POSITIVE IMPACT TOURISM STORIES
We invite you to read through and digest the stories from Inspire Global Media Awards past winners and finalists. This growing resource is now the most definitive collection of sustainable, positive impact tourism stories and storytellers from the global travel media landscape. Use the filters to select by region, click on each article to read. Note – some articles are behind paywalls and require subscription. #beinspired #positiveimpactstorytelling
Ailsa Sheldon for The Herald
UNITED KINGDOM - There are many skilled guides who will take you up mountains, help you safely bag Munros or learn compass skills. There’s huge value in this, of course, but what if you want to go in to the mountains, to stop, to experience, to listen, while also being safe and learning plenty about your surroundings?
Teresa Machan for The Guardian
ALBANIA - With glorious national parks and a traditional way of life, the Balkan country shows how green travel can benefit locals and visitors alike.
Yvette Cook for The Independent
MOROCCO - One year after a devastating earthquake hit the country, Yvette Cook travels deep into the majestic High Atlas mountains to meet the women who are transforming their communities.
Sarah Marshall for The Telegraph
AUSTRALIA - New cruises to the Kimberley in Australia can only operate with permission from its indigenous people.
Richard Franks for The Standard
UNITED STATES - From Sonoma to Sacramento, cruise across the Golden State on a tailormade tour that is sustainable too.
Estella Shardlow for The Spectator
UNITED KINGDOM - At first glance, it looks like any other sleepy village in southwest England. A medieval church and manor house face a fish ’n’ chip shop and post office across the green. There’s the obligatory pub, the Farmers Arms, where log fires crackle and ale-taps gleam beneath oak-beamed ceilings. Along the narrow lanes, whitewashed cottages peter out into rolling Devonshire hills.
Kevin Rushby for The Guardian
PERU - The alternative Machu Picchu: a hike to find the ‘real’ lost world of the Incas This article is more than 11 months old At the start of a 3,000-mile journey down the Amazon, our writer witnesses the benefits of community tourism projects on a less crowded option to the Inca Trail.
Carolyn Boyd for National Geographic Traveller (UK)
FRANCE - In the heart of France’s Massif Central, from the slopes of the Cantal mountains to the pastures of the Aubrac plateau, the volcanic soil has given rise to a breathtaking floral landscape — fertile ground for culinary traditions, gastronomic creativity and some of the country’s finest cheeses.
Karlina Valeiko for National Geographic Traveller (UK)
BOTSWANA & ZIMBABWE - See southern Africa in a new light—on a lake cruise. Crossing the borders of Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, land and water safaris follow the flow of the Zambezi to Lake Kariba, where a cruise offers unparalleled wildlife encounters.
Nori Jemil for Oceanographic
AUSTRALIA - Located less than an hour from Perth, Mandurah is Western Australia’s second largest city. Here, the Mandurah Estuary and Peel Inlet is a large system of shallow estuarine and saline, brackish and freshwater lakes. This diverse ecosystem is not only a habitat for many plant and animal species but is also regarded as one of Australia's most spectacular playgrounds for boating, fishing and wildlife watching.
Karen Gardiner for Conde Nast Traveller
CANADA - Nunavik—With Inuit Storytelling and Arctic Wildlife—Is Opening Up to Travelers A new model of tourism takes shape in Northern Quebec's Nunavik, led by Inuit guides.
Kate Wickers for The Ethicalist
BRAZIL - Stay at trailblazing eco-lodge deep in Brazil's Cerrado, the world's most biodiverse savanna, and you'll encounter hundreds of wildlife but none more majestic than the endangered Maned Wolves who are said to cast spells on all those they encounter.
Emma Gibbs for BBC Travel
UNITED KINGDOM - Every spring, almost 100,000 seabirds – guillemots, great skuas, razorbills and puffins – descend on the small island of Handa, just off Scotland's far north-west coast.
Queenie Shaikh for Adventure.com
CROATIA - As our minivan maneuvered down the winding mountain road between the towns of Šibenik and Trogir on Croatia’s southern Dalmatian coast, I was taken aback—and back in time. “Wow, this looks so much like Northern Pakistan,” I thought. I couldn’t quite believe it as the twisting journey unfolded like a nostalgic reel of my childhood drives through the vast landscapes of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Tamara Davison for Adventure.com
EGYPT - From Egypt and Jordan to Bahrain and Oman, tourism is a luxury for some countries—and a lifeline for many others. And in the shadow of conflicts and various degrees of instability, Egypt-based writer Tamara Davison says that now, more than ever, we should be adding the Middle East and North Africa to our travel itineraries.
Sarah Reid for Adventure.com
PAKISTAN - “There is another ‘wow’ moment up here,” says our guide Muneer Alam with a flash of his huge, seemingly permanent smile. Sure enough, as I reach the top of a punishing hill, a panorama of soaring snow-capped peaks and hulking glaciers unfurls before me. This dramatic landscape has been described as the Yosemite of Pakistan. But there’s nowhere else on the planet quite like this.
Rashmi Narayan for Adventure.com
UNITED STATES - They may be as beloved as each other in the southern US state of Louisiana, but Cajun and Creole aren’t interchangeable terms. Loosely defined as Cajun being ‘country’ food and Creole as ‘city’ food, it’s fair to say it’s a lot more complex than that, each one—and each dish—telling a story of Louisiana’s multi-layered history and heritage.
Claire Boobyyer for Adventure.com
CUBA - The Caribbean island of Cuba may be in crisis, but a new wave of entrepreneurs, restaurateurs and other creatives are innovating in Havana like never before, as Claire Boobbyer finds out in the Cuban capital.
Ash Bhardwaj for Adventure.com
GLOBAL - Many of us put travel at the top of our life lists—after the survival essentials—but why exactly do we travel? With the help of scientists, philosophers, historians and his own life experiences, author and journalist Ash Bhardwaj has discovered 12 motivations for travel, and how they can help us to travel better.
Abi King for Inside the TravelLab
GLOBAL - Every January sees the web fill with articles on the best places to visit in any coming year. But does any of it make any sense?
April Hutchinson for TTG Media
BOTSWANA - Three exquisite camps in beautiful Botswana make for a memorable trip rooted in conservation, amazing wildlife, delicious food, warm staff and great company.
Mark Stratton for The Telegraph
ROMANIA - In the darkest depths of Romania, a vast national park is being created to rival the world’s best.
Phoebe Smith for The Independent
EGYPT - Marsa Alam is home to one of the first Eco Dive Centres in the world: Phoebe Smith pays it a visit, along with the area’s other trailblazing initiatives.
Chris Haslam for The Times
INDIA - As Project Tiger, India’s landmark conservation programme, celebrates 50 years, Chris Haslam visits one of its most successful big cat reserves.
Chris Haslam for The Times
DOMINICA - Five years since Hurricane Maria hit, Chris Haslam finds Dominica high in natural riches but low on tourists — and bouncing back from the brink.
Kate Wickers for JRNY Travel Magazine
ITALY - On the very edge of night, when the air is of a misty purplish hue and cool enough to provoke shivers, I pedal past meadow after field filled with monstrous, twisted forms.
Sarah Marshall for National Geographic Traveller (UK)
KENYA - Life plays out much as it always has on the great plains of Kenya’s Maasai Mara, but the latest generation of Maasai are gradually changing the face of modern safari — with greater empowerment for female guides and local communities as a whole.
James Draven for Wanderlust Magazine
INDIA - After India celebrated 50 years of its Project Tiger conservation scheme, we visit the reserves of Madhya Pradesh to see how its success has impacted a tiger population that once looked in danger of disappearing.
Sarah Gillespie for National Geographic Traveller (UK)
ECUADOR - Around the grounds of Hacienda Zuleta, the local Andean community works across a range of initiatives to tell the story of their ancestors and celebrate century-old traditions.
Zoey Goto for National Geographic Traveller (UK)
UNITED STATES - Amid the expansive grasslands of South Dakota, Matte Wilson and his family and friends are using food to reclaim their Sicangu Lakota culture, one dish at a time.
Lauren Jarvis for National Geographic
UNITED KINGDOM - The Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party have pledged to designate 10 percent of the country’s seas as Highly Protected Marine Areas, offering depleted ecosystems a chance to bounce back. It's a complicated task.
Meera Dattani for Wanderlust
SPAIN - After taking the 33-hour seafaring route to northern Spain, Meera Dattani learns how slow and mindful travel can be incorporated into the entire trip, from gourmet experiences to wildlife encounters.
Lebawit Lily Girma for Adventure.com
AFRICA - Africa is more than just a vast savannah full of animals and luxury lodges. And as tourism to the continent continues to grow, it’s time to leave the wholesale ‘Disneyfication’ of Africa to one side. Instead, let’s focus on the people, cultures and communities that call it home, writes Lebawit Lily Girma.
Lorna Parkes for The Guardian
INDIA - A new initiative in a Himalayan wildlife sanctuary is attracting birdwatchers and hikers to the remote foothills, and offering vulnerable villages a lifeline.
Kate Wickers for The Ethicalist
COLOMBIA - Swimming with piranhas, getting up close with owl faced monkeys, trees that walk and bullet ants that can paralyse with one bite is all part of an eco-adventure at Calanoa Amazonas.
Shafik Meghji for The Standard
GLOBAL - A growing number of travel experiences are owned and run by Indigenous or First Nation people, making for nature-protecting, minimal-impact holidays. We tracked down the very best.
Shivya Nath for The Shooting Star
GLOBAL - For over a decade, I’ve been telling stories at the intersection of travel, the environment and local communities. This journey has taken me as far within as with my feet.
Chris Haslam for The Sunday Timesl
GLOBAL - But we're both wrong, because we're clinging onto a notion of luxury that's as outdated and morally unacceptable as drink-driving.
Andrew Purvis for The Daily Telegraph
ITALY - Wolf scat, how to be 'bear smart' and removing dangerous barbed wire are just some of the things our writer experienced on a rewilding trip.
Eddi Fiegel for Wanderlust Magazine
SPAIN - Forget those images of fly-n-flop beaches, tourism in Spain is going distinctly – and brilliantly – green. Here, we delve into the extraordinary eco-experiences on offer across the country.
Emma Gregg for National Geographic Traveller (UK)
AFRICA - Game-changing wildlife experiences across the continent, from silent safaris to cutting-edge conservation.
Karen Gardiner for Adventure.com
CANADA - Thirty years ago, Newfoundland suffered the largest job loss in Canadian history (until COVID-19) when the government shut down its cod fishery. Now, sustainable and community-led tourism initiatives are helping this resilient community bounce back.
Mark Stratton for Adventure.com
THAILAND - A new project in Thailand aims to address issues around elephant tourism ethics with a pioneering model. But can truly ethical treatment of elephants ever go hand-in-hand?
James Chapple for TTG Media
NORWAY - Emerging coughing and spluttering from the icy waters of Lygnstoylvatnet, I plunge my head back in for the dozenth time and kick out again with my flippers. It’s only then I finally see it; the small farming community preserved underwater for more than a century.