The Ethical Traveller by
Explore the world, without ruining it! Travel can be life-changing, but there are hidden costs to our trips that go deeper than our pockets. Whether it's impacts on the environment or the communities we visit, we all have the power to make a difference. Conscious decisions along our journeys can positively change the planet we share with all of our human and animal friends. The Ethical Traveller offers one hundred tips, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, that help us protect the planet, support communities, and explore the world while preserving everything that makes it so very special.
Ecotourism by
The new fifth edition of Ecotourism focuses on an array of economic, social and ecological inconsistencies that continue to plague ecotourism in theory and practice, and examines the sector in reference to other related forms of tourism, impacts, conservation, sustainability, education and interpretation, policy and governance, and the ethical imperative of ecotourism as these apply to the world's greenest form of tourism. Building on the success of prior editions, the text has been revised throughout to incorporate recent research, including ecotourism taking place in under-represented world regions. It includes new case studies on important themes in research and practice as well as learning objectives in each chapter. David Fennell provides an authoritative and comprehensive review of the most important issues, including climate change and UN Sustainable Development Goals. Ecotourism continues to be embraced as the antithesis of mass tourism because of its promise of achieving sustainability through conservation mindedness, community development, education and learning, and the promotion of nature-based activities that are sensitive to both ecological and social systems. The book debates to what extent this promise has been realised. An essential reference for those interested in ecotourism, the book is accessible to students, but retains the depth required for use by researchers and practitioners in the field. This book will be of interest to students across a range of disciplines including geography, economics, business, ethics, biology, and environmental studies.
Sustainable Travel by 
Destination Unknown by
Tourism: the good, the bad and the ugly. As one of the biggest industries in the world, tourism contributed ten percent of the world's GDP before the pandemic brought it to an historic standstill. Hailed as a smokeless industry, it was seen as a tool for development by serving as an income and job creator. The industry was expanding in oftentimes uncontrolled forms, reaching over one billion international travelers before the virus halted all travel. This edited volume highlights the issues the industry faces, including impacts on the environment, culture, and residents. As the industry rebounds post-pandemic, this book gives space to imagine a more equitable and ethical industry. Bringing together expert authors from around the world, contributions highlight possible ways the industry can be developed more beneficially for people and planet. From nature-based tourism in Africa which protects natural resources by involving local communities and offering cultural interpretation; to vernacular design of tourism buildings and ecolodges that honors and celebrates the local; to considering ways in which cruise ship tourism can offer meaningful encounters instead of contributing to overtourism; to taking a hard look at volunteer tourism and the ways in which it inadvertently prioritizes profit and traveler needs over the needs of local communities, and how it can be developed more ethically; to examining tourism as a tool to increase interculturalism and intercultural understanding; and to the sensitive issue of ethnic tourism to discover one's roots and identify and aid in community development. This book celebrates the ways in which tourism brings us together and can add to our personal and planetary well-being by consciously choosing the ways we travel and how we develop travel opportunities.
Sustainable Tourism in the Global South by
"A burning global issue, the achievement of sustainable tourism, can never ignore the global south or developing regions of the planet where tourism is rapidly growing. The readership of this book will be taken through a fascinating and comprehensive collection of writings on sustainable tourism, which brings together a compilation of profound conceptual and empirical research findings from diverse socio-economic and environmental settings in the developing South. The contributions of expert and new researchers review and interpret ideals and multiple realities concerning the concept of sustainability in the tourism development process. The categorization of the book into three parts - community, environment and management experience - encompasses the different flavours of sustainability in tourism, catering to the tastes of readers with different perspectives. Detailed accounts of the community component of sustainable tourism bring forth fascinating insights relating to its many facets, such as community capacity and participation, community empowerment, community integration, and community perceptions of tourism. The comprehensive nature of the book, and its diversity, provides a holistic picture of sustainable tourism in the global South today."
Hoping to Help by
Overseas volunteering has exploded in numbers and interest in the last couple of decades. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people travel from wealthier to poorer countries to participate in short-term volunteer programs focused on health services. Churches, universities, nonprofit service organizations, profit-making "voluntourism" companies, hospitals, and large corporations all sponsor brief missions. Hoping to Help is the first book to offer a comprehensive assessment of global health volunteering, based on research into how it currently operates, its benefits and drawbacks, and how it might be organized to contribute most effectively. Given the enormous human and economic investment in these activities, it is essential to know more about them and to understand the advantages and disadvantages for host communities. Most people assume that poor communities benefit from the goodwill and skills of the volunteers. Volunteer trips are widely advertised as a means to "give back" and "make a difference." In contrast, some claim that health volunteering is a new form of colonialism, designed to benefit the volunteers more than the host communities. Others focus on unethical practices and potential harm to the presumed "beneficiaries." Judith N. Lasker evaluates these opposing positions and relies on extensive research--interviews with host country staff members, sponsor organization leaders, and volunteers, a national survey of sponsors, and participant observation--to identify best and worst practices. She adds to the debate a focus on the benefits to the sponsoring organizations, benefits that can contribute to practices that are inconsistent with what host country staff identify as most likely to be useful for them and even with what may enhance the experience for volunteers. Hoping to Help illuminates the activities and goals of sponsoring organizations and compares dominant practices to the preferences of host country staff and to nine principles for most effective volunteer trips.
