By Ashley Hiemenz

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It is well known that animals are a powerful tourism catalyst throughout the world. However, after the tragic death of Dawn Brancheau at Orlando SeaWorld on February 22nd, many questions have again been raised about the exploitation of whales and dolphins as entertainment. SeaWorld, owned by Blackstone, is a profitable business that fills its stadiums day after day with thousands of viewers eager to watch animals do circus tricks. The animals live and perform in pools the conditions of which have been likened to a human spending the rest of his or her life in a bathtub.

The spinner dolphin is common to the waters of Fernando de Noronha, Brazil, and most famous for its acrobatic displays. Some have been seen completing 14 spinning jumps one after another.

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Posted under Estonia, General, Malaysia, South Africa, opinion, responsible travel, whl.travel newsletter

What needs to happen in the local travel knowledge website space…

By Stephen Chapman

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Network Cables / Flickr photo by pascal.charest

The internet is all about social these days, it has been for sometime, and as more of us become more active on the major social networking sites it’s becoming increasingly apparent that although our number of ‘friends’, ‘followers’ or ‘connections’ can be huge, the opportunities for us each to leverage the intelligence that’s locked away in the minds of our contacts are minimal.

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Posted under General, opinion, whl.travel newsletter

On 8 February, the body of Chrystel Cancel was positively identified, nearly a month after the devastating earthquakes in Haiti levelled the Hotel Montana on top of her. She had only had just arrived in Port-au-Prince. We pay tribute to her here because she was a trusted part of our family.

Chrystel Cancel grew up in Toulouse, France. After earning both a Bachelors and Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Toulouse, Chrystel graduated from the University of Paris in 1999 with another Masters in Political Science, specialising in developing countries. A passion for travel, adventure and international development led her to Washington, DC, where she obtained a Masters in Tourism Administration from the George Washington University in 2006.

Chrystel spent the majority of her career as a dedicated sustainable tourism consultant leaving her lasting legacy on a variety of projects around the world.

We will never be able to give voice to the thousands of people Chrystel touched, both directly and indirectly. We hope that a few short remarks from some of the people with whom she worked will impart a sense of her spirit, her character… and the empty space we now feel in her absence.

See below for short tributes to Chrystel from:

• Len Cordiner, CEO of the WHL Group
• Zachary Rozga, CEO of WHL Consulting
• Simon Jones, Vice President of Solimar International
• Sandrine-Pia Casto, General Manager of Tucaya Panama

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Posted under General, opinion, responsible organisations, responsible traveller, whl.travel newsletter

By Ethan Gelber

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A Local Travel movement is finding its legs. Strong legs. Last weekend, in a step to find good solid ground upon which to exercise those legs, I published two blog posts about it, one on Lonely Planet’s Travel Blog hosted by Yahoo!7 Travel in Australia and the other on The Brooklyn Nomad’s blog.

It’s true. Local Travel’s here. It’s a small new movement, but it’s gaining momentum. Stay tuned for more…

Lonely Planet’s Travel Blog (hosted by Yahoo!7 Travel in Australia)

On 17 December 2009, I wrote a post about the misunderstood merits of Local Travel on Lonely Planet’s Travel Blog hosted by Yahoo!7 Travel in Australia.

Judging by the glowingly supportive comments, I apparently tapped a rich vein of local travel enthusiasts eager to lend credence to a cause.

Given that, I was invited by Lonely Planet to write a follow-up post, digging a little deeper into the fertile earth I’d found. That text – Get Lost, Go Local – has again fielded some welcome input from readers.

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Posted under opinion, responsible organisations, responsible travel, responsible travel news, responsible traveller, whl.travel newsletter

By Ethan Gelber

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The Muğla Province of southwest of Turkey is much beloved for many reasons – its scenic beauty, historic sites and archaeological ruins, and the many, many attractions of its Turquoise Coast. The area including Köycegiz, Sarigerme, Marmaris, Göcek and Dalyan is particularly well reputed for its natural glory. Unfortunately, the pristine sanctity of this magnificent green cathedral is no longer sacrosanct, as on 13 December 2009, Akfen Energy, a Turkish company, began preparations to dam – some would say destroy – the Yuvarlakçay River, as a major step toward construction of a hydroelectric dam.

Locals visit the scene of logging along Turkey's Yuvarlakçay River to protest the destruction paving the way for a new hydroelectric power plant

However, this plan now faces strong opposition from the ‘Platform for the Protection of Yuvarlakçay,’ a growing consortium of local residents, businesses, organisations and municipalities calling for a stop to the project and new long-term safeguards for the riverbed.

(If you don’t care to read any further, but are willing to show support for the Platform for the Protection of Yuvarlakçay, please sign this online petition and/or donate to their cause and help spread the word.)
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Posted under General, Turkey, countries, opinion, responsible organisations, responsible travel, whl.travel newsletter

By Ethan Gelber

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I’ve been a fan of responsible travel for more than 20 years. I consider it the only way to go, although in the early days, it wasn’t always a simple thing to make happen; the time and resources required to gain local-level access to a desired destination so that I could visit it responsibly just weren’t always readily available to me. These days, however, it’s really too easy. There’s no solid excuse for not ‘going local’.

Given this, I jumped at a chance to put some thougths to virtual paper for Lonely Planet’s Travel Blog hosted by Australia’s Yahoo!7 Travel.

The result – Loco for Local: Travel Like It Should Be – has already attracted some welcome and enthusiastic comments. I encourage you to add yours!

Here’s the first paragraph:
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Posted under General, opinion, responsible travel, responsible traveller, whl.travel newsletter

By Ben Colclough, Director of Tourdust Ltd.

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There is a shift in Western societies that has its roots in travel. Social status has always traditionally been about flash badges of wealth, but nowadays, having a couple of wild and romantic stories up your sleeves from your travels is a far more impressive social differentiator.

Through AWOL (tour operator) and the Bicycling Empowerment Network, travellers can tour by bicycle through the Cape Town township of Masiphumelele in South Africa. Tours like this provide real jobs for people in the community. For example, bike mechanics repair the bicycles used and all guides are local.

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Posted under General, opinion, responsible organisations, responsible travel, whl.travel newsletter

…we might also be able to find a causal link for the failure of the responsible tourism industry

By Len Cordiner

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On October 15th, 2008, I had the pleasure of attending the keynote address at the first National Geographic/Ashoka Geotourism Challenge awards in Washington DC given by Sven Lindblad, president and founder of Lindblad Expeditions.

He kicked off his talk by making reference to an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times of July 2nd 2006 entitled “If Only Gay Sex Caused Global Warming: Why we’re more scared of gay marriage and terrorism than a much deadlier threat”. The article was written by Daniel Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard University and the author of Stumbling on Happiness. The room full of attendees – mostly industry practitioners in sustainable development, academics, NGOs etc. – all found this a very amusing way to start the talk, but Sven was using it to make some very important points about the whole sustainable tourism movement to the sustainability practitioners.

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Posted under General, opinion, responsible travel

By Jessica Reilly

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This article was first published by our friends at Xola Consulting, who have agreed to its republication here. View the original article on their blog.

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Katja Wichland leads a climb on limestone cliffs only a few meters from the oceanside near Cala Gonone, Sardinia

Sardinia, the Italian island south of Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea, is an adventure traveler’s paradise: rock climbing over turquoise waters, the ancient granite mountain top of Gennargentu covered in snow and mist, well-defined treks across the island and a mysterious prehistoric past defined by 6000-year-old stone temples.

I recently returned from a rock climbing trip to the Golfo di Orosei on Sardinia’s eastern coast. I was based out of the small town of Cala Gonone and either walked or drove to world-class limestone sport climbing.

What I saw was both inspiring and perplexing: yet another example of the tension tourism, even in our favorite form – adventure tourism – can introduce in a destination.
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Posted under General, Italy, countries, opinion

By Rachael Harlech-Jones

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Rachael co-owns and operates Cardboard Box Travel Shop, the local whl.travel partner for Etosha and Northern Namibia, Sossusvlei & Southern Namibia and Windhoek & Central Namibia.

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I am married to a typical Namibian male. His idea of a decent meal includes a large hunk of steak with not a single green substance in sight! Fifteen years ago, when I first arrived in Namibia, I did not really understand the importance meat has in the lives of most Namibians (although it is probably worth mentioning that I was a vegetarian); however, it soon became apparent that Namibia, at least in those days, was not familiar with the term ‘vegetarian’.

Guests at a Herero wedding in Ovitoto, approximately 70km northeast of Okahandja. Herero culture places a lot of importance on cattle.

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Posted under General, Namibia, countries, local tips, opinion, whl.travel newsletter