Category: Ecotourism

A Malaysian District Collaborates Lest Tourism Run Wild

What it took to rally the Mersing district’s numerous, varied stakeholders and create the collectively managed Sustainable Travel Mersing Destination Coordination Group.

July 20, 2022

Doing It Better: Big Bay, Michigan

Take a look at how a low-population, outdoorsy locale – Big Bay, Michigan, USA – goes about convening a destination stewardship council after the extractive industries it once depended on have wound down.

May 9, 2022

Ataúro Island Revives a Conservation Tradition

Home to one of the most biodiverse reefs in the world, Ataúro Island in Timor-Leste is now focusing on nature protection and biodiversity conservation to foster growth low-impact sustainable tourism.

May 8, 2022

Indigenous Guyanese Tap Tourism to Save Their Huge Fish

A Top 100 story from Guyana showcases how indigenous traditions can help communities revive endangered natural habitats, supported by responsible tourism.

May 8, 2022

Svalbard Overheating

With its coal mines now closing, Norway’s polar archipelago of Svalbard faces a unique set of threats: disrupted tourism, rising temperatures, and increased international vying for arctic control. Yet its extreme location also provides a unique set of opportunities for reviving tourism.

May 7, 2022

Cooperation on Jeju Island

Community-based ecotourism tourism: How South Korean villagers came together to establish a social cooperative — bolstering conservation, the local economy, and the social fabric of the village.

February 7, 2022

The Nisga’a Offer an Indigenous Tourism Model

How to present an indigenous culture “written in the land” to tourists? Along with Laura Hope, communications manager at Coast Funds, Bert Mercer, economic development manager for Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government, describes the process of tying together a culturally sensitive tourism experience for visitors to the Nisga’a First Nation in British Columbia, Canada. Written on the Land—Weaving Together a

April 12, 2021

Doing It Better: ≠Khoadi-//Hôas, Namibia

Namibia’s award-winning ≠Khoadi-//Hôas conservancy has often been cited as a success story in both conservation and community benefit. Destination Stewardship Report editor Jonathan Tourtellot takes a tourist-eye view of this community-run destination – part of our ongoing project to profile places with an effective method for holistic management in the

February 2, 2021

A Taiwanese Island Boosts Tourist Capacity – Sustainably

[Above, Turtle Island in profile. Photo: Roi Ariel] For 20 years, ecotourists have been eager to tour a biodiverse volcanic island off the coast of Taiwan. But what happens when both locals and tourists complain about the stringent conservation limits on visitation set by government and academics? Monique Chen explains

January 28, 2021

Engaging a U.S. National Park’s Gateway Communities

Destination Stewardship Report – Summer 2020 Improving relations between a national park and its gateway communities can be tricky, involving touchy issues such as invasive species, extractive industries, air pollution, visitation levels and economics, even dark skies. The collaborative approach employed for North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park yielded actionable

June 27, 2020