skift on the road

Medellin’s Tourism Challenge: Telling the Right Story of Its Violent Past

Rebecca Stone, Skift

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.

2 weeks ago

Peru’s Challenge to Build Tourism Outside the Shadows of Machu Picchu

Rebecca Stone, Skift

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.

1 month ago

Kuala Lumpur’s Batu Caves Reveal Heritage Tourism’s Struggles in an Instagrammable World

Rebecca Stone, Skift

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.

2 months ago

Japan’s Naoshima Island: A Portrait of Possibility for Art Tourism

Rebecca Stone, Skift

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.

3 months ago

Tourism For Good: How Chiang Mai Is Showing the Way

Rebecca Stone, Skift

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.

4 months ago

A New Generation Must Bridge Hanoi’s Past to Its Tourism Future

Rebecca Stone, Skift

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.

5 months ago

What It Means to Be an Emerging Destination in New Europe: A Sofia Deep Dive

Rebecca Stone, Skift

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.

7 months ago

What a Month of Bicycle Rides Through Valencia Reveals about Authenticity in Tourism

Rebecca Stone, Skift

For all its imperfections, Valencia still has its spirit and a sense of authenticity that other destinations have lost in some ways in the age of overtourism. As the city fights to maintain equilibrium, it has a unique opportunity to set an example via the proper management of tourism. Don't put doors in the field. Set up bike lanes instead.

8 months ago

Lisbon’s Overtourism Lesson: Living Like a Local Is Not Enough

Rebecca Stone, Skift

Lisbon's post-crisis evolution and corresponding tourism boom show the dramatic impact and lasting ramifications of overtourism. Efforts have centered on sustainable tourism and limiting tourism's potential negative impacts, but, in our view, the focus has been all wrong. Sustainable tourism should be about sustainable cultures, and we all have a role to play.

9 months ago

Cape Town’s Water Crisis: What the Tourism Industry Can Learn From the Myth and the Reality

Rebecca Stone, Skift

The Cape Town water crisis has more to do with improper water management and inaccurate, inconsistent messaging than the city actually being in completely dire circumstances. That's why collaboration matters, between huge global organizations all the way down to individual travelers and locals, to promote the reality of international issues and the benefits tourism can have if done in a sustainable way.

10 months ago

Articles tagged “skift on the road”