible Tourism Awards at WTM, the awards will be presented at World Travel Market London on World Responsible Tourism ... Read more
You know you are doing a good job when other players in your marketplace start attacking you. So, for example, the Daily Telegraph headline last month, “Courtney Love attacked by ... Read more
Carolyn Pearson, CEO of Maiden Voyage is my guest blogger this week. Carolyn will speak at the #WTM2015 #WomeninTravel meetup on the topic of resilience in business (‘Not for the ... Read more
Over the last few weeks there have been several stories in the press (including two on this blog) about issues to do with overcrowding at destinations and the hostility brewing ... Read more
The internet has almost come full circle. It seems like a strange concept now but back when America Online ruled the internet superhighway (as it was inevitably called), it offer ... Read more
The UK’s Airports Commission, appointed by the Government to draw up recommendations on the need for additional runway capacity in the South East of the country, has published its conclusions. ... Read more
Consumers take their eating behaviours on the road and destinations and businesses alike can woo new customers and more positive word-of-mouth by catering to otherwise unanticipated or unaddressed consumer behaviors. Foodies choose ... Read more
There have been protests in a number of honeypot European cities in the last couple of years. In Venice there is an anti-cruise ship campaign, in Berlin the local government ... Read more
My guest blogger this week is Jacki Hill Murphy who will be delivering the key note speech at the #WTM2015 WomeninTravel meet up. An explorer, traveller and film maker, here ... Read more
Yes, it’s that time of the year already. The first half of the year has gone and it’s now time to start planning where the travel bug will take you ... Read more
On 5 November 2014, Australian wildlife tour company Echidna Walkabout won Gold for Best for Wildlife Conservation in the World Responsible Tourism Awards at the World Travel Market in London. Jeremy ... Read more
This week’s guest blog is by Prof Graham Miller, director and Head of Surrey’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. We are delighted that the School has agreed to support ... Read more
If you walk round Muswell Hill, the part of North London where I have lived for nearly 20 years, you’ll occasionally see a man lying on the pavement, fine paintbrush ... Read more
The words and sentiment of Maya Angelou ring true with defiance, courage and strength. The essence and the heart of the wellness industry is the ultimate antithesis to terrorism. The ... Read more
Instagram remains the current darling of social media, its star rising as brands clamour for attention in the best photogenic social platform on the market. The ability to show images ... Read more
Finally the time has come! After many weeks of hard work I am now proud and delighted to announce that the 2015 WTM Women in Travel meetup programme is out…and we ... Read more
I live in Faversham in Kent, a working town at the end of the motorway, traffic speeds by to Canterbury with its cathedral and World Heritage sites; to Margate with ... Read more
I’m on a mission. Just a small one, so hear me out. I want us all to start creating content for people. “Errr.. Ruth, we already make content for people, ... Read more
Over the next few weeks, I will be organising Travel Technology Initiative’s Autumn conference. The title of the event is Digital Transformation. This has got me thinking about what does ... Read more
Travel is supposed to broaden the mind. As moves to embrace equal rights for gay people spread around the world, the tourism industry should be at the heart of the ... Read more
As any one who uses Facebook will know, many of your friends (and perhaps your own) profile photos took on a rainbow-coloured hue this weekend. People across the world clicked ... Read more
How do your customers or visitors perceive a new food or drink experience before it even happens? Knowing the answer to that could be the difference between increased sales, or ... Read more
The LGBT market is recognised as a lucrative one – with latest LGBT2020 research data from specialist LGBT consulting firm Out Now tracking annual LGBT consumer tourism spend which exceeded USD$200billion ... Read more
Destinations, attractions and other tourism businesses will soon be able to promote themselves even better on Twitter thanks to a new feature being tested by the microblogging network. Twitter is ... Read more
The origin of this often quoted maxim dates back at least to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), who is credited with “Hell is full of good intentions or desires.” It ... Read more
Today let’s talk about the world’s big spenders and their spending habits. The Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus wisely said: “You must spend money to make money.” Going by this year’s ... Read more
Last week 80 major British firms sent a letter to the prime minster calling for the UK to be at the forefront of actions to address climate change. Published in ... Read more
The Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility Increasingly, companies are choosing to support charities as a way of engaging and motivating staff, driving sales and meeting their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ... Read more
Summer is here and we all want to escape to the sun! Just in case your wonder lust needs some inspiration, here are 15 inspirational quotes from past and contemporary ... Read more
Instagram’s website has been redesigned. On the face of it, that’s very nice but there’s not a lot to shout about. It does look better, certainly. Only three images are ... Read more
Last week was Child Protection Week in South Africa, but for the tourism industry child protection should be seen as a year-round issue. In just the last few weeks there ... Read more
Though difficult to define, the term fringe travel generally describes tourism to regions seldom previously visited…and it’s on the rise in Europe. The Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) has observed ... Read more
Three things we need to stop talking about. Like. Now. I’ve spent the last six years developing and implementing content campaigns for global brands. The two things they have in ... Read more
Following several recent news stories about hotel approaches to towel and linen sustainability, here is a simple guide to getting it right. 1: USE THE MOST ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY MATERIALS ... Read more
This week I am chairing a Forum I have organised for Travel Technology Initiative and the European Tourism Association. I have called the event The Hotel Distribution Revolution. The online ... Read more
We’re living through the single biggest culture shift of our time” said Gary Vaynerchuk, Founder of Veyner Media at the WTTC Summit in Madrid last month. He was talking about ... Read more
I must thank David Speakman, CEO of Travel Counsellors, for providing the inspiration for this blog. Only few days ago we were exchanging tweets and David said that the words ... Read more
Responsible Tourism and sustainable tourism are not the same thing. Sustainability is hard to define; it is an abstract idea of a better future for us, our children and our ... Read more
In this the 12th year of the Responsible Tourism Awards, 206 tourism businesses, organisations and initiatives from a record 69 countries have made the longlist.
How often have you clicked on a link to an article on your Facebook feed only to sit for what seems like an eternity before something shows up? According to ... Read more
I often hear bloggers talk about what a struggle it is to produce video content, usually because of the time it takes and not having enough hours in the day ... Read more
More than the bed linen thread counts, gleaming bathroom tiles, and penthouse suites sizes, what most guests remember when staying at luxury hotels are the unique service experience they get. ... Read more
There is a great deal more going on in Arabia than most people assume. The United Arab Emirates is a hard environment for man to survive in, as is much ... Read more
There was a distinct moment when David Coulthard realized he had ‘cracked’ the challenge of encouraging his staff to adopt social media. The marketing manager of Salisbury Cathedral in south-west ... Read more
It’s possible to help the people in Nepal without leaving the comfort of your own home. And be part of one of the most innovative mapping projects in the world ... Read more
Since the earthquake in Nepal on April 25th, travel companies from across the world have launched fund raising drives to help the country’s people. Intrepid’s non-profit arm the Intrepid Foundation ... Read more
We have lift off! The Apple Watch has launched and may finally take wearables into orbit. The big question, though, is will it become as an essential electronic accessory as ... Read more
This week I have a guest blogger in Devika Jina Communications and Reporting Coordinator, Youth Career Initiative (YCI). YCI is an initiative of the International Tourism Partnership and Business in the Community and provides ... Read more
For 30 years Amazonas Explorer has been taking travellers to see the best that Peru has to offer. Their owner Paul Cripps spoke to Jeremy Smith about the challenges of ... Read more
By: Douglas Quinby, Vice President, Research Vacation rentals and holiday homes have long been a substantial alternative to hotels for European travelers. The market for private accommodation in Europe is significantly ... Read more
More and more mainstream tourism companies are embedding sustainability as a core part of their business. The arguments for doing so get stronger by the year
The case for responsible business has been long established and the advent of social media and user-generated content has amplified that case. For example, in the UK outbound operators have, ... Read more
The terms and vocabulary that articulate wellness tourism and medical tourism are different. For the purposes of communication, understanding and making the right choices, let’s be clear about the traveller ... Read more
Wednesday 22nd April marks Earth Day – a global day which raises awareness about environmental issues and celebrates worldwide ‘Acts of Green’. Established in the United States in 1970, it ... Read more
In one of the many presentations made at our inaugural Social Travel Britain conference in Salisbury over the past few days, Dr Philip Alford of Bournemouth University said that maybe ... Read more
Whether reinventing tours of Cape Town, showing that Shark Tourism can be ethical, or inspiring through writing and photography that reminds how great travel can be, the winners of this ... Read more
If there is a hot topic in the blogging industry right now, then this is it. One of the interesting things about the blogging communities is the variation in just ... Read more
“Luxury is in each detail.” – Hubert de Givenchy, designer. While not exclusive to fashion, the description of luxury remains true, and year after year, luxury travellers all over the ... Read more
As the judging begins for the inaugural African Responsible Tourism Awards, Harold Goodwin reflects on the significance of responsible tourism for the continent
As Garry Wilson, Mainstream Product & Purchasing Director for the TUI Group, argues in the above video, in an interview specially recorded for Cape Town and Africa, Responsible Tourism is ... Read more
I will unashamedly admit that what you are about to read is mostly NOT mine, but the summary of a longer article produced by brilliant adventure travel blogger duo @mappingmegan. I ... Read more
So bad has the problem of rubbish and human waste despoiling the world’s tallest mountain become, that starting this month, climbers on Mount Everest will have to bring back 8kg ... Read more
Time is running out to nominate yourself or someone else for the World Responsible Tourism Awards. Help the world’s best tourism companies get the recognition they deserve
Did you watch Martha Lane Fox of LastMinute.com fame deliver the #Dimbleby Lecture on BBC1 last night? I am neither a technologist nor a digital entrepreneur; I use the Internet ... Read more
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the remarkable winners of the first Irish Responsible Tourism Awards – part of the family of World Responsible Tourism Awards. Today the longlist for the Africa ... Read more
Jeremy Smith speaks to Daniel Elkan, who founded Snowcarbon to make it easier for skiers travelling to the Alps to get there as sustainably as possible. 1: What inspired you ... Read more
Jeremy Smith speaks to Daniel Elkan, who founded Snowcarbon to make it easier for skiers travelling to the Alps to get there as sustainably as possible.
North Karelia projectFrom the ‘karaoke culture’ that Kjell Nordstrom, (a leading global economist and author) describes so perfectly, to depth, meaning and authenticity. The evolution of health and wellness in ... Read more
San Francisco has become the first city in America to ban the sale of water in plastic bottles. Over the next four years, the ban will phase out the sales of ... Read more
I’ve been looking into hotel water sustainability innovations over the last few days, trying to find some stories for a blog to mark World Water Day, which happened last Sunday. ... Read more
At the IMTJ Medical Travel Summit in London, April 15th-16th, we’re aiming to focus on some of the key issues that face the developing medical tourism market. Here’s my “pick ... Read more
They were first spotted in 2007. They were given the official thumbs-up in 2009. Now they are everywhere. You cannot escape. By they, I mean hashtags. I was watching television ... Read more
A City Walk will become a new addition to Cape Town’s multi-faceted central city experience when the route launches on Saturday, 18 April 2015 at the first of what will ... Read more
When we first campaigned in the UK for Responsible Tourism back in late 1990s it was often argued that Responsible Tourism was only relevant in developing countries. We had to argue ... Read more
A study recently completed by the University of Derby concludes that some people have become addicted to their smartphones, ie. they have become physically and mentally dependent on their devices. ... Read more
When ResponsibleTravel.com announced the call for entries for the annual World Responsible Tourism Awards a few days ago, there was one new category I was particularly pleased to see introduced. ... Read more
A new category in World Responsible Tourism Awards recognises Innovation for Carbon Reduction”. There can be no more important task facing the industry – and society at large – today.
YouTube has just celebrated the big one-oh and look how far it has come in those intervening years. Here are our ten thoughts for brands on the video network as ... Read more
The industry needs to do more to encourage guests not to use plastics. Some companies, like &Beyond and CGHEarth, have shown it’s possible to be stylish and sustainable. Now the ... Read more
If like me you have even vaguely followed the social media fun-fair caused by the Oscar ceremonies, it won’t have escaped you the fact this year a number of quasi ... Read more
A few years ago I visited around 200 ecolodges, homestays, community run guests houses etc around the world as part of my research for a book on the best in ... Read more
