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ECOCLUB® |
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ISSN 1108-8931 |
International Ecotourism Monthly |
Year 4, Issue 42, Nov. 2002 |
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Travel
advisories, usually by "western" governments, are a regular
feature in "today's violent world". Government websites,
publications and radio communications every day "warn"
tourists, usually of the mass or business variety, not to travel to a
particular resort, city, or even country. These travel advisories
usually trigger clauses in travel insurance policies and this is the
avenue through which pressure is exerted - not to go or to leave
immediately - via the tour operator to the tourist. At the destination
end, however, travel advisory
warnings are invariably seen as too general, exaggerated, or even that
they are a sort of punishment / revenge by the west for failure to
protect their citizens. Issuing
governments are usually slow to modify them and to lift them, usually
after some behind the scenes deals, to put it politely. No one
disputes however that travel advisories harm local tourist economies
and may even be the last straw, perpetuating the problem
instead of supporting the local community at a difficult moment. We
believe tourists can read and decide for themselves, they do not like
to be patronised, at least no more than they would like to read
government newspapers with the "absolute truth" in them. Not
to mention that governments do in fact add advisory tags everywhere:
"don't smoke" on the cigarette packs, "don't
drink" on liquor bottles (and why not "don't call" on
mobile phones?). And then this is a very good excuse for taxing these
harmful things: taxes on cigarettes alone can pay for a country's defence
budget and for equally "harmful" weapons, while the
resulting "commissions" can keep everyone happy and
healthy...And some, for example the state of Nevada, go even further,
opting to tax previously harmful sectors such as drugs and
prostitution. Thus, the emphasis of advisories is perpetuation,
rather than solution or progress. So my advisory to you is:
"beware of advisories", (excluding this one :-)
NGOs
in Tourism & Conservation Conference - Great Success New Expert Members join our all-star Experts Team We welcome the following Experts to our Expert Member team: * Mr Jerry R. A-Kum, Lecturer and Quality Assurance Manager, in Guyana. * Dr. Lehlohonolo Moeti, Academic, in Lesotho and * Mr. Nick Polychronidis, Environmental Technology
Entrerpreneur, Greece New ECOCLUB.com Volunteer associates
ECOCLUB proudly announces that during the past month it has accepted two Volunteer associates who already help the club in important ways. They are Mr. Stephen Mak, based in Oxford, UK and Ms. Larisa Basanets, based in Moscow, Russia. We thank them both ! ECOCLUB.com Weekly Chat ! Many people turn up at the ECOCLUB.com Chat Centre to chat every day, but they usually miss each other by a few minutes. To avoid this, starting on Thursday 21 November, every Thursday at 9 in the morning (Greenwich Mean Time), we will have one hour of chat called the Eastern Hemisphere Eco Chat, and every Thursday at 9 in the evening (GMT) we will be holding the Western Hemisphere EcoChat also for one hour. The ECOCLUB director will also try to be there to take your questions. So the place is: http://ecoclub.com/chat/ and the time is Thursdays at 9 am and 9 pm (GMT). Let's coordinate ! CVM GRANO
SALIS*: Charity "Confrontations" *Cum Grano Salis: latin for "with a grain of salt", phrase appears in Gaius Plinius Secundus's "Historia Naturalis". Plinius suggested we take everything with a grain of salt...
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Advisories,
Lies and Videotapes.
