In our journey towards a more sustainable world, “impact travel” solutions can provide travellers with experiences that positively mark the destinations they visit. However, there are a few considerations that are crucial to a major breakthrough in impact travel: 1. The paradox that “going mainstream” is not sustainable by its very nature (e.g. mass tourism) 2. Protecting the authentic essence and brand value of “impact travel” so it doesn’t become another marketing tagline 3. Moving beyond simple KPIs to ensure we make a measurable, positive change in the real lives of people Do you think "impact travel" is feasible for the tourism industry to achieve at a wider scale? What other challenges does impact travel face to become a significant force and transform people's lives and society? Appreciate your feedback! PS: If you are interested in this topic, we invite you to join the TravaPowa impact travel community (follow the links in my profile).

In response to last week's newsletter titled "Is Food Tourism making a comeback?" Food tourism has always been a part of the travel experience and it's not new. Since 2015, I have been writing about local and authentic food experiences on Authentic Food Quest, a food and travel website I co-founded at www.authenticfoodquest.com The goal has always been and continues to be about inspiring people to seek out local food and culinary activities on their travels. We share content about cooking classes, food and wine tours, recipes of emblematic dishes all aimed at helping people experience local culture through food. Since the pandemic and also keeping with the rise in travel, we've seen an increased consumption in our content. And, when traveling and participating in various culinary activities around the world, we see more people and a higher interest in learning about local foods and drinks. The key is not to make food tourism a "passing fad." The plat du jour that will be replac...

Even last year, I didn't consider artificial intelligence (AI) a threat to a travel journalist. Artificial intelligence applications seemed clumsy, and open-source language models primarily silly. I have made an effort to research and follow the development. Although I see a lot of opportunities, I also see threats that the price of billable work will collapse either directly when artificial intelligence replaces a human as a writer or when artificial intelligence makes it possible for people who previously could not write publishable articles. Have you noticed that the number of articles produced directly with artificial intelligence has increased? Or that there has been a significant decrease in writing fees? An example of an artificial intelligence (AI) application that already creates publishable articles for some uses is, for instance, Surfer. What worries me the most is the pace of development. When the content it writes is already so good, how good will it be next year? I...