ECOCLUB Blogs™

“Don’t think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm” Malay proverb Victoria is often linked with afternoon teas and retirement condos for seniors but as I slipped into Oak Bay, a small community in the Victoria capital region, I discovered an unexpectedly eclectic destination; much of it was hidden in plain sight. Oak Bay has it’s own sea monster Although Oak Bay is only a ten minute drive from downtown Victoria this municipality of 18,000 boasts its own police force, a main street that closes for tea party races, two marinas, and its own sea monster. Popular with British settlers, hence the moniker “behind the tweed curtain”, Oak Bay streets are dotted with Faux Tudor architecture and manicured flowerbeds. I settled into a chair overlooking Haro Strait at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel and sipped a pinot gris as I watched visitors enter The Snug pub. According to the sign near the door it was established in 1954 but the date seemed at odds with the sparkling new appearance of the hotel. Oak Bay Beach Hotel was put in storage for six years & now it’s better than ever I learned the hotel’s long-time owner had closed the beloved...

Western Australia’s Rangelands cover around 87 per cent (2,266,000 sq. km) of the State’s land mass, and 75 per cent of its coastline (Figure 1). Land tenure within this area comprises pastoral leases, freehold, unallocated Crown Land, National Parks, Conservation Reserves, Special Purpose Leases and Aboriginal Reserves and mining leases. This area includes a diverse group of relatively undisturbed ecosystems such as tropical savannahs, woodlands, shrub lands and grasslands. Rangelands extend across low rainfall areas and variable climates, including arid, semi-arid, and some seasonally high rainfall areas and sub-tropic climates in the far north of the State. Many of the State’s iconic landscapes are located within these rangeland areas, and provide Western Australia with unique attractions for marketing and promotions that will attract visitors. While a number of tourism experiences including accommodation, tours and activities operate within this environment, the vast expanse, distances between destinations, and impact of seasonality presents challenges forexisting and prospective tourism businesses. The purpose of this document is to provide guidance on how tourism can best be developed on the rangelands in order to meet these challenges and deliver high quality experiences that provide a point of difference. This recognises that tourism has the potential to increase...

In this article, I share my vision of the meaning of sustainability in tourism, but also how to implement the concept to the ground. http://www.sustainabletourismworld.com/how-to-design-sustainable-tourism-in-italy/  

May 14, 2018 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                  For the third consecutive year, the Adventure Angels, in partnership with the Adventure Travel Trade Association, are offering our “Abundance” scholarship to support a woman-owned business owner from an emerging destination. The scholarship enables the business owner to attend the Adventure Travel World Summit, the ATTA’s annual B2B professional development and networking event. The Adventure Angels are a group of 10 women who met and bonded at ATTA professional events.  We are a fun and adventurous group of women who are passionate travel professionals and entrepreneurs. The Adventure Angels include female travel agents, tour operators, media and consultants. We aim to cultivate meaningful relationships and mindful connections. Our mission is: “Leap. Discover. Inspire.” The scholarship was inspired by ATTA’s mission of empowering the global community to do good through travel.  “We created the scholarship in 2016 as a response to ATTA President Shannon Stowell’s challenge to carry forward the “Viva La Revolucion de la Aventura” theme of ATWS-2015 in Chile. The members of the Adventure Angels have benefitted greatly from being part of the ATTA global community, and want to give other women the same opportunity,” says Judy Karwacki, Chair of the Scholarship....

If Ecotourism Australia were a state, it would have come second in Friday night’s 2017 Qantas Australian Tourism Awards tally in Perth, proving that ecotourism is more than just a niche industry in Australia. Read more https://bit.ly/2IXyGhL

For the third year, the www.AdventureAngels.org are sponsoring a woman-owned business from an emerging tourism destination to attend the Adventure Travel World Summit. This year it will be held in Tuscany. Please join us in giving a hand up to a deserving woman. Every dollar counts! https://www.gofundme.com/2018-adventure-angels-scholarship

My hotel – the Inn at Laurel Point – had dead people helping manage it. I’d heard Victoria was a great place for the newly wed and nearly dead. But I hadn’t heard read more 

The choice is yours. And it is an urgent one too: The World Health Organisation today announced an urgent review into microplastics in drinking water, following a new study by Orb Media and State University of New York - Fredonia, which found plastic contamination in 242 out of 259 bottles sampled from 11 brands in nine countries, at twice the level of the supposedly inferior, humble tap water. The multinational brands involved, some of whom are keen on privatisation of public water utilities (so that they can sell it back to us at bottled prices?), were, as expected, quick to dispute the accuracy of the results, but what even the most gullible consumers will start realising soon is that microplastics are potentially a threat as serious to human health and the environment as Climate Change, and related to it in various ways.  The micro-plastic mega-threat is one extra but very serious reason for ecotourists and ecotourism providers to avoid plastic, including plastic water bottles as much as possible. Ecotourists and adventure tourists, in particular, should avoid clothes made from synthetic fibres, as one of the major sources of plastic pollution are microplastics produced each time fancy isothermic and waterproof materials go for washing - up to 1 million fibres for...

Did you know a five-star hotel uses 1,800 liters of water per day per visitor? That’s compared to 350 for a three-star or 326 for your average Canadian family. Does this mean you should stay home if you want to help the environment? Attendees at IMPACT: Sustainability Tourism and Travel 2018 in Victoria, British Columbia January 21 – 24 asked plenty of tough questions. With some of the world’s sustainability experts in attendance there were was plenty of lively discussion. More than a conference this event brought together 170 people from across Canada to discuss how tourism can grow in harmony with host communities and the environment. “We did this event because no one was doing a deep dive into this topic,” explained Paul Nursey, President and CEO of Tourism Victoria. Victoria with more carbon-neutral businesses per capita than any other community in Canada is a great location for a summit on sustainable tourism. Organizers gave indigenous groups a prominent role – Keith Henry of the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada co-chaired, the Lekwungen people performed and several other indigenous groups presented their experiences at conference events. While attendees agreed they wanted better, not more tourism, it wasn’t clear how to...

Sabaidee! We are a few months into 2018 but New Year celebrations continue in ethnic villages across Laos! The research team of the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (TAEC) has been here, there, and just about everywhere capturing the sights, sounds, and instruments of Oma, Hmong, Kmhmu, Lahu, and Yao Mien New Year. Much of their research will be showcased in our upcoming special music exhibition opening September 2018! Read on to learn more. The new year is also a time for the team to gather, reflect, and discuss new initiatives, projects, and artisan programmes for the upcoming season. The core mission of our work continues to be handicraft preservation and development for rural ethnic minority artisans. We are excited to launch our Instagram page to celebrate these incredible artisans, their culture, and crafts with you! Please follow us @TAECLaos! Happy new year from everyone here at TAEC - Kawp jai lai lai! "ONE CLOTH, MANY THREADS" POP-UP EXHIBITION TAEC unveiled a specially curated exhibit by Hmong-American textile researcher and TAEC intern, Pachia Lucy Vang. The displays offer a fascinating glimpse of the distinct clothing patterns and designs linked to the migration of the Hmong ethnic group. These textile traditions are...