In areas without easily accessible public transportation, people must walk to commute, run errands or get to school. But in many cases, foot travel just isn’t efficient enough. For many people, a bicycle is the answer. Community bike programs have already been running in major cities all over the world, including Paris, London, Montreal, Mexico […]
Cuba is often portrayed as a travel destination that creates different worlds for tourists and locals by having two currency systems and keeping locals out of nicer establishments such as resorts and restaurants that are reserved for travelers. The government chooses to import tourists to bring in capital, but do travelers truly benefit the local […]
Thirty years ago, when more people were traveling with cameras than ever before, Susan Sontag, in On Photography, observed that tourists had become so photo-hungry that travel was just “a strategy for accumulating photographs.” Like their counterparts a century earlier, who invaded Native Americans’ sacred spaces and had them alter ceremonies to be more photogenic, […]
The days of human beings having a monopoly on individual rights may soon be coming to an end. Bolivia is in the process of enacting the world’s first law giving nature legal rights equal to those of human beings. The Law of Mother Earth decrees that nature has 11 rights including the right to biodiversity […]
Belize is quickly becoming an international tourism hot spot, but will the country deal with an influx of tourists sustainably, with respect for indigenous groups and the environment? Or will it go the way of American fast food franchises, cruise ships and garbage? With the construction of a major new highway underway, some groups are […]
In a remote village close to the Amazon river in Colombia, 800 indigenous people are striving to uphold their culture and tradition in the face of tourism pressure. Nazareth, located deep in the jungle, is a 20-minute boat ride from the nearest town. The area is an ecotourism attraction because of the diverse flora and […]
The National Museum of China reopened in March after almost four years of construction and over $380 million in renovations. Curated by the Ministry of Culture and the People’s Republic of China, the museum is located in Beijing, next to Tiananmen Square, and was designed to combine elements of the former Museum of Chinese History […]
With no formal waste management system, the trash in Kenya’s crowded Kibera slum piles up in the dirt rows between shacks, in open pits and on people’s doorsteps: plastic bags, raw sewage, egg shells, the scraps of people’s lives. As slum residents, aid workers and tourists on “poverty tours”—a controversial idea in itself—know all too […]
When disaster hits a region, such as the earthquake, tsunami and radiation threat in Japan, or the political upheaval in the Middle East, governments take necessary measures to evacuate their citizens. Travel warnings are widely issued against non-essential travel to those countries. However, once the situation settles, some travelers still consider visiting nations with political […]
