Text: by Ian Hall Photos: by Ian Hall and Fauzan Aris I’m not much of a beach person, much to my girlfriend’s disgust. Throw us onto a tropical island and she’ll head for the sand with her sarong and sun cream and I’ll head inland with my binoculars and mosquito repellent. Pulah Babi Tengah (Middle Pig Island!) off the coast of Johor, Malaysia used to be a refugee camp run by UNHCR back in the 70’s. I’m not sure how idyllic a refugee camp could be but former interns, mostly Vietnamese, now Australian, seem...

Text and photos by Ian Hall “Don’t let tourism become the boss” advised John King of Global Tourism and Leisure, Australia. King was speaking in a forum at the PATA Adventure Travel and Responsible Tourism Conference in Pokhara, Nepal. The subject of this particular forum was ‘Indigenous Tourism’ and it sparked a lively debate. I’ve noticed a similar trend at Wild Asia’s Responsible Tourism Award forums in recent years where Community Based Tourism seems to arouse the most emotion. Much community based tourism...

Last week Wild Asia announced the winners of the 2009 Responsible Tourism Awards. The Awards are an opportunity to verify some of the claims being made by accommodation operators and to share and promote their best ideas. Of this year’s winners, the large hotel category was won by ITC Muhgal India who were particularly impressive with the degree to which they had internalised their RT effort over some ten years of operation. The medium sized category was taken by El Nido Resorts of the Philippines. Pipped to the post...

Text by Ian Hall Photos by Emran Taib, Melissa Cornejo and Ian Hall See original post on Wild Asia's RTA blog. Responsible tourism at its best can allow us to trial a lifestyle that may counter the ecological crisis and bring us closer to nature. At Nikoi Island in Indonesia guests are separated from their air conditioning and consumer gadgets and provided instead with a low-energy beach front house without walls. The luxury here is to be able to smell the sea from your room, to be able to hear the insects as you sleep and enjoy...

Arkitrek are proud to be associated with Wild Asia's Responsible Tourism (RT) Awards 2009. Ian Hall has been invited to join the judging panel which will decide this year's winners from a shortlist of 8 accommodation operators throughout Asia. Wild Asia targets accommodation owners because these are the people who have made a commitment to a place. With this 'rooted-ness' comes a long term view that is essential for social and environmental sustainability. Responsible tourism is an evolution of the term 'eco-tourism'. The words...