The Views On Tourism Project celebrate 3 year anniversary, 300.000 blog visitors and 750 group members. Uniting the right people generates the resources, knowledge and visions to encourage a positive local tourism development in Bangladesh and South Asia.

This project started in 2008 as a Danish expat volunteer initiative in Bangladesh to support the emerging sustainable awareness. The blog provides knowledge and inspiration to the Bangladeshi tourism sector, nearby South Asian countries, developing countries or destinations facing similar challenges. The network group makes an online communication platform for the sustainable tourism stakeholders related to Bangladesh and South Asia.

I welcome you to use the Views On Tourism Project to increase knowledge, share best practice, spread information, make comments, announce events, start discussions, network and cooperate.

Furthermore I encourage you to please support a fantastic project, which is fighting poverty through positive tourism development.
Crowdsourced Travel Bangladesh is a community-powered collective that provides information, marketing and travel media services to ‘unusual’ destinations often overlooked by the world travel community.
Your donation will make a difference.

I wish you a happy and sustainable new year in 2012.

Yours faithfully Majbritt Thomsen, initiator the Views On Tourism Project

For further information please follow these links:
Views On Tourism – Knowledge and Inspiration Blog.
Views On Tourism – Network and Discussion Group.
Crowdsourced Travel Bangladesh – Campaign in Progress.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

WWF-Nepal reached its target of planting 108,000 trees within 2011 as part of a key project to plant a million trees in Lumbini, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and surrounding areas over a period of 10 years.

Organized by WWF-Nepal and partner organization Lumbini Development Trust, the event brought together over 300 people from different sectors of society.

Speaking at the event, Mr Santosh Nepal, Director for Policy & Support at WWF-Nepal, said that Lumbini was regarded as the soul of the Terai Arc given the striking congruence between Buddhist philosophy and WWF’s conservation principles in the Terai Arc Landscape – interdependence and interconnectedness.

“The key objective of the Terai Arc Landscape program is to build connectivity across the landscape to facilitate wildlife movement while promoting harmony between humans, wildlife and nature”, said Mr Nepal.

A legacy for future generations
Acharya Karma Sangpo Sherpa, Vice Chairperson of Lumbini Development Trust, stated that Lumbini is an important carbon sink and the plan to plant a million trees in the sacred site is an attempt towards building greater adaptive capacity to the effects of climate change in Nepal. “I am happy to see a lot of children participating in this event; these trees are a legacy we leave for them and for future generations”, he said.

WWF-Nepal joined hands with Lumbini Development Trust in September 2010 as part of WWF’s global efforts to work with faith groups to further the cause of nature conservation. This partnership is aimed at promoting responsible tourism and environmental practices in the sacred site of Lumbini.

As part of the planting, trees which were considered to have existed in Lord Buddha’s era such as Ashoka, Sal, Pipal and Kadam will be planted in an effort to conserve the religious and ecological heritage of Lumbini.

Terai Arc Landscape
Covering 14 protected areas in India and Nepal, the Terai Arc Landscape is home to endangered tigers, elephants and vulnerable rhinos. It is one of the few places where these three large threatened animals coexist.

The plains of the Terai have seen an immense change during the past 50 years. Today, the area faces many challenges affecting people and wildlife alike including deforestation, poaching and pollution of rivers.
WWF-Nepal is part of the Terai Arc Landscape Project which has helped thousands of rural poor to improve their lives in sustainable ways and generated a tremendous support for conservation.
This article is quoted from WWF , read the original article here posted on the 13th of September 2011.

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.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

GDP: Direct Contribution
The direct contribution of Travel &Tourism to GDP is expected to be USD523.0bn (2.7% of total GDP) in 2011, rising by 5.9% pa to USD953.4bn (2.8%) 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 5.8% pa from USD1,607.4bn (8.2% of GDP) in 2011 to USD2,903.3bn (8.7%) by 2021.

Employment: Direct Contribution
Travel & Tourism is expected to support directly 63,891,000 jobs (3.5% of total employment) in 2011, rising by 1.9% pa to 77,502,000 jobs (3.7%) 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 2.4% pa from 145,802,000 jobs (7.9% of total employment) in 2011 to 184,709,000 jobs (8.9%) by 2021.

Visitor Exports
Travel & Tourism visitor exports are expected to generate USD288.6bn (4.3% of total exports) in 2011, growing by 8.3%pa (in nominal terms) to USD496.2bn (3.6%) in 2021.

Investment
Travel & Tourism investment is estimated at USD247.5bn or 4.1% of total investment in 2011. It should rise by 6.7% pa to reach USD482.0bn (or 4.1%) of total investment in 2021.

The Asia Pacific Region includes South Asia, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and Oceania. Download the Travel & Tourism report on Asia Pacific 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’. Photos from Thailand by Casper Magnussen.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

The positive momentum of the previous months held strong for Southeast Asia, which led the region with 15.5% growth during the month of June. The rebound in arrivals to Thailand (+54%) positively impacted this overall result, strongly supported by the other reporting destinations in this sub-region all of which enjoyed double-digit growth. This in turn was supported by strong travel demand within ASEAN and an increase in arrivals from China.

International arrivals growth to South Asia was a robust 12% in June, boosted by double-digit increases in inbound numbers to Nepal (+38%), the Maldives (+27%) and Sri Lanka (+20%). India maintained the same pace of growth seen in the previous month at 7%. European arrivals are amongst the main contributors to this growth.

Northeast Asia saw an improvement after posting slow growth of 0.6% in May, with a 3.7% increase in arrivals for June 2011. This growth, however, was very unevenly distributed among destinations in the sub-region. Tourism demand to Japan continued to recover, reducing losses in inbound arrivals from -63% in April to -50% in May and -36% in June. Chinese Taipei (-2%) and China (+1%) registered weak results while Hong Kong SAR (+16%), Macau SAR (+15%) and Korea (ROK) (+11%) enjoyed buoyant growth for the month, supported by the key origin market of China.

It should be remembered that even though the percentage growth rate may be relatively weaker than for other sub-regions, the sheer volume of arrivals to Northeast Asia means that 3.7% growth directly translates into more than 600,000 additional arrivals for the month.

International Arrivals to the Pacific recorded an aggregate decline of 4% in June. The main destinations of Australia (-4%) and New Zealand (-10%) showed significant decreases compared to the corresponding period last year. This downturn was caused – in part at least – by the ash cloud disruption to air travel from the Chilean volcano together with the continued effects of the earthquake in Christchurch. Nevertheless, some Pacific Island nations still managed to show positive growth, especially Palau (+63%), Vanuatu (+27%), Tahiti (+19%), Papua New Guinea (+16%), New Caledonia (+11%) and Cook Island (+8%).

January to June 2011
Of the 31 destinations reporting half-year arrivals (January to June 2011), 26 indicted positive growth, with 14 showing double-digit gains. Clear growth leaders over this period were Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand with gains of 37%, 29% and 28% respectively (January to June, year-on-year).

Collectively, these 31 destinations generated growth of 5.3% for the Asia/Pacific region during the first half of 2011. Even with the loss of almost 1.4 million arrivals to Japan, this cluster of destinations collectively not only countered that contraction but managed to add enough additional arrivals to the collective count to post a year-on-year gain of more than eight million international arrivals.

Kris Lim, Director of PATA’s Strategic Intelligence Centre, said: “The first-half year growth of around 5%, given the challenges the industry has faced so far this year underlines the resilience of travel and tourism in the Asia/Pacific region. The comparatively weaker economies of the USA and Europe mean that much of this growth has had to come from intra-regional travel and this in turn has only been possible because of the stronger regional economies and the continued expansion of airline seat capacity within the region.”

Lim added that at the current rate of growth, overall arrivals to the region will push to the 433 million mark by the end of the year, up from 408 million last year. The majority of the Asia/Pacific destinations will once again look at record numbers of arrivals, led by South Asia and Southeast Asia destinations in terms of percentage growth.

“While European arrivals remain key to South Asia’s growth, Southeast Asia will be driven by the rapidly growing China and India outbound markets while Northeast Asia is expected to see strong gains in arrivals from Southeast Asia driven by the steadily growing LCC network,” said Lim.

1)Asia/Pacific is defined as including the following sub-regions for the purposes of press releases:

For more market trends and insights, please visit www.pata.org/sub-regional-trends-2011

-ENDS-

Issued by:PATA Communications,
Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: +66 2 658 2000
E-mail: communications@PATA.org
Online newsroom: www.pata.org/Press
Follow PATA on Twitter and Facebook

About PATA
The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is a not-for profit membership association that acts as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism within the Asia Pacific region. This year, PATA is proud to celebrate 60 dynamic years of developing responsible tourism.

In partnership with private and public sector members, PATA enhances the sustainable growth, value and quality of travel and tourism to-from-and-within, the region. The Association provides leadership and counsel on an individual and collective basis to over 80 government, state and city tourism bodies; nearly 50 international airlines, airports and cruise lines and many hundreds of travel industry companies across the Asia Pacific region and beyond. Thousands of travel professionals belong to 39 active PATA chapters worldwide and participate in a wide range of PATA and industry events. PATA’s Strategic Intelligence Centre (SIC) offers unrivalled data and insights including Asia Pacific inbound and outbound statistics, analyses and forecasts as well as in-depth reports on strategic tourism markets. For more information, please visit www.PATA.org

This article is quoted from the newsletter PATAnews from PATA . Follow the green link to read the original article published on 2011.08.31.

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

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

GDP: Direct Contribution
The direct contribution of Travel &Tourism to GDP is expected to be USD44.8bn (2.1% of total GDP) in 2011, rising by 7.5% pa to USD92.7bn (2.1%) 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 8.1% pa from USD103.8bn (4.8% of GDP) in 2011 to USD226.1bn (5.1%) by 2021.

Employment: Direct Contribution
Travel & Tourism is expected to support directly 28,437,000 jobs (4.3% of total employment) in 2011, rising by 2.1% pa to 35,008,000 jobs (4.5%) 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 2.4% pa from 45,595,000 jobs (6.9% of total employment) in 2011 to 57,757,000 jobs (7.4%) by 2021.

Visitor Exports
Travel & Tourism visitor exports are expected to generate USD18.1bn (4.0% of total exports) in 2011, growing by 8.6% pa (in nominal terms) to USD34.3bn (2.2%) in 2021.

Investment
Travel & Tourism investment is estimated at USD29.7bn or 4.6% of total investment in 2011. It should rise by 8.4% pa to reach USD66.5bn (or 4.7%) of total investment in 2021.

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

The South Asia Region includes Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Download the regional report on South Asia tourism 2011 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 this link to read the original article and download the report on South Asian tourism 2011 here.
Get an overview of all the region reports from WTTC here

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

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Event status South Asia 2011-08-10
Bangladesh 5 events
India 41 events
Nepal 5 events
Bhutan 0 event
Pakistan 1 event
Myanmar 0 event

Organizers are 350.org , who are building a global movement to solve the climate crisis.

This article is quoted from Moving Planet , read the original article here.

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

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

GDP: Direct Contribution
The direct contribution of Travel &Tourism to GDP is expected to be NPR37.3bn (2.8% of total GDP) in 2011, rising by 4.8% pa to NPR59.4bn (3.2%) 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 5.0% pa from NPR89.2bn (6.7% of GDP) in 2011 to NPR144.9bn (7.8%) by 2021.

Employment: Direct Contribution
Travel & Tourism is expected to support directly 293,000 jobs (2.4% of total employment) in 2011, rising by 3.9% pa to 429,000 jobs (2.7%) 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 4.1% pa from 726,000 jobs (5.9% of total employment) in 2011 to 1,087,000 jobs (6.8%) by 2021.

Visitor Exports
Travel & Tourism visitor exports are expected to generate NPR32.8bn (25.8% of total exports) in 2011, growing by 9.4%pa (in nominal terms) to NPR55.6bn (26.8%) in 2021.

Investment
Travel & Tourism investment is estimated at NPR11.2bn or 3.9% of total investment in 2011. It should rise by 6.0% pa to reach NPR20.0bn (or 5.0%) of total investment in 2021.

World ranking (out of 181 countries):
Relative importance of Travel & Tourism’s total contribution to GDP
• 122 ABSOLUTE size
• 118 RELATIVE contribution to national economy
• 75 GROWTH forecast

Download the report on Nepal tourism 2011 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 this link to read the original article and download the report on Nepal tourism 2011 here.
Get an overview of all the country reports from WTTC here

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

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

The Terai Arc landscape, shared by India and Nepal, sits at the base of the Himalayas. It is one of the few places in the world where wild tigers, elephants and rhinos still roam. At the heart of the Terai Arc are Corbett Tiger Reserve and the surrounding forests, where a substantial part of WWF-India’s conservation efforts are focused. The forests in the landscape are facing threats like never before: fragmentation and loss of wildlife corridors, unsustainable land-use policy, human-wildlife conflict, overuse of forest resources. Also, poaching of wildlife – both prey and their predators – remains a serious risk to the region’s famed biodiversity.

In 2006, WWF began working with the village of Mankanthpur in the Kosi-Baur wildlife corridor. This village is located in the middle of the elephant and tiger movement area, and is among the top 20 sites for human-tiger conflict.

Women at risk
At first, WWF staff had to earn the trust of community members, understand their livelihoods and routines, and figure out how to minimize the risk of contact with wild tigers. It became clear that women faced the greatest danger, because it was their responsibility to go to the forest to collect firewood and cattle fodder.

Frequent forest fires, caused by the large amount of leaf litter on the forest floor, also threatened the community. Was there some way to keep women safe, and reduce the risk of forest fire? Sometimes you have to look for unlikely solutions.

At the same time WWF was working to protect tigers and reduce human-wildlife conflict, the Indian government was training communities on composting to improve farm yields. WWF asked the forest department to allow community members to remove leaf litter from the areas most prone to forest fires. The leaf litter went to the compost pile, and the forest was less likely to go up in flames during the hot, dry summer months.

“WWF-India’s team worked with the Forest Department and the communities to devise a way for the villagers to extract resources from the forest in a sustainable way. Lopping and cutting of wood was prohibited and only fallen branches could be removed. The communities were also informed that they would not be allowed to use certain sections of the forest, the main corridors used by tigers. As you can imagine, they readily agreed. It was also agreed in the village meetings that only the forest fringes would be used to extract the fallen wood, and that each village would extract fodder and firewood just two or three days a week,” says Dr. KD Kandpal, Landscape Coordinator, WWF-India’s Terai Arc Landscape project.

To compensate for the loss of some firewood, WWF has promoted biogas stoves, which have multiple benefits. The cattle are now kept in pens, so people can collect the dung needed to run the biogas stoves. This has decreased the pressure on forests, as there are hardly any cattle grazing inside them. It is also safer for the cattle; in 2006 there were 15 cattle killed by wild carnivores; this dropped to below 10 in 2007 and in 2010 there were only three cattle kills reported on the periphery of the village.

Residents of Mankanthpur village have now become part of community forest patrolling team, along with the Forest Department officials. This has increased the efforts to combat poaching and encroachment, and other unwanted interferences in the forests. Because of their close ties to the forest, residents were able to inform WWF staff that people from other villages were extracting firewood and fodder from the off-limits wildlife corridors. WWF-India’s team approached the authorities along with Mankanthpur villagers to stop this, and the Forest Department ordered the range officer to keep people out of these sensitive and dangerous areas.

A final measure of the success of this project is the absence of retaliatory killing of carnivores by the villagers of Mankanthpur, despite a recent survey showing the presence of tigers in all sections of this forest landscape.

KD Kandpal adds, “The future looks bright for the tigers of this area. The recent tiger survey in the adjacent Ramanagar forest division revealed a density of 12 tigers per 100 sq. km. WWF-India has taken a step forward and started similar work this year in the nearby Pawalgarh village. Our aim is to ensure the corridors are kept for good for generations to come.”

This article is quoted from WWF , read the original article here written by Ameen Ahmed, WWF-India and published July 18, 2011.

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.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Thailand: International visitors to Thailand increased 28.1% in the first six months of 2011 to reach close to 9.7-million arrivals. Key growth markets: Saudi Arabia (+84%), China (+68%) and Hong Kong SAR (+59%). Context: a year ago Thailand’s political crisis deterred many visitors. Big growth now reflects the artificially low benchmark of last year.

Australia: There were 386,600 visitor arrivals during May 2011, an increase of 2.7% relative to May 2010. This lifts Australia’s inbound total to close on 2.4% over the first five months of the year, a gain of 1.6%.

India: India welcomed 2.9-million visitor arrivals in the first six months of 2011, a year-on-year growth of 10.9%. Foreign exchange earnings grew 12.1% when measured in local currency and 14.2% when converted to US dollars.

How is your destination performing in an increasingly competitive world? Read more Follow the link to here.

This article is quoted from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) newsletter July 13 2011.

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

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

The Washington-based lender has approved a 36-million U.S. dollars-credit to Bangladesh and a 3-million U.S. dollar-grant to Nepal for the first phase of the Adaptable Program Loan, said a statement of the bank released Sunday.

It said the project will assist the governments to enhance shared capacity, institutions, knowledge and incentives in tackling illegal wildlife trade and other selected regional conservation threats to habitats in border areas, while promoting ecotourism.

South Asia is home to 13-15 percent of the world’s biodiversity and hosts some of the most endangered species on Earth, the statement said, adding habitats across Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal are home to over 65 percent of the 3,000 or so remaining wild tigers.

According to the World Bank, pressures such as deforestation, habitat loss, pollution, and poaching of wild animals have put the environmental and ecological balance under severe threat.
The project will tackle conservation threats to habitats in border areas and clamp down on the illegal wildlife trade of species such as the tiger, snow leopard, rhinoceros and elephant in increasingly fragmented habitats, it said.

The bank said Bangladesh holds the largest remaining population of tigers in the Sundarbans, the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world, and added that the country’s environmental and ecological balance is under severe threat and studies indicate that 4-5 percent of faunal species and about 10 percent of floral diversity have become extinct in the last century.

This article is written by Valere Tjolle, who is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite. The article is quoted from Travelmole newsletter from 2011-04-13. To read the original article please follow this link .

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

Be Sociable, Share!

•