In 2008, Rios Tropicales, led by co-founder Rafael Gallo, moved into international sustainable community development collaboration by winning a South-South grant for a rural tourism project between Bhutan and Costa Rica. Rios Tropicales has historically kept a low profile about its sustainable tourism practices and philosophy within its company operations and across its local Costa Rican communities.

By Ed Thompson, Ooh.com – Whether information gathering, or physically participating, there has never been a time when we’ve been so widely involved in a collective awakening about our impact on the environment. There’s also never been so much fun to be had from it. There are now more courses, classes, tours, and travel opportunities for the eco-conscious than ever. Have you always wanted to get some practical experience with sustainable living? Or considered building your own yurt? We’ll here’s how!

Baa baa black sheep, now we have your wool! So say travellers in Slovenia who have had the pleasure of an exclusive Alpine Melody tour with Spin Travel. Billed as a day-long excursion that “takes you back to the times of our grandfathers,” Alpine Melody was also shortlisted in early December 2009 for the Sejalac (Sower) award, given every year since 2003 to the most promising tour providers in Slovenia by the Slovenian Tourist Board.

Ruby Falls (Chattanooga, Tennessee), America’s deepest commercial cave and most-visited underground waterfall, receives over 400,000 visitors annually. This 80-year-old natural attraction with a 1928 Irish style castle, listed in the National Register for Historic Places, has in recent years been transformed into a more sustainable business operation with progressive energy-saving strategies, waste reduction efforts, and sustainable land use initiatives – and a Green Globe International seal to testify to the successful implementation of these sustainability efforts.

As disparate as the subjects of tourism and biophilia would seem, it is apparent that in my life and countless others, they are indeed closely connected. Biophilia is a term created by my environmental hero, Edward O. Wilson, to describe the innate affinity, fascination, and awe that we humans have for other species. Judging from the rates that we visit our zoos and wildlife parks, it must be a common affliction. Yet today, many of us spend our vacations traveling to natural environments not knowing the effect tourism has on the habitats of the very species we set out to see.

Excerpts from “SUN, SAND, AND SUSTAINABILITY: Corporate Environmental and Social Practice in Caribbean Coastal Tourism” (2006) by Emma Stewart, Ph.D., Research Manager at Business for Social Responsibility – the Caribbean is an important region in which to examine the patterns of corporate environmental and social practice in the tourism sector. And in fact, it also provides a sort of ‘natural experiment’, comparing two Caribbean island nations, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, that have similar tourism markets but greatly different approaches towards managing them.

University of Hawaii is hosting the one-day workshop, “Sustainable Travel in the Hawaiian Islands: Current obstacles and future opportunities” – which is the first in a series of interactive workshops that will engage key stakeholders to work together to identify opportunities, create solutions, and commit to actions that chart a path toward establishing the Hawaiian Islands as a destination of Sustainable Best Practices. TIES Board member Masaru Takayama (Executive Director, Japan Ecolodge Association, and Director, Spirit of Japan Travel) will be presenting at the workshop.

“Without tourism, the Pantanal (in South America), the world’s largest wetland, would have just turned into a major cattle feed-lot for McDonald’s” – Costas Christ, at the International Symposium on Sustainable Tourism Development. Highlighting the roles of tourism in supporting and promoting conservation, this article discusses the social, economic and environmental sustainability of travel and tourism, noting that “the very essence of tourism is selling culture and nature, and those must be protected or there will be no industry.”

Jamaica for Sale, a documentary about tourism & unsustainable development, takes a sharp look at the environmental, economic, and social impacts of tourism such as: degraded water quality and shoreline habitats, depleted marine species, poorly regulated large-scale development that relies on low-wage, unskilled local labor, and uncontrolled development of an industry that leads to inflation in land and housing prices, and consumes large amounts of local natural resources.

A recent article in Tico Times, “Grim Tourism Outlook Has Silver Lining,” discusses the impact of the global economic downturn on tourism in Costa Rica, noting that “the economic crisis presents an opportunity for the [tourism] sector to reinvent itself” and “to ensure future development in Costa Rica shares the vision of sustainability.” If handled effectively, the crisis can be an opportunity for fostering sustainable growth of Costa Rica as an ecotourism destination, concludes the report by a local tourism consulting group.