Views On Tourism » North America

Inspiration: ReGreen the world with Green World Campaign

Majbritt Thomsen — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:02:43 +0000

The Green World Campaign works to reforest our planet, raise the living standards of the rural poor, and combat global climate change. Watch the video and be inspired …

This information is quoted from Green World. The Green World Campaign is adopting new programs from Kenya, Mexico, Ethiopia, India and Philippines read more on the here

The article is uploaded by Majbritt Thomsen, administrator on ‘Views On Tourism’. Please join the online Views On Tourism network and discussion group in order to achieve personal goals as well as encourage a sustainable tourism development in Bangladesh and South Asia. Read more about this group and how to become a member here.

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DID YOU KNOW VIDEO on Tourism’s Role in Global Economy

Majbritt Thomsen — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:14:03 +0000

In September 2011, the Planeterra Foundation released an important video on the role of tourism in developing countries.
In the video you will learn that tourism support 10% of all economic activity on the planet. It supports 8% of all global employment, and 1/3 of all commercial exports in the world.

This article is quoted from EcoClub Newsletter . Follow this link to read the original article published on 2011-11-27 by Megan Epler Wood.

This article is uploaded by Majbritt Thomsen, administrator on ‘Views On Tourism’.

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Nominate your favorite city in the world!

Majbritt Thomsen — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:00:02 +0000

New7Wonders Cities is the third campaign organized by New7Wonders, following the man-made New 7 Wonders of the World and the New7Wonders of Nature.

Nominations can be submitted until December 31, 2011. Follow this link to fill the form and suggest the city that should be one of the New7Wonders Cities.

The nominations will be announced on January 7, 2012 and these participants will then be put to popular vote to choose the New7Wonders Cities.

This article is quoted from New7Wonders , read the original article here posted on the 13th of November 2011.

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WTTC: 2011 Americas

Majbritt Thomsen — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 17:31:52 +0000

KEY FACTS AT A GLANCE

GDP: Direct Contribution
The direct contribution of Travel &Tourism to GDP is expected to be USD629.3bn (2.9% of total GDP) in 2011, rising by 3.9% pa to USD923.9bn (3.1%) in 2021 (in constant 2011 prices).

GDP: Total Contribution
The total contribution of Travel &Tourism to GDP, including its wider economic impacts, is forecast to rise by 3.5% pa from USD1,947.9bn (8.8% of GDP) in 2011 to USD2,762.4bn (9.2%) by 2021.

Employment: Direct Contribution
Travel & Tourism is expected to support directly 15,811,000 jobs (3.8% of total employment) in 2011, rising by 2.0% pa to 19,239,000 jobs (4.0%) by 2021.

Employment: Total Contribution
The total contribution of Travel & Tourism to employment, including jobs indirectly supported by the industry, is forecast to rise by 1.9% pa from 40,738,000 jobs (9.8% of total employment) in 2011 to 49,149,000 jobs (10.2%) by 2021.

Visitor Exports
Travel & Tourism visitor exports are expected to generate USD267.6bn (7.3% of total exports) in 2011, growing by 6.4%pa (in nominal terms) to USD412.7bn (5.5%) in 2021.

Investment
Travel & Tourism investment is estimated at USD207.7bn or 5.4% of total investment in 2011. It should rise by 5.0% pa to reach USD340.2bn (or 5.9%) of total investment in 2021.

The Americas include North America, Caribbean, Central America and South America.

Download the Travel & Tourism report on Americas here

About WTTC
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) is the forum for business leaders in the Travel & Tourism industry. With Chief Executives of some one hundred of the world’s leading Travel & Tourism companies as its Members, WTTC has a unique mandate and overview on all matters related to Travel & Tourism.
WTTC works to raise awareness of Travel & Tourism as one of the world’s largest industries, supporting more than 258 million jobs and generating 9.1 per cent of world GDP.

This article is quoted from WTTC . Follow the links and get an overview of 2011 WTTC region reports or country reports.

This article is uploaded by Majbritt Thomsen, administrator on ‘Views On Tourism’. Photo from USA by Runo Magnussen.

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WTTC: 2011 North America

Majbritt Thomsen — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 15:31:03 +0000

KEY FACTS AT A GLANCE

GDP: Direct Contribution
The direct contribution of Travel &Tourism to GDP is expected to be USD492.3bn (2.7% of total GDP) in 2011, rising by 3.7% pa to USD709.1bn (2.9%) in 2021 (in constant 2011 prices).

GDP: Total Contribution
The total contribution of Travel &Tourism to GDP, including its wider economic impacts, is forecast to rise by 3.3% pa from USD1,569.7bn (8.7% of GDP) in 2011 to USD2,179.2bn (9.0%) by 2021.

Employment: Direct Contribution
Travel & Tourism is expected to support directly 9,295,000 jobs (4.6% of total employment) in 2011, rising by 1.5% pa to 10,745,000 jobs (4.7%) by 2021.

Employment: Total Contribution
The total contribution of Travel & Tourism to employment, including jobs indirectly supported by the industry, is forecast to rise by 1.5% pa from 22,619,000 jobs (11.1% of total employment) in 2011 to 26,281,000 jobs (11.5%) by 2021.

Visitor Exports
Travel & Tourism visitor exports are expected to generate USD207.8bn (7.4% of total exports) in 2011, growing by 5.9%pa (in nominal terms) to USD304.1bn (5.1%) in 2021.

Investment
Travel & Tourism investment is estimated at USD155.7bn or 5.1% of total investment in 2011. It should rise by 4.8% pa to reach USD248.5bn (or 5.6%) of total investment in 2021.

World ranking (out of 12 regions):
Relative importance of Travel & Tourism’s total contribution to GDP
• 1 ABSOLUTE size
• 6 RELATIVE contribution to national economy
• 10 GROWTH forecast

North America Region includes Canada, Mexico, USA

Download the Travel & Tourism report on North America here

This article is quoted from WTTC . Follow the links and get an overview of 2011 WTTC region reports or country reports.

This article is uploaded by Majbritt Thomsen, administrator on ‘Views On Tourism’. Photos from USA by Runo Magnussen.

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Community tourism the sustainable way forward

Majbritt Thomsen — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 14:29:07 +0000

Over the past 37 years, a dynamic group of citizens and tourism players, mainly on the south coast and east coast of Jamaica, have advocated for a more sustainable and responsible approach towards tourism development and marketing.

We branded the approach Community Tourism and have promoted it worldwide through the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT), which has now branded Jamaica as the “Home of Community Tourism”

Some years ago, we received funding from CIDA for the Jamaica Community Tourism project. That very effective intervention involved public and private sector players, including HEART/NTA. HEART assisted in providing certification for Community Cooks, Community Guides and Community Tourism Trainers, which provided more economic opportunities for persons to be involved in tourism.

The project described Community Tourism as: “an integrated approach and collaborative tool which seeks to add value to the experience of local and foreign visitors and simultaneously empower and improve the quality of communities, through the assessment, development and marketing of natural and cultural community resources.”

Simply stated, Community Tourism is all-embracing and natural. It is responsible tourism, tourism that respects the environment, the culture and heritage and the people of Jamaica and its extraordinarily diverse communities. It highlights the importance and multiple social, economic and environmental benefits, in the present and for the future, of valuing, sustaining and showcasing environmental and cultural assets as destinations.

If embraced fully, Community Tourism will secure Jamaica’s tourism in an increasingly difficult competitive environment. But tourism will not be the only thing that will be secured. That is because it is a holistic approach to tourism that avoids both fragmentation and an “all or nothing” competition with other industries. By enhancing, rather than dominating or replacing what already exists, Community Tourism also secures and improves people’s livelihoods. It is thus a practical form of Community Development.

Community Development is therefore parallel to Community Tourism, because Community Tourism markets an area as a destination within the local and international marketplace and attracts a wide spectrum of visitors not only for vacation/leisure, but for other interests and purposes therefore products and services within the community are highlighted, which would not usually be highlighted in traditional tourism circles.

Community Development is therefore parallel to Community Tourism, because Community Tourism, markets an area as a destination within the local and international marketplace; attracting a wide spectrum of special interests, not only for vacation/leisure, but for other purposes therefore products and services within the community are highlighted, which would not usually be highlighted in traditional tourism circles.

If a community has established an international identity, it can stimulate other industries and magnify there export potential; (Examples including Entertainment, Craft, Agriculture, Manufacturing etc). People will come to know the destination within the destination. Therefore Community Tourism is the business of bringing communities to the world; marketing their image and potential.

The values of Community Tourism are clear and is based on tourism that promotes peace; based on the World Tourism Organizations Global Code of Ethics and the mission of the International Institute for Peace for Tourism (IIPT)

The Jamaican Experience has been a struggle; as the concept when pioneered many years ago in Mandeville and the south coast, challenged the unsustainable approach to tourism; but it has now finally ascended to national consciousness to a certain degree; as manifested in 10 million Jamaican dollar Community Tourism Project; funded by the Caribbean HRD Programme for Economic Competitiveness (CPEC – a CIDA funded project).

This article written by Diana McIntyre-Pike. The article is quoted from TravelMole and published July 2011.

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Please join the online Views On Tourism network and discussion group in order to achieve personal goals as well as encourage a sustainable tourism development in Bangladesh and South Asia. Read more about this group and how to become a member here.

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Happy Planet Index (or Economics as if People and the Planet Mattered)

Majbritt Thomsen — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 12:37:11 +0000

July 13th, 2011, posted by Annie Leonard on The Story Of Stuff

Last week, I finally got to meet the people at the New Economics Foundation, whose motto is “economics as if people and the planet mattered.”
These are the guys in London who create the fascinating Happy Planet Index, or HPI, which evaluates countries based on 3 components: their level of health, level of well-being and rate of resource consumption. Basically, the HPI is a measure of how effectively a country converts resources into human well being. As you can see from the HPI map, some countries do this very efficiently and some countries – like mine – less so.

The cool thing about the Happy Planet Index is that is demonstrates that good lives don’t have to cost the earth; it’s not inevitable that we trash the planet and each other in order to have good, happy, long lives. There are some countries in which people achieve high levels of happiness and health while using a fraction of the resources as do other countries with similar levels of well being.

The Happy Planet Index, like Gross National Happiness and the Genuine Progress Indicator, are ways to measure how a society is doing beyond just its rate of economic activity. Today, the primary measure of how a city, country or the whole planet is doing is the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. The problem with limiting our measuring to economic activity is that we miss a lot of crucial information on what life is actually like for real people. The quality of education, environmental health, stress levels, income inequity, trust in government, social fabric, vibrancy of the culture are all things missed by measuring economic indicators alone.

Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.” — Robert F. Kennedy

Unlike the GDP, the Happy Planet Index identifies health and a positive experience of life as universal goals. You know, that really shouldn’t seem so radical, yet it is. Can you imagine how very different our economic policies would be if their overriding goal was to promote health and well being, rather than increased economic activity?
Crunching data from all over the world, the latest Happy Planet Index concludes that: It is possible to live long, happy lives with a much smaller ecological footprint than found in the highest-consuming nations. For example, people in the Netherlands live on average over a year longer than people in the U.S. and have similar levels of life satisfaction – and yet their per capita ecological footprint is less than half the size. Even more dramatic is the difference between Costa Rica and the U.S. People in Costa Rica also live slightly longer than those in the U.S., and report much higher levels of life satisfaction, and yet have a consumption footprint which is less a quarter than those in the U.S.

Clearly, my country – the U.S. – does not fare well on measures like the Happy Planet Index. We simply use and waste way too much stuff.
But when I see data like this, I feel hopeful. One of the good things about rating so low on the scale is that the only place to go is up. We could do things so much better.

With a good mix of humility and curiosity – plus a sense of urgency that today’s ecological situation requires – we can learn much from other countries about living longer, healthier, happier lives with less consumption. Check out the Happy Planet Index to see where your country falls and to get ideas on living better with less.

This article is quoted from The Story of Stuff , read the original article by Annie Leonard July 13th, 2011 here.
The article is uploaded by Majbritt Thomsen, administrator on ‘Views On Tourism’. Please join the online Views On Tourism network and discussion group in order to achieve personal goals as well as encourage a sustainable tourism development in Bangladesh and South Asia. Read more about this group and how to become a member here.

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Could 2013 Be a Tipping Point for Sustainability Spending?

Majbritt Thomsen — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:23:06 +0000

Corporate spending on sustainability could double in 2013 from current levels, sparking a massive market expansion as companies increasingly see the business value of investing in enterprise-wide programs.

Global sustainability spending will soar 50 percent to 100 percent between 2011 and 2013, predicted research firm Verdantix. Firms in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada with $1 billion-plus revenue will dole out roughly $60 billion in 2013 on workers, equipment or implementation of strategies directly related to sustainability, climate change, carbon management or energy efficiency.

“Spending on sustainable business initiatives such as energy efficiency, sustainability assurance and clean tech innovation is positively correlated with global economic growth,” David Metcalfe, Verdantix director and a regular contributor to GreenBiz.com, said in a statement Thursday. “By 2013 a powerful mix of market drivers, led by the forecasted global economic rebound, will significantly increase strategic investment in sustainability programs. The arrival of the 2013 tipping point will be good news for cash-strapped clean tech innovators and struggling sustainability entrepreneurs.”
Verdantix will details its findings in a webinar on June 2.

Verdantix based its predictions on four years of research into the spending habits of more than 2,500 worldwide companies. The analysis revealed three key trends.
First, the rise of the chief sustainability officer is helping to scale corporate sustainability programs and promote the virtues of sustainability externally to professional associations and the like.
Meanwhile, the concept of sustainability is increasingly seen as a need-to-have by corporate boards and CEOs, rather than a nice-to-have. Sustainability carries with it a range of quantifiable, bottom-line benefits that enhance competitiveness, such as resource efficiency.
By 2013, Verdantix predicts, trends we’re seeing now, such as growing demand in Asia, tougher energy and climate change policies, and evidence on how sustainability provide business value, will have solidified, deepening the business case for investment.

This article is quoted from GreenBiz , read the original article here written by Tilde Herrera and published May 20, 2011.

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PATA Hawaii Chapter update on Waikiki projects

Majbritt Thomsen — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:18:25 +0000

PATA Hawaii Chapter hosted its third luncheon this year on July 8, 2010. The speakers provided the attendees with an update from the Waikiki Improvement Association and the Waikiki Business Improvement District Association. Both the speakers shared their business goals for the year as well as highlights of their organisations’ accomplishments, with the audience.

Rick Egged, president, Waikiki Improvement Association, presented a pictorial tour of the transformation of Waikiki; spanning from the improvements to Kuhio Beach Park, landscaping, the improved Kalakaua Avenue promenade and their efforts to restore the Hawaiian ‘Sense of Place’ with the Waikiki Historic Trail, torch lighting and new Kapiolani Park Bandstand. Egged also noted that much of the transformation was made possible with the help of the city’s infrastructure investment, public-private partnership events, and investments by the private sector. Said Egged: “Those investments transformed Waikiki into a renaissance of world-class dining and retail mecca.” Examples of private sector investments are the Waikiki Beach Walk development project and the beautiful improvements at the Royal Hawaiian Centre. Egged closed his presentation with encouragement for ‘green’ roofs in the area, and his vision for Waikiki.

Jan M Yamane, executive director, Waikiki Business Improvement District Association, spoke to the audience about their programme values and how it was based on the concept of the stewardship of Waikiki. Programmes such as the ‘Malama Waikiki Crew’, provide regular cleaning of the area; the Hawaiian word ‘Malama’ means to ‘take care, or serve’. Another very visible programme called ‘Aloha Ambassadors’, provides hospitality to visitors through simple services such as providing directions, answering questions and displaying a willingness to help and serve. Additional programmes or projects are mystery shops and working with the Waikiki Health Centre in several capacities. The association began its roots as a product of collaboration between the community, business and government, to keep Waikiki safe and welcoming to both visitors and residents.

For further information please visit Waikiki Improvement and Malama Waiktkt .

This article is quoted from the newsletter PATAnews from PATA . Follow the green link to read the original article published on 2010.07.12.

This article is uploaded by Majbritt Thomsen, administrator on ‘Views On Tourism’.

Please join the online Views On Tourism network and discussion group in order to achieve personal goals as well as encourage a sustainable tourism development in Bangladesh and South Asia. Read more about this group and how to become a member here.

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Growing Boston’s Convention and Tourism Industry by Making the City a Green Convention and Tourism Destination

Majbritt Thomsen — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:36:58 +0000

This project, developed in conjunction with various sectors of Boston’s convention and tourism industry, involves a diverse array of sustainable practices. The project aims to help the City’s convention and visitor industry grow by differentiating Boston as an environmentally appealing or “green” destination. The project engages individual businesses and associations, including Boston’s convention centers, Massachusetts Lodging Association, Massachusetts Restaurant Association, Chefs Collaborative, transportation vendors, tour operators, event planners and visitors’ offices.

The project encourages businesses to become recognized as environmentally preferred facilities/operations by:
• carrying out initiatives necessary to become qualified for existing certification programs;
• meeting other types of existing standards or
• describing their facility’s environmental achievements.

Download the report here .

This article is quoted from Tourism ROY Newsletter published on 2010-04-27. Follow the green link to read the original article .

This article is uploaded by Majbritt Thomsen, administrator on ‘Views On Tourism’.

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