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

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 media, 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

By Ethan Gelber

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LEIA LOGO ABAIXO ESTA NOTICIA EM PORTUGUÊS / SEE BELOW FOR THIS MESSAGE IN PORTUGUESE

Some things make no sense at all, especially when it comes to politics and the environment. Far too often, years of careful consultative and democratic negotiation in favour of cultural and environmental conservation can be – and are too often – undone by the surreptitious and unilateral actions of a (perhaps) ill-informed and (sometimes) self-serving few.

Such appears to be the case today along the Emerald Coast of Brazil and adjacent islands (especially Ilha Grande), where a June 2009 decree signed by the governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro has relaxed 23-year-old environmental protections and now threatens the ecological sustainability of the entire area.

Ilha Grande recently received the title of the 'Second Wonder of the State of Rio de Janeiro' and has routinely been recognized as one of the world's most beautiful tourist destinations. Its beaches are certainly amongst the best in Brazil.

Fortunately, the sly changes in policy have not gone unnoticed. “Here in Brazil, we have many people and organizations mobilized to repeal that decree,” said Nélio Ricardo Aguiar, the whl.travel local connection in Ilha Grande.

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While the vocal opposition is building, so is support for their cause via an online petition calling for immediate revocation of the decree.

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Posted under Brazil, General, countries, responsible travel, responsible travel news, whl.travel news

…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 Ethan Gelber

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OK, I’ll just come out and say it: The best thing that ever happened to world tourism was the global financial crisis.

That probably comes across as terribly impolitic or obnoxiously cavalier. Is it really a good thing that a massive economic contraction has led to thousands of lost jobs and punishing reductions in foreign currency flows to countries that rely heavily on income from tourism? Well, put in those terms, of course it isn’t. But I also believe this is an unfair representation and that, ultimately, other gauges – those harder to quantify – will show that the worldwide slowdown benefited us all.
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Posted under General, opinion, responsible travel, whl.travel newsletter