Articles tagged “data and discovery”

As the metaverse takes shape, travel brands are exploring how they can unlock the potential of emerging applications for these virtual worlds to create innovative ways for travelers to discover new destinations, experiences, meeting venues, and lodging options.

While the hotel industry is increasingly optimistic about travel’s rebound, significant hurdles remain. This report provides a comprehensive look at the challenges, opportunities, and immediate next steps hoteliers can take to increase sales through digital marketing.

The cacay nut is a perfect example of how tourists can directly benefit entire countries simply by buying products for their own wellness in cities like Bogotá that help support poorer regions throughout Colombia. Maybe someday being a tourist will become less about being a foreigner and more about being a better global citizen.

Medellin has gone through an incredible transformation over the past 30 years, but large issues still remain prevalent. As the city figures out the right story it wants to tell, its "fake it ‘til you make it" strategy somehow works — speaking to the resilience of many developing economies that are navigating histories of crime, corruption, and violence and still figuring out how to position themselves as destinations.

Peru has done a lot in terms of diversifying its tourism industry, but a stronger emphasis on a unified vision for tourism is still needed. If governments don’t start prioritizing tourism — which has far-reaching impacts on other industries, the environment, and the lives of locals — we’re going to lose critical parts of history that help explain who we are and how we got here.

The ongoing investigation into the painting of the Batu Caves steps points to a greater need to appropriately preserve heritage sites. Protecting a country’s history and heritage for future generations should come first; increasing the number of Instagram "likes" and "tags" a heritage site gets should come second.

Ever since Naoshima, Japan, became home to a number of contemporary art museums, sculptures, and installations, the island's identity as an "art island" has become intertwined with its history and culture. Naoshima now represents a way for other destinations to think about how tourism, and art tourism specifically, can be used to revitalize communities while preserving tradition and demonstrating respect to heritage.

Tourism isn't perfect, but sometimes its mission can be. Four projects in northern Thailand are dedicated to creating more sustainable livelihoods for locals, preserving customs and traditions, and developing better conservation efforts for elephants. This is the good that tourism can do.

Hanoi's economy is improving considerably, and tourism is growing, but for Vietnam's capital city to best position itself to develop as a responsible tourism destination, a change in mindset must occur. And that change needs to come from the young Vietnamese of today.

While destinations with overtourism issues are getting a lot of attention, other cities are emerging as new frontiers for tourism. Sofia, Bulgaria, is one of those cities with a unique opportunity to declare to the world what it wants to be as a destination, and to define a vision and strategy for how tourism can develop sustainably.