Fifty years ago my father took me for a day trip to Boulogne, just across the channel from Ramsgate. He headed us straight for the back streets to see how ... Read more
One of the most common questions you’ll get at many blogging and influencer conferences these days from new content creators is “what advice would you give someone starting out today?”. ... Read more
What connects most of the recent high profile campaigns to make tourism more responsible? Stop riding elephants. Don’t swim with dolphins. Avoid handicrafts made from endangered species. No selfies with ... Read more
For three years from 2014-17, I looked after a lot of social media accounts. It was the phase where travel companies knew they had to have social, but had no ... Read more
There is mounting concern about orphanages and tourism around the world, but the response has been patchy. Our world is a diverse place and our understanding of orphanages varies between ... Read more
I don’t know about you but I have been to quite a few presentations on blockchain and read plenty of articles on the subject. I now think I understand what ... Read more
Last week Harold Goodwin’s blog laid out his reasons why the aviation industry’s approach to addressing its ongoing growth in emissions is inadequate. This week, I want to look at ... Read more
According to PriceWaterhouseCoopers Women in Work Index 2016, Women Returners still make up a significantly underutilised resource. In particular, this research shows that in the UK an additional £1.7bn of ... Read more
The end of January is always an interesting time in social media. It is at this point of the year when we hear just how much more dominant Facebook has ... Read more
Globally aviation emits around 2% of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, bring its total emissions to around 5% of the global total; if aviation were a country it world rank ... Read more
Thomas Cook is making the news this week for a new programme it is trialing to enable guests to pre-book sunloungers before they come on holiday. From the end of ... Read more
It is a kind of pollution. There are of course several contenders. Carbon emissions and consequent global warming, soil degradation, overpopulation, biodiversity and plastics. It is not easy to decide ... Read more
Expedia has carried out a research study in partnership with The Center for Generational Kinetics. The study is called ‘Generations on the Move – A deep dive into multi-generational travel ... Read more
Right from the outset, let me say that this is not going to make comfortable reading. But then, you cannot be sitting comfortably if you’ve being following all the sexual ... Read more
This week the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has launched an impressively extensive resource targeting food waste in hotels. Titled with one of the better acronyms around – BUFFET (Building ... Read more
In my last blog of 2017, I looked back at some of my personal responsible tourism highlights of that year. I’ve been on holiday for most of the time since ... Read more
2017 was the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. Taleb Rifai’s tenure of office as Secretary General of UNWTO closed at the turn of the year and I asked ... Read more
Missed the British Airways – A year of mixed fortunes session? Not to worry, here’s an overview of all the key points from keynote speaker and Chairman & CEO of ... Read more
Back in July, on these pages, I wrote about the long and slow decline of Storify, a platform which allowed users to aggregate links, photos and social media in one ... Read more
Missed the Maximising Revenue in the Luxury Travel Space with Minimal Investment session? Not to worry, here’s an overview of all the key points from panel member and founder of ... Read more
Some interesting news from Hitwise. Part 3 of their Cyber Week 2017 report showed increased travel purchase activity during Black Friday in November. As we all know, January has traditionally ... Read more
With the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development drawing to a close, I’ve looked back through the year’s headlines to chart an extremely personal selection of highlights from 2017… ... Read more
So here we are, the end of 2017 is in sight and 2018 is upon us. It has been an important year for Women in Travel as the social enterprise ... Read more
There’s been a huge shift in the democratisation of technology, placing increasingly powerful tools in the hands of the masses. The advancements in gadgets like smartphones, 360 degree cameras, stabilisers ... Read more
The concept of the “curate’s egg” was first used in the British satirical magazine Punch by George du Maurier in November 1895. The curate was too timid to complain of ... Read more
The launch of a new watch by one of the tech giants is a bit of a yawn these days but back in August, social media behemoth Facebook launched its ... Read more
A few days ago, a new hashtag started appearing on Twitter. Created by the Good Awards, #pointlessplastics is encouraging people to tweet images of the unnecessary use of plastics (one ... Read more
This year, the Faroe Islands won. Their victory highlighted, yet again, the importance of setting out on a project with a clear strategy. Because there are many ways to use ... Read more
At WTM London this month the least well-attended session of the Responsible Tourism programme was the one addressing climate change. We chose a panel of speakers from industry with experience ... Read more
As we hang on to the remaining weeks of 2017, I can’t help but marvel how time flies so quickly, and it seems to even pick up speed towards this ... Read more
Just two months ago, on September 18th, Hurricane Maria hit the Caribbean island of Dominica. Minutes before, this was the Nature Island, a tropical paradise of 365 river and pristine ... Read more
WTM London has recently shut its doors for 2017, and Women in Travel can count this as one of the most successful gatherings since our inception in 2014! Having Entrepreneurship ... Read more
At World Travel Market London this year, I ran a Summit called Future Digital Thinking. I split this into 2 two hour sessions, the first focusing on the hospitality sector ... Read more
Tuesday the 14th November 2007 was the first WTM & UNWTO World Responsible Tourism Day, today we are ten years on. This year at WTM London we looked back at ... Read more
It may have been the final day of WTM London 2017 but that didn’t mean things slowed down at all, the event was once again packed with business opportunities and ... Read more
The halls were buzzing again on day two at WTM London 2017. Exhibitors continued to meet and conduct business deals with the thousands of industry professionals from around the world. ... Read more
At 10am WTM London 2017 opened its doors to travel professionals from around the world. As the leading global event for the travel industry, everyone was here for the same ... Read more
The UN Sustainable Development Goals provide a framework for businesses to explore how they can add value beyond the bottom line and create greater benefits for society, argues Fiona Jeffery ... Read more
What a year 2017 is turning out to be for the airline business. It’s been good, it’s been bad & sure as heck it’s been ugly! Good for airlines that ... Read more
Andalusia has a rich ancient cultural heritage, which has increased in value in recent decades; both in recovering signs of identity reflected in its historic heritage as well the force ... Read more
With a new Responsible Tourism Theatre in the Africa Section (AS580) the Responsible Tourism programme is now firmly established down on the show floor. An experiment last year it was ... Read more
Italy has always been and firmly remains an inspirational destination that every year attracts millions of tourists from every corner of the world; that never fails to receive recognitions and ... Read more
In the old days, about 2014, a travel influencer was a blogger with a decent set of numbers on their website and social media. Such a blogger was very happy ... Read more
Some of the most impressive leaders in travel today will take the stage of the first TTG Tomorrow’s Travel Leaders conference, taking place at WTM London this year. David Speakman, ... Read more
A full-fledged, Mediterranean style travel experience. Year after year, millions of tourists flock to Puglia for an all-season, unique and well treasured journey. Nature, culture, art, food & wine, and ... Read more
A report released last week into the working conditions of hundreds of thousands of women cleaning bedrooms and other hotel areas across the world. Published by Oxfam Canada, Tourism’s Dirty ... Read more
If you are looking for inspiration to run your travel business this November, look no further than the Women in Travel Meetup at WTM! This year we are bringing you ... Read more
Before diving specifically into hotel loyalty, let’s examine if business travelers are interested in loyalty at all. Business travelers are the main users of loyalty programmes, 78% belong to hotel ... Read more
Today’s society has never been more educated and aware about being politically, racially, culturally, and sexually correct. Yet whenever I feel that we are truly living in the age of ... Read more
To discover the truth behind the UK’s latest food trends we teamed up with our operations team, self-proclaimed group meal booking experts! In their defence, they did book over 1 ... Read more
World Responsible Tourism Day is on Wednesday this year and our main focus is on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Tanya Beckett will be interviewing tourism leaders from UNWTO, TUI ... Read more
What are you looking to promote at WTM London this year? Positioned at the intersection of different worlds – Mediterranean, Alpine, Karst and Pannonian – Slovenia has a unique geographical ... Read more
It wasn’t the best of times, it was the worst of times, it wasn’t the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it wasn’t the epoch of belief, ... Read more
The State of Loyalty in 2017 In 2017, there are expected to be 70 billion digital purchases by consumers online, the majority of which are in retailing followed by other ... Read more
After a long day of stunning sights, unusual sounds, interesting smells, and at least 100 certainly never-before snapped pictures of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, we ended up for a late ... Read more
Alongside the stories of Ryanair and Monarch’s woes in the last few weeks have been excited posts on the potential of electric flight, following Easyjet’s announcement that it hopes to ... Read more
Euromonitor International is excited to share new insights about the travel industry. Travel and tourism continues to remain on track, outperforming the global economy, with arrivals set to grow by ... Read more
2017 is a transition year. responsibletravel.com has decided to pursue other priorities and to pioneer creative projects to deliver change through our business; our activism and Trip for a Trip ... Read more
It’s no secret that people are increasingly basing their travel decisions around Instagram. As the Facebook-owned app connects the world, we are increasingly exposed to exotic destinations throughout our daily ... Read more
Put yourself in a luxury hotelier’s shoes for a moment. It’s 2017. With endless types of accommodation options and lodging models, it’s a great time to be a traveller and ... Read more
World Tourism Day occurs this week, with the theme for 2017 being “Sustainable Tourism – a tool for development”. According to the UNWTO’s official site for the event, “World Tourism ... Read more
With the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development focus on travelling with respect (#TravelEnjoyRespect) we have focused on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Respect is one of the core ... Read more
According to the World Bank, in 70% of the world, women owned small business have inadequate or no access to finance. Female entrepreneurship is on the rise, in travel as ... Read more
We can’t all be super productive all of the time. When you hit the wall and lose your mojo, how do you get back on the blogging horse? There’s a ... Read more
The images from the impact of Hurricane Irma on Caribbean islands such as Barbuda are shocking. These are places whose beaches and coastlines epitomise what many of us imagine when ... Read more
A recent study by Carlson Wagonlit Travel has discovered that business travellers tend to take four technology devices with them on trips. The survey of more than 1,900 business travellers ... Read more
Brands are increasingly looking to use influencers, such as Instagram stars and bloggers, in their marketing but the chasm between what brands and their PR companies expect to pay for ... Read more
Word Responsible Tourism Awards have been presented at World Travel Market in London since 2004. Each year we have seen the bar rise, competition has been tough and the successive ... Read more
Among this summer’s slew of stories about overtourism, one took a slightly different angle. In an article titled 10 tourist destinations ruined by Instagram, the Independent reported how “the rise ... Read more
There is no doubt that the USA remains a hugely tempting place to do business. After all, with a population of over 326 million and with many of world’s biggest ... Read more
It started in the summer of 2016, a conscious algorithm move by Instagram to get shot of bots and introduce an avalanche of features that are still ongoing. The Facebook-owned ... Read more
Technology is changing the way we work, travel, socialise and enjoy our leisure time. But when it comes to employment and entrepreneurship, technology is still very much the domain of ... Read more
Modern slavery is an underground issue in the UK, it is hidden from view. Trafficking is at the heart of much of it. I know of no evidence that children ... Read more
There’s a bit of a joke these days that you’ll never be a successful digital influencer in the travel sphere if you don’t post photos on the beach in a ... Read more
Last week I spent an afternoon training my binoculars on a field of cows. I got very excited by the sight of some pigs walking down a lane. Then had ... Read more
In the last month, I was invited by an airline to contribute to a strategy day. A few external experts such as myself had been invited along to the strategy ... Read more
Last Saturday the London Times led its front page with a photo of Mo Farah winning the 10,000m at the IAAF world championships. But the headline on the front page ... Read more
“What is real? How do you define real?” So says Morpheus to Neo in the classic sci-fi movie, The Matrix. His quote took on more significance this month after popular ... Read more
When people are looking to assert how important tourism is as an industry, they are likely to cite the proportion of global Gross Domestic Product that it is responsible for. ... Read more
I was a big fan of Storify… as were a lot of journalists and news organisations, who regularly used the site between for the four years after it launched in ... Read more
When you are working in the field trying to improve the livelihoods of local people this is the kind of email you want to receive: ““Hi – Peter , sorry ... Read more
When travelling to WTM London in November, the Emirates Cable Car will get you across the Thames and offer stunning views of London. Whilst taking in the views you might ... Read more
In the 1970’s, economist and Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman, from the Chicago School of Economics, asserted that the purpose of organisation is to create value for its shareholders Numerous ... Read more
Last week a significant climate change milestone was passed. On July 10th, the Climate Group’s RE100 (the RE standing for renewable energy) announced that the 100th multinational had signed up ... Read more
The Data Protection Act 1998 is old news. Taking over is the General Data Protection Regulation. The Regulation will harmonise data privacy laws across Europe. It will protect EU citizens’ ... Read more
The concept of shared value emerges from the writing of Harvard Professor Michael Porter– well-known for his previous work on competition strategy, value chains and cluster theory. In 2011, in ... Read more
Tourism associated with gigs and music festivals like Glastonbury is now big business. UK Music’s Wish You Were Here study in 2016, revealed that music tourism generated £3.7 million in ... Read more
Despite the rain pouring down outside my window right now and the fact I am wearing a jumper in late June, I can’t actually see climate change. I can go ... Read more
While the vacation rental (VR) industry has a long history, it has mostly been limited to resort destinations. Recent disruption of new platforms, technology and the sharing economy bring drastic ... Read more
JAPAN has done a tremendous amount of work in the past decade to help foreign travellers by installing English language signs at transport hubs and dual language announcements on Bullet ... Read more
Tourism and hospitality are labour intensive, with 8% of the global workforce employed in the sector. As the ILO has pointed out there are many highly skilled well trained professionals ... Read more
It’s not news that Chinese travellers have been dominating the tourism sector over the last decade as outbound travel from China continues to grow. It’s also no secret that Asian ... Read more
Female entrepreneurship is growing at a fast pace. Although globally the gap between women- and men-owned businesses is still high, female entrepreneurship is one of the fastest growing areas of ... Read more
A couple of years ago I wrote a blog for this site reporting on inspirational tourism industry initiatives responding to the refugee crisis. My aim was to show “how tourism ... Read more
It’s easy as a blogger to find yourself chasing your own tail scrambling to keep up with the latest social media platform and focusing on your follower numbers. Amongst all ... Read more
At the heart of Responsible Tourism are commitments to transparency and accountability. Responsible Tourism is about what people do, individually and collectively in businesses, to move towards sustainability. It is ... Read more
Many opinions have been written about the technology issue that affected BA and the way in which the airline handled the situation. It must be one of the worst PR ... Read more
As luxury travellers’ needs keep evolving, it gets more and more complex to define who they are and what they really want. It’s no longer just about targeting who likes ... Read more
Last week, a village in Switzerland got loads of press coverage for banning tourists from taking photos of its scenery and sharing them on social media. According to the local ... Read more
Two destinations have announced two very different but both very eye-catching approaches to marketing themselves in the past week. But at the heart of both Visit Sweden’s country takeover by ... Read more
