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...

Arkitrek needs engineers for our Volunteer Program. We've got biogas digesters, constructed wetlands, bio-crete materials testing, sand filters, pico-hydro turbines, groundwater resource assessments, electrical loading assessments, payback calculations for renewable energy, mechanical ventilation systems etc etc. All of which would benefit from more engineering rigour in design, commissioning and monitoring. There's only so much an architect's brain can handle and only so long a client is prepared to put up with the trial...

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...

By Ian Hall Wild Asia has announced the finalists for the 5th Responsible Tourism Awards 2010! We shortlisted several operators from across Asia in each category for their outstanding responsible tourism practices. Arkitrek's Ian Hall is a judge for the awards and has also helped to refine the checklists and questionaires that are our tools for identifying best practice. The shortlisted hotels and tour operators were reviewed and extensively researched by our judging panel which comprised of responsible tourism (RT) experts,...

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...