For the first time, Sherpas are attempting to clean up the highest reaches of Mount Everest, where the melting of ice and snow due to global warming has revealed tons of debris left behind by climbers over the past six decades. The team, known as the Extreme Everest Expedition, consists of 20 of Nepal’s most […]
Dark tourism or “poorism’ is on the rise, giving curious travelers the opportunity to see poverty up close in person. Tours of Rio’s favelas or South Africa’s townships have long been established as popular day trips. A new trend in both Western and developing countries is tours guided by homeless or formerly homeless people showing […]
Tuy Sereivathana of the Cambodian Elephant Conservation Group (CECG)—known to local villagers as “Uncle Elephant”—was recently awarded the 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize for Asia. Given annually to one person from each of the inhabited continents, the Goldman Prize is the largest and most prestigious award for individual grassroots environmental efforts. Tuy was recognized for his […]
Despite being plagued with social and political problems, Zimbabwe is experiencing a renaissance in tourism as the nation struggles to thrive under the devastating effects of President Robert Mugabe’s iron-fisted rule. Thanks in part to improved infrastructure, the increasing availability of food, and the adoption of the U.S. dollar as Zimbabwe’s main currency in 2009, […]
Swimming with wild dolphins offers a thrilling opportunity to get close to one of the world’s most intelligent species, but a new study has shown that the activity may be harmful to the well-being of the animals. While organizations such as the Humane Society have long criticized captive swim with the dolphins (SWTD) programs, less […]
As more and more travelers look for ways to see the planet without leaving a negative footprint, alternatives to mass tourism are growing in popularity. Referred to as ethical travel, responsible travel or sustainable travel, these new trends range from ecotourism and rural tourism to voluntourism and community-based tourism. All of these forms of tourism […]
Bali tourism has slowly been recovering from the suicide bombings in 2002 that took the lives of 202 people, many of them foreign tourists. Thanks to political instability in Thailand, Bali welcomed a record 2.2 million foreign tourists in 2009. The Balinese government aims to break this record in 2010, hoping to receive between 2.3 […]
The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples issued a report last month condemning Australia’s Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) Act for further alienating the Australian indigenous population. The NTER Act was enacted in response to a report detailing allegations of child sexual abuse in […]
A new land conservation effort in Montana is helping to preserve the state’s natural areas through an innovative partnership between visitors to the state, the hospitality industry, private landowners and nonprofit land trusts. The program, known as Travelers for Open Land (TFOL), collects voluntary donations from visitors to Montana to fund grants to preserve the […]
