This excellent article  by Jessica Lockhart -about the dangers and challenges of gift giving was first published in Verge Magazine important advice for anyone planning to give or send gifts to their host family, projects or friends made whilst volunteering? Read more  

Megahn Barr writes in today's Huffington Post “The clash between tourists and congregants plays out every Sunday at Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the oldest black church in New York state. It's one of many Harlem churches that have become tourist attractions for visitors from all over the world who want to listen to soulful gospel music at a black church service. With a record number of tourists descending upon New York City last year, the crowds of foreigners are becoming a source of irritation among faithful churchgoers.” Read more

Today's China Daily explains why fewer Chinese torusts come to Britian than go to Paris. As Birtain “is not a signatory to the 26-country Schengen Agreement, those wanting to enter Britain as tourists need to apply for a separate visa. That means many Chinese tourists who visit the continent give Britain a miss, and the number of Chinese tourists who go to Paris is five times the number who go to London.” “The cost of a British tourist visa for those on the mainland is 800 yuan, compared with the cost of a tourist visa for France of 60 euros (500 yuan) that allows the holder to cross into other…

Back in November I wrote about finding the exotic in York. A theme may be developing – I spotted this in the New Statesman and thought that it was worth sharing. Seaside treatsLast weekend I had to choose between flying to Los Angeles for the Oscars, or driving to Blackpool. Naturally I chose the latter. We saw an exhilarating cabaret production at Funny Girls, one of the town's star attractions. A sparsely populated 1970s concert hall, where the average age was about 80, cheered as butch transvestites danced to Abba classics and twirled pompoms and peacock feathers. It felt somewhere between a lost world of vaudeville and Peter Kay's magnificent…

I have just has the privilege of spending a week in Cornwall staying with CoaST  members and running a series of workshops on the ways in which tourism contributes to local economic development. It was a stimulating week of engaged discussion, it demonstrates what a productive and sustaining organisation the Cornwall Sustainable Tourism network is. Times are hard in Cornwall but the network in resilient, I came away on the sleeper on Friday night heartened by what I had seen and heard. Visitor numbers to Cornwall were down last year, I heard by one million, but CoaSTies were demonstrating their resilience: adapting their business strategies and exercising environmental responsibility because it…

Taking Responsibility for Tourism ? A working week on responsible tourism planning in Myanmar It was back in May that the democratic opposition in Myanmar announced that it welcomed Responsible Tourism and other forms of tourism based on respect. When I was asked in November whether I would be willing to travel to Myanmar to lead a week of workshops and a conference on Responsible Tourism I enthusiastically accepted. I spent last week in Myanmar arriving and departing from Yangon via Bangkok and travelling to the new capital Nay Pyi Taw, only recently opened to foreigners ,this entirely new city boasts 12 lane highways and monumental buildings, the largest Parliament…

Schumpeter in The Economsit reviews success amongst entrepreneurs and suggests that “Experience continues to count for a great deal, in business as in other walks of life?or, to borrow a phrase from P.J. O?Rourke, age and guile can still beat ?youth, innocence and a bad haircut?. “The evidence that older people are if anything becoming more enterprising should help to calm two of the biggest worries that hang over the West (and indeed over an ageing China). One is that the greying of the population will inevitably produce economic sluggishness. The second is that older people will face hard times as companies shed older workers in the name of efficiency…

There is a report in today's Daily Telegraph, by Andrew Gilligan, that the Department for International Development  has committed almost ?9 million to send 1,250 British teenagers and young people overseas for ?projects of development value?. But from internal DFID evaluations seen by The Sunday Telegraph, the main beneficiaries of Cameron's flagship International Citizen Service appear to be the British youngsters themselves, rather than the people of the developing world. This is the kind of thing that gets gap years and volunteering abroad a bad name: “The day was spent swimming, sunbathing and eating? As the sun set over the sea, we headed back to San Salvador for a pizza,?…

Gordon Bridger has 40 years of experience working for the UN and for the British Government – his critique of the aid industry should be heard. His book How I Failed to Save the World is a must read for anyone interested in why aid fails and may cause harm. In contrast to large scale aid small scale initiatives and people to people aid can work he argues. Listen to what he had to say on Radio 4 today http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01bm0py

The green thing …………. Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own shopping bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized and explained, “We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days.” The cashier responded, “That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.” She was right — our generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized…