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WTO: A new World Tourism Organisation (WTO) report, "Tourism after the 11th of September", finds that travel reservations worldwide this Autumn fell 12-15% below the levels of last year. The most affected destinations were ones dependent on long-haul air travel, and those heavily reliant on US tourists. Meanwhile a WTO resolution in support of WTO's Global Code of Ethics for Tourism was presented to the United Nations on November 19 and approval is expected by December 10. WTO Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli asked the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly (Economic and Financial), meeting in New York on November 19 to consider a draft resolution that invites governments and other stakeholders in the tourism sector to implement the code. "It is my sincere hope that we do not allow our deep concerns over the short-term future of the world tourism industry to eclipse the need for sustainable tourism development in the medium and long-term," Frangialli said. The code has been already endorsed by the European Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and the "Group of 77" developing countries. Cruises: P&O Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean Cruises are to merge, creating the world’s largest cruise company. The combined company will have 41 ships and a further 14 ships on order. Together the two companies carried over 3 million tourists in 2000. S.Africa: the days of South African plastic shopping bags may be numbered after the Cabinet approves a ban on plastic bags thinner than 80 micrometres, as part of a war on litter, effective January 2003. / The San clan of a Khomani tribe in the Kalahari may finally receive a portion of sales from an anti-obesity drug patented by UK's Phytopharm in 1997, which is derived from Hoodia, a Kalahari cactus. The clan traditionally chews the cactus to stave off hunger on hunting trips. Egypt: US$30 mil has been earmarked to subsidise charter flights into the country and ensure that tour operators do not reduce seat capacity. Uganda: received two Southern White Rhinos under an initiative aiming to repopulate the country's National Parks with the rare animals after political instability and neglect rendered them extinct within national boundaries during the 1980s. The rhinos are the first two to be delivered by the Rhino Fund Uganda (RFU), which is managing the project. Asia & Pacific Nepal & China: signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on tourism cooperation. China will put Nepal on the list of outbound destinations for Chinese tourists while Nepal will authorise 67 Chinese travel agencies to bring Chinese tourists to Nepal. China: To conform with World Trade Organisation practices, following its entry, China promised to radically simplify immigration and exit policies for tourists and nationals. Foreigners will be also able to apply for permanent residence status. / To spur Chinese tourism, the city's chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, announced in October that he was ending the city's policy of restricting to 1,500 a day the number of visitors from the neighboring Chinese province of Guangdon India: Ecotourism and Conservation Society of Sikkim (ECOSS) in association with The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) will hold a preparatory conference for the IYE, in Sikkim. The program is as follows: Jan 17th - 19th Ecolodge Planning and Design Workshop, Jan 21st - 24th South Asia Regional Conference on Ecotourism, Jan 25th Half-day certification program. ECOSS is looking for sponsorship to cover the costs of the event. More details: http://www.sikkiminfo.com/ecoss/newsletter.htm Central Asia: The war in Afghanistan could have a long-term impact on the health of birds migrating from central Asia to India every year but the effects may take a while to appear, according to Indian ornithologists. Cambodia: Authorities told restaurants in the Cambodian capital to stop serving rare animals or face closure. Raids by wildlife protection officials this year have rescued more than 1,300 endangered animals in Phnom Penh. Pitcairn Islands: British authorities have approved a private consortium proposal to build two tourist facilities in the remote Pitcairn islands. The Wellesley Pacific Group plans to build a 10-room lodge on Pitcairn Island, 10 chalets on the nearby coral atoll of Oeno, and airstrips in both places to fly in tourists. Fewer than 50 people live on Pitcairn, half way between New Zealand and Peru. Fiji: Following last year's coup, 22 cruise ships return to the island country and are expected to bring in 10 thousand tourists between January and May 2002. Asia-Pacific: Carlos Chua, commercial director for the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, said that since the September attacks, air traffic in Asia and between Asia and Europe was down by only 4 percent. In contrast, traffic across the Pacific plunged 30 percent. Australia: Qantas dropped its Sydney-New York flights, part of a restructuring that is to cost 2,000 jobs, while Ansett, Australia's second airline went bankrupt this fall. Japan: Japan Airlines has cut its flights to the United States by one quarter and has announced a merger with Japan Air System, Japan's third carrier. The big American airlines have all cut flights between the United States and Japan. The loss in American visitors has been apparently offset by a surge in domestic tourism, as Japanese tourists have rerouted $1 billion worth of travel spending this fall from Hawaii and California to Japanese or other close-by Asian destinations. CTO: Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) reports that member nations have come up with an emergency joint marketing, promotion and public relations campaign that is set to begin before the end of the year. Haiti: the government signed a $40 million contract with an investor group to build a 290 room Hilton-operated hotel, next to Port-au-Prince International Airport. The hotel will have a swimming pool, tennis courts, a casino, a 500-person ballroom and a bank. Monaco: as the 12th Meeting of the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea ends in the Municipality of Monaco, an ambitious agreement is reached by the Mediterranean states to eliminate pollution at sea from land-based sources in the Mediterranean (accountable for 80% of overall pollution), and to reduce by 2005 the emissions of POPs (persistent organic pollutants) by 50%. Czech Rep: Environment Minister Milos Kuzvart cancells the longest downhill course in the Jeseniky mountains. "The idea that a (ski lift) businessman can have profit at the cost of the environment is nonsense," Kuzvart tells journalists. The downhill course was situated in a protected area. Greece: A new Museum of History and Folklore opens in the historic village of Ambelakia, close to Mt. Olympus, and accepted as the seat of the first co-operative in the world (1795) which produced and traded dyed cotton thread, a fact that led to great financial and cultural wealth. This co-operative managed to set up a network of selling cotton thread to seventeen branches in eight European countries, in the early 19th century. The Museum is lodged in the restored Moula Mansion. UK: Rivers and canals in England and Wales are cleaner than they have been since before the Industrial Revolution according to a survey by the government's Environment Agency / In the light of world volatility, Tour Operators JMC and Airtours have introduced packages that let people change their holiday plans without suffering penalties. / Britain's first power station fuelled by liquid waste collected from local farms, will begin operating in early 2002, producing not only electricity but also hot water and ...predictably, liquid manure. The Devon plant will generate up to two megawatts. European Hubs: Despite tourism's dire straits, Heathrow receives official OK for a 5th Terminal to expand and France decides on a site of third airport for Paris. Italy: declares a state of environmental emergency in Venice, one of the most popular tourist destinations worldwide, paving the way for urgent measures to tackle pollution. Norway: The Fishery Minister, Svein Ludvigsen, tells, seriously, newspaper that "Seal hunting in the wild Norwegian coastal nature should be sold as an exclusive product to tourists," and that "That could be a hit." Seal hunting was banned worldwide in 1989 after widely seen television footage of blood-soaked hunts sparked protests and prompted the European Union to ban seal skin imports. Ireland: In sharp contrast with the story above, an Irish Seal Sanctuary is proposed, have a look at www.wildireland.ie/irishsealsanctuary Mexico: depends on the US for 85% of its tourist arrivals, thus the first week of October showed a very low hotel occupancy of 33.7% for beach destinations and 49.6% for inland cities, but by the end of October it had increased to 41.6% and 58.8% respectively, according to the Mexican Hotel Association. Sales taxes on conventions have been eliminated and the promotion budget has been increased by 50%. / Despite environmental protests, Mexico's government plans to develop Puerto Escondido-Loreto as a beach resort in the northwestern state of Baja California. Over the next five to seven years about $1 billion would be invested in the project. The development is expected to generate around 35,000 jobs and draw 700,000 visitors annually by 2015. A golf course, a marina, three hotels, a port, two recreation centers, two restaurants, condominiums and shopping centers are included in the plans. / Mexico assigns 60 new inspectors to stop illegal logging that threatens millions of migrating monarch butterflies, which return to central Mexico each year this time of the year. Argentina: due to the accute Argentinian economic recession, occupancies had fallen steadily prior to Sept. 11; four and five-star hotels in Buenos Aires, already showing a 50% average occupancy for the period from January through August, 2001, are now operating at 35% according to AHT, the Tourism Hotels Association. Apart from the US, the other principal sources of foreign visitors to Argentina are Brazil and Chile, but the demand from those countries has decreased due to the unfavorable exchange rate in Argentina, whose Peso is pegged at a one-to-one parity with the US Dollar. More than 70 trade shows and congresses have been cancelled, as well as 40% of cruise ship arrivals. Argentina is cutting taxes on tourism businesses and re-focusing its promotional Campaigns towards domestic tourism. Brazil: since most of the hotel market demand consists of Brazilians (42 million last year) and foreign visitors are principally from Argentina, only those destinations where there is a higher number of travelers from the U.S, Europe and the Far East felt the impact of the terrorist acts of September 11. Sao Paulo, for instance, experienced a decrease from its normal 65% occupancy to 30% after the attacks. However, due to the concern of the traveling public for security reasons, a large number of Brazilians decided not to travel to international destinations and have preferred traveling within the country. The Brazilian Hotel Association (ABIH) believes this will offset the decrease in international arrivals, and expects a higher overall occupancy for 2001 as compared to the previous year./ Guanabara Bay, which encloses Rio de Janeiro, is the site of an 110,000 liters crude oil spill from a ruptured pipeline, in what is called the bay's second-biggest environmental disaster ever. / Criminals steal an estimated 38 million animals from Brazil's forests each year, the first full report by Brazil's National Network Against the Trafficking of Wild Animals (RENCTAS) showed. It estimated that local traffickers of endangered animals earn about $1 billion a year. Animal trafficking is the world's third biggest cross-border criminal activity after arms and drugs smuggling, with annual global sales of up to $20 billion. Costa Rica: Costa Rica's hotels usually operate with an annual average occupancy of 55%. This year, as a result of the recent events in New York, the Costa Rican Chamber of Hotels (CCH) estimates the average at 44%. The number of hotels' employees has already been reduced by 15%. Ecuador: US visitors represent 33% of all foreign tourists; a reduction of roughly 10% in the number of total foreign tourists is expected for the year. / Ecuadorian President Noboa presents "Galapagos 2010" a biodiversity plan which will be funded by different countries and international organisations such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Global Environmental Fund (GEF), the Andean Promotion Corporation (CAF), and the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation (AECI), which will also hand over a patrol boat to Ecuadorian authorities. Panama: the departure of US. army personnel in 1999 combined with the construction of new hotels, plus the latest crisis has led to annual hotel occupancy of around 30%. On a bright side, the master plan for the rational use of the Canal Zone, will include a Biodiversity Museum designed by famous architect Frank Ghery. Belize: the government of Belize has decided to approve construction of a massive hydroelectric dam in a jungle valley, flooding some of the richest rainforest habitat in the country. The Chalillo Dam is expected to flood 1,100 hectares (2,718 acres) of pristine forest in the valleys of the Macal and Raspaculo rivers. USA: a USD 20 mil TV advertising campaign to support travel starring President Bush begins. / Nearly a third of Americans see commercial air travel as less safe than in 1996, with 37% less likely to fly, according to a Newsweek poll. / Boeing Co. is getting ready to develop and test an electrically powered airplane to evaluate fuel cell technology ability to make jets more environmentally friendly. / The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to even hear an industry appeal of a 1997 U.S. Forest Service decision to ban oil and gas exploration on Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, an 1.8 million-acre home to grizzlies, wolves, bighorn sheep, and possibly 2.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas./ Advance bookings for tours and shore excursions in Alaska are down 40 to 60 percent from this time last year according to the Alaska Travel Industry Association. Canada: The travel industry in Canada faltered sharply in the wave of September 11 according to Statistics Canada. Visitors to Canada declined to 3.2 million in September from 4.2 million in August, while Canadian tourists went down to 3.1 million from 3.8 million. Compared with the same month in 2000, the September drop was 23.3 percent. |