It’s hard to find a woman who hasn’t felt the graze of a male hand across her backside on a train or had racing thoughts as she’s confronted with a threatening man. Travel, despite being an industry touted as endless fun and adventure, is no exception to the worldwide epidemic of sexual harassment and assault […]
Purported to be two of the most expensive rail and bus routes per kilometer in the world, the train and bus succession which transports the 1.3 million tourists to Machu Picchu every year has been controlled by a government-granted monopoly for much of the last two decades. Fertransa, the private owner of the 30 km […]
Colonizing. That’s a term Leon Mach has used to describe surf tourism. “Colonizing in the sense that surf tourism often arrives first to remote coastal areas and effectively takes over the development process,” says Mach, the co-founder of SeaState, a program that offers courses related to sustainability in several countries. “Often this entails rapid development […]
In an ambitious plan to eradicate poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015. Setting out 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), the agenda pledged that, “no one will be left behind.’ Meanwhile, a growing demand for food combined with […]
When Kimberly Lucht volunteered with Panama-based dance service nonprofit Movement Exchange in 2012, the experience of teaching dance to at-risk youth inspired many discussions relating to race and racism in dance among her fellow volunteers. For researchers Zoe Luba and Dr. David Thomas of Mount Allison University in Canada, those are exactly the type of […]
Blaring horns and a cheering crowd greeted me when I arrived in the sleepy town of Puerto Varas, Chile on presidential election-day, December 2017. Sebastian Piñera, a billionaire businessman was elected for the second time by a population disappointed in job growth under Michelle Bachelet. Piñera’s victory marks the latest shift to the right in […]
In 2004, Justin Francis decided to visit Phuket on vacation. It certainly wouldn’t seem out-of-the ordinary for a Westerner to holiday in Phuket – after all, a little less than 3.5 million non-Thais visited the island in 2004. But his excursion to the popular tourist destination didn’t come at the best of times. Phuket – […]
World Heritage Sites, as designated by the United Nations Scientific, Educational, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), are places of outstanding universal value. Each one represents an incredible culture and its history or living tradition, a work of architectural or artistic marvel, or a place of exceptional natural beauty or ecological importance. By design, UNESCO World Heritage […]
Sea Turtle Shell Bracelets (Photo: Hal Brindley) Several years ago, Brad Nahill, co-founder of ecotourism organization SEE Turtles*, was shopping for souvenirs in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua when he noticed something rather troublesome. “I was shocked to see how many [turtleshell products] were being sold in the souvenir shops and artisan stands around town,” […]
