Ecotourism Blogs

An ambitious 14-month European Union-funded grant project under the rather long title “Technical Assistance action to support tourism planning and policy for the promotion of sustainable tourism development in Greece Reference No.: SRSS/S2016/013” was completed in September and last Friday 15/9 ECOCLUB.com was invited to attend the final “Dissemination Workshop” in downtown Athens. The project was supported by the EU Structural Reform Programme (SRSS), led by an Austrian consortium composed of the Federal Procurement Agency (BBG) and the Agency for Economic Cooperation and Development (AED) and involved the cooperation of the Greek Ministry of Economy, Development & Tourism (MEDT) while “twin” experts from Austria/EU and the Greek side were allocated on each topic. The leading domestic and foreign tourism experts also involved ECOCLUB.com Members Mr Robert Travers who was responsible for the Diving (sea) parks segment. The two key aims of this ambitious and multifaceted project, which started in July...

An environmental disaster of yet unknown proportions is unfolding in the Gulf of Athens, known as the Saronic Gulf, following the peculiarly rapid sinking under calm seas, of an ageing, small oil tanker carrying 2,200 tons of fuel oil and 370 metric tons of marine gas oil , near the island of Salamis, on the early hours of October 11th, 2017. Decades of haphazard, boom and bust industrial development and lack of planning has turned a great part of the northern Saronic Gulf into a strange and conflicting mix of heavy industries, refineries shipyards, summer houses, restaurants, beaches, marinas, archaeological sites, and sea-farms. In the past decade, during a huge financial and social crisis, there is an effort supported by powerful private developers to relaunch the area as the Athens Riviera, a new destination with mega-projects including the construction of a coastal casino-leisure-business complex in the sprawling site of Athens...

CREST's "Local Traditions" Photo Contest:  August 10 - 24, 2017 Enter to share with the CREST community - and have a chance to win a FREE luxury, one-night stay in Chicago! At the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) , we believe that when you go on vacation, you don't have to leave your values at home. Part of traveling responsibly means eng...

Kingston (Jamaica), Wednesday, 02 A ugust 2017:  Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, says economic and social development in rural Jamaica has been boosted by the Community-based Tourism programme of the Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) implemented by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF). Speaking at the Symposium to close...

A new City and Green Tourism Destination in one is emerging: Liuzhou Forest City, Guangxi, China http://www.archdaily.com/874364/worlds-first-vertical-forest-city-breaks-ground-in-china?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter Volvo became the first major car manufacturer to announce that all its cars will be electric or hybrid by 2019 and that it...

Sea Shepherd concluded its Operation Milagro III campaign to protect the critically endangered Vaquita porpoise in Mexico's Gulf of California, over 200 illegal fishing nets  were removed.  Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTwleYG2GwE&feature=youtu.be&a In an act of defiance, Burlington Vermont republished the entire EPA Cli...

Call it Climatexit? Perhaps, but there is no need to despair at President Trump's 'final decision' to 'withdraw' from the Paris Treaty. For a democracy, it may be scary if one is really able ( there are doubts ) to take such a decision without having to get approval from Congress. But looking at the bright side, this d...

  Bashing villains (soft, anonymous, targets not, say, a powerful hotel developer!), real and perceived (all- inclusives , orphanages, slum tourism, voluntourism) is becoming a bit of a tradition these days. A UK-based responsible OTA, a minor player compared to mainstream OTA giants yet a big one on the adjectival tourism scene, has abruptly ...

The recent passenger-removal-due-to-overbooking incident from a flight operated by a major airline shed light on a common (50,000 annual cases in the US alone) but relatively unknown, dubious commercial practice, and also revealed or confirmed some interesting facts: - the power of direct-democratic, citizens journalism, in the form of ma...

Interview in Food Tank hot off the press: "Conservation is our best recipe. No matter how many wonderful products we have wherever we live, to benefit from them in our daily lives and for generations to come we need to protect and celebrate our providers and stewards first." -Nikki Rose https://foodtank.com/news/2017/04/crete-cook-cultivates-sustai...