Category Archives: astrotourism

How to Start an Astrotourism Business

OAD Fellow Samyukta has written a brief article in the African Science Stars magazine on some factors to consider before starting up an astrotourism business. The special edition of the magazine is focused on astrotourism and its potential in Africa.  Astrotourism falls under the OAD’s Flagship on ‘Sustainable, local socio-economic development through Astronomy’. So far, […]

Strengthening Connections Between Astronomy Observatory and Businesses

The aim of this project was to better integrate astronomy into tourism endeavors happening on the island of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands to provide value added to existing businesses while providing a pipeline for students interested in the intersections between tourism and astronomy into these businesses as interns. Unfortunately, we discovered that […]

Overview: Langkawians Guide Malaysians to the Stars

Langkawi Island is Malaysia’s top tourist attraction but it was hit hard by the pandemic crisis. Even though the sector is recovering, many tourist guides are still struggling with financial stress. During the pandemic, they are not able to renew their tour guide badges due to money shortage while during post-pandemic, there are not sufficient […]

Overview: An initiative for development of local communities in “La Tatacoa”

La Tatacoa is home to numerous fossil deposits, some of which date to the pre-Cambrian period. It is also considered one of the best destinations for astrotourism due to its dark skies, excellent weather and landscapes. During the last decades, the number of visitors per year has been growing, reaching almost 50000 in 2019 when […]

Overview: Guide Training for the Tribal Students (Phase 2)

After successfully completing the training of 15 Tribal Students in AstroTribe 2022 project, AstronEra will be training 15 more tribal students to become AstroGuides in 2023. Tribal communities are generally, economically backwards in India. The project aims to develop an ‘earn & learn’ opportunity for the tribal students through working as astronomy guides. This will […]