Together with Spotted by Locals, the WHL Group is a founding member of the Local Travel Movement – a website uniting people and organisations with a passion for Local Travel and commitment to Local Travel values. It’s a movement gathering momentum!

On 13 January, we reported news of a popular movement in the Muğla Province of southwest of Turkey to forestall development of an ill-considered hydroelectric dam on the Yuvarlakçay River. The development project would have wreaked havoc on the pristine wilderness surrounding Turkey’s Yuvarlakçay River, but appears to have been forestalled — for the time being at least.

There is no right or wrong about how we position the Local Travel Movement, but its relevance is obvious. As I look at the evolution of travel, we are at the leading edge of what I would call Travel 3.0.

There’s apparently a lot to be said for and against what I’ll dub ‘semiformal home-accommodation networks,’ aka ‘couchsurfing.’ For example, there are valid concerns about how these networks are counterproductive (especially to local travel) since they “deprive the local accommodation providers of revenue.” Here’s an overview of a volley of comments.

A Local Travel movement is finding its legs. Strong legs. Last weekend, in a step to find good solid ground upon which to exercise those legs, I published two blog posts about it, one on the now-defunct Lonely Planet Travel Blog hosted by Yahoo!7 Travel in Australia and the other on The Brooklyn Nomad’s blog. It’s…