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 ย 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 ย Facebook and Instagram

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2 March 2021

Optimism and hope as we build back better

There is a sense of optimism and hope in the air. The season is changing. Spring has arrived in the northern hemisphere as we edge out [โ€ฆ]
2 March 2021

This is the critical decade

For the last year, the pandemic has dominated the news. Understandably so, some of us have had Covid-19, most of us will have relatives, friends and [โ€ฆ]
16 February 2021

Living with pandemics

An H1N1 virus caused the last major pandemic with genes of avian origin. It was rampant 1918-1920, often referred to as Spanish Flu it was first [โ€ฆ]
9 February 2021

United Kingdom tourism: Uncertainty reigns supreme

Covid-19 has demonstrated how dependent much of the tourism industry is on aviation. In Europe, many consumers have pivoted to take domestic trips. In theory, tourism [โ€ฆ]
2 February 2021

Responsible Tourism is spreading across India

Over the last couple of weeks a high-level delegation from Madhya Pradesh in central India, led by the Minister of Tourism Ms Thakur, has been in [โ€ฆ]
12 January 2021

In all humility

It is time for us humans to act with a little humility As 2021 dawned, and we entered this critical decade for our species to address [โ€ฆ]
5 January 2021

Telling Stories

Many of us will recall being accused, as children, by frustrated and sometimes angry parents of “telling stories”, of making things up, of fibbing, a less [โ€ฆ]
29 December 2020

We need to take the stories we tell seriously, they embody power

It is through stories that we make sense of the world. We use stories to understand our lives and those of others. Anthropologists tell us that [โ€ฆ]
22 December 2020

Governance Matters

Back in 1623 the poet and Church of England cleric John Donne wrote in his Devotions upon Emergent Occasions โ€œNo man is an Island, entire of itself; every [โ€ฆ]
15 December 2020

Is hydrogen the future for aviation?

As we see and experience the impact of climate change – flooding, storms, wildfires and drought – awareness of the consequences of climate change grows. The [โ€ฆ]
8 December 2020

Stories matter

Stories, myths and legends can be true or false, they can be used for good or evil. In this age of social media and people skulking [โ€ฆ]
23 November 2020

Virtual Travel โ€“ Virtuous?

There has been much talk about how Covid-19 has accelerated changes in the way people work, in business travel and driving development and growth in online [โ€ฆ]
17 November 2020

Tourism for Good

In this yearโ€™s World Responsible Tourism Awards, we sought to recognise those businesses and organisations which had stepped up to take responsibility as the pandemic stopped [โ€ฆ]
10 November 2020

Can we make tourism better?

The Covid-19 pandemic has paused the inexorable growth in domestic and international tourism facilitated by fossil fuels and increasing prosperity. The pause has created an opportunity [โ€ฆ]
6 November 2020

Travelling during Covid-19 pandemic โ€“ what are the current rules?

Valerijus Ostrovskis is the CoFounder and Partner of ACQUIS EU Law and Policy With Europe facing a new spike of Covid-19 infections, accompanied by a second [โ€ฆ]
5 November 2020

Make your travel matter!

In these challenging times we must all play our part โ€“ stay at home! The new England wide lockdown begins on Thursday 5 November. If you [โ€ฆ]