Author

During the second half of the 20th century tourism changed from a social activity to a merely economic one. Many romantic travellers from earlier days changed into business-like modern tourists. However, under the influence of sustainable development principles and the urgency to conserve our environment there is a need to re-think the concept of tourism and especially the role the tourist plays in it.

One answer is the reflexive approach to tourism concerning the relationship between tourists and destination. The texts you can find on this site have been developed to give direction to these new concepts and obviously to generate interest and reactions from readers.

Mr. Gisolf is senior consultant in tourism and sustainability and he was the general manager of Ecole Viajes S.A. for nearly 15 years – an incoming travel agent in Costa Rica with the highest level (5) of sustainability certification granted by the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism ICT in 2010.

He has published two books: “The funcionality of the Tourist Supply chain” published in 2005 and “Tourists and Sustainability” published in 2009 by the South South Corporation and Fundecooperacion with funds of the Dutch Government with Spanish as well as English versions.

Since 2010 all new articles have been published on this website and nearly monthly new articles appear concerning further studies on the reflexive approach to tourism.

Mr. Gisolf has been active in the field of supporting small tourism projects in rural areas since 1985. Furthermore Mr. Gisolf was involved with the development of the inbound travel agents Ecole del Sur in Argentina, Ecole Travel-Ecuador and Shana Travel in Panama.

Mr. Gisolf was born in Holland in 1948 and has lived in Costa Rica since 1983.