Sign welcoming visitors to Caracol 10, a Zapatista village in Chiapas

The case for a new, Progressive Tourism is both practical and conceptual.  As the status quo first infiltrates and then hijacks our terms, structures, networks and initiatives, we have to create new ones, otherwise we simply cannot be heard in the internet cacophony!  Progressive Tourism goes beyond Sustainable Tourism. It includes the "System Change" part of the motto "System Change not Climate Change). It prioritizes individual, collective and political action, including tourism policy and advocacy, to correct inequality and injustice, preserve human rights and labour rights, and promote direct, genuine and economic democracy, within the tourism and hospitality sectors but also in the host communities, destinations and broadly, the societies. Sustainable Tourism nowadays is so de-politicized, that it is readily endorsed (in the form of national sustainable tourism initiatives and labels) by repressive regimes imprisoning journalists and dissidents and multinationals eager to greenwash their exploitative, oligopolistic models alike. It is more about...

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Hospitality predates Money, according to History but also common sense, therefore the notion of a Hospitality that does not involve a monetary transaction, let's call it demonetized, is not utopian. But, back to the present, how could a Demonetized Hospitality pay the bills? Let's have a look at these bills. Electricity? Go off-grid. Water? Use a bore hole, a stream, a lake, or -soon- even the sea. Maintenance? Repairs? The guests can lend a hand. Furniture? The guests can bring second-hand unwanted items or, if they have the skills, create the furniture from locally available materials. Wages? No employees, guests volunteer, in shifts, or they become part-owners. The general idea is: Sharing. Do we dare to share? It seems sharing is the greatest taboo, not just in hospitality but in general, for everything considered 'property', which, as Proudhon pointed out, is at the same time theft and freedom. But property in terms of...

Sic semper tyrannis

Hierarchy and Inequality are at the root of all our tragedies. Were we ever able to stop obeying orders, and to freely decide for ourselves and our loved ones, based on our enlightened self-interest and common interest, and IF we could fairly SHARE the immense wealth already available on earth among ourselves, among cl...

Greece, and particularly Epirus and the Peloponnese, is dotted with magnificent old stone-arched bridges, built and rebuilt during Byzantine, Ottoman and early modern Greek eras, the oldest being a 4,000-year-old Mycenaean bridge (Arkadiko) linking Argos and Tiryns to Epidaurus which was still in use until a few decades ago. There is an o...

Christiania Visitors Map

The title "Utopia Inc" may be unfair, but it belongs to a well documented, critical article by Alexa Clay on Aeon. The author convincingly argues that intentional communities, including eco villages, are microcosms of our society, with the same problems of the society that they aim to replace or get away from. But they are ...

The classic scene in Fawlty Towers - you must have seen it (if you have not, do not yet get involved in hospitality) - with the facility on fire, where Basil, the unsurpassable John Cleese, gathers the guests in the lobby and attempts to explain the dire situation in a gradual manner: "fa fa fa fire, fa fa fire, fire !" but the guests don't get it,...

Chances are that, unless you are an archaeology buff, you have not heard about the Greek Aegean island of Keros. 60 km SE of famous Mykonos, it is its antithesis, as it is totally uninhabited, unless you count an endless stream of archaeologists from all over the world (that keep digging during the day and return by boat to nearby Koufonisia island...

Electric Barrels by Takis (2012)

If in Athens this summer, do not miss a rare Takis exhibition at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC, https://www.snfcc.org/en) in Kalithea, in itself a green attraction as a multi-award winning, public urban regeneration and cultural project with exciting happenings, olive groves, herb gardens and a breathtaking 3...

As parts of the world shyly reopen for tourism, I read about two assassination attempts yesterday, one unfortunately successful.... They are, of course, totally unconnected, however if one starts thinking about it, there are similarities: two islands (or archipelagos), both well-known tourism destinations, and two victims involved in tourism, makin...

Overlooked by the vast majority of foreign travellers, who head for/are herded to, the more famous monuments (Acropolis, Theseion, Sounion), the ancient (2,300+ year old) fortresses and towers of Attica, hidden in near pristine natural surroundings, are unique monuments that can be easily discovered and enjoyed by discerning, independent travellers...