Opinion.


Karen Simmonds is the founder of the award winning travel concierge Travel Matters and the Make Travel Matter campaign. Having travelled extensively and worked in Germany, France and Portugal, she now lives in London, UK. She loves adventures and  travelling for pleasure as well as work, visiting different places and meeting new partners. She is passionate about building awareness and engagement about how we can travel responsibly and in a sustainable way, sharing good practice with travellers as to how their travel choices and decisions can have a positive impact on the communities they visit. She is a committed and passionate responsible travel ambassador. Karen Simmonds can be followed on LinkedIn  Facebook and Instagram

25 May 2021

How can travel and tourism help protect our oceans?

I’ve always been a lover of the sea, be it for the pleasure of swimming in it or being close by. Let’s face it there are […]
21 May 2021

Travel to break free from your happiness trap!

Break free from your happiness trap! This week I had the opportunity to speak at the Accessible & Inclusive Tourism conference in the Asia Pacific (AITCAP) […]
10 May 2021

If not now, when?

Just last month the US President Joe Biden asserted that this is the  “decisive decade” for tackling climate change. In his opening address, he said, “Scientists […]
5 May 2021

Three wishes for a post-Covid world

The relationship between us and Covid-19 is a quite complicated and uncertain one. No one knows with certainty how long we will be linked and what […]
4 May 2021

Revenge travel and the hunt for responsible tourists

There is presently much chatter about “revenge travel” as the industry anticipates a post-lockdown boom in travel, although the world is far from post-Covid. The concept […]
3 May 2021

What can the tourism industry learn from ancient philosophers?

The global tourism industry is at the most testing times as the headlines of tourism performance indicates the grim reporting by the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) […]
3 May 2021

How the soft drinks industry’s recovery should taste

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the essential nature of Europe’s food and drink industry into sharp focus. The food and drink sector has managed to maintain […]
28 April 2021

Could the pandemic be putting at risk our lunch habits?

The Covid-19 pandemic has considerably impacted most of our daily life’s habits. According to Eurofound, 37% of workers in the EU started working from home during […]
27 April 2021

Decarbonising Aviation: further delay will be very expensive

The growth in tourism since 1950 has been facilitated by paid annual holidays and by aviation. Those who live in holiday areas have often suffered from […]
26 April 2021

Greenland: a forerunner for Europe?

Every one of us has heard of Greenland and has a certain perception, which might be – or not – in accordance with the reality on […]
23 April 2021

MADE IN PORTUGAL naturally

“With this campaign, AICEP intends to create emotions and surprise, valuing the authenticity, competitiveness and excellence of products MADE IN PORTUGAL naturally” Luís Castro Henriques, Chairman […]
22 April 2021

Bookshops, essential social and cultural harbours in times of pandemic

During the last year the book industry and the bookselling sector have suffered and struggled for survival as many other economic and cultural sectors. But this […]
19 April 2021

Reopening of Belgium’s terraces a first key step towards a full recovery of the hospitality sector

The long-awaited announcement that Belgium’s bars and restaurants can reopen their terraces from May 8th is enormously welcome. The phased reopening of crucial parts of Belgian […]
16 April 2021

Pandemics and other key challenges: wake-up call to go beyond multilateralism – 10 thesis for Omnilateralism

This 21st century is confronting us with the need to restructure our way of international relations and cooperation. 1. Never in our history, humans have been […]
16 April 2021

Only in 2023 will tourism in Portugal return to what it was in 2019

“Calculate how many travelers crossed Portugal during a century then tell us: do you believe that the foreigner reaches the end of his pilgrimage without spending […]
15 April 2021

Me first attitude tarnishes the Brits

You may have noticed that this week, the UK took a giant step towards coming out of its latest corona virus lockdown. There was much rejoicing […]