Looking back from a few decades in the future, 2011 may seem like a turning point in social history. This was the year when “people power” became a global phenomenon: from the Arab Spring to the reforms in Burma; from the Occupy movements in North America to the grassroots fight against female circumcision in Africa. In China, thousands of citizens tweeted their solidarity with activist artist Ai Weiwei, while bloggers from Havana to Moscow shared their belief in freedom of expression and social justice.

There are many ways to deliver a message and take a stand for human rights and the health of our planet. Social networks are critical—but travel is also a powerful communicating tool. Travel and tourism are among the planet’s driving economic forces, and every journey we take makes a statement about our priorities and commitment to change. (Even the choice to fly must be weighed carefully, as jet aircraft release an astonishing amount of carbon dioxide).

Ethical Traveler believes that mindful travel is a net positive for the planet. By choosing our destinations well and remembering our role as citizen diplomats, we can create international goodwill and help change the world for the better.

Every year, Ethical Traveler reviews the policies and practices of all the nations in the developing world. We then select the ten that are doing the best job of promoting human rights, preserving their environment, and creating a sustainable, community-based tourism industry. By visiting these destinations, we use our economic power—our travel dollars—to support these countries.

We urge you to explore these ethical destinations, and enjoy the wonderful sights, cultures and activities they offer.
Our best efforts go into creating this list, but remember: No country is perfect. All have their shortcomings. These ten, however, have made a determined effort to “do the right thing” in the many areas we take into consideration.

Please note that Ethical Traveler is an all-volunteer non-profit organization, and a project of the Earth Island Institute. No money or donations of any kind were solicited from any countries, governments or individuals in the creation of this list.

The Winners
Ethical Traveler congratulates the countries on our 2012 list of The Developing World’s 10 Best Ethical Destinations. The winners, in alphabetical order (not in order of merit), are:
• Argentina *
• The Bahamas
• Chile *
• Costa Rica *
• Dominica *
• Latvia *
• Mauritius
• Palau *
• Serbia
• Uruguay *
( * = also appeared on our 2011 list).

This article is quoted from Ethical Traveler , read more information in the original article here.
Follow this link to download the report Download the full 2012 Ethical Destinations Report (PDF) written by Jeff Greenwald, Christy Hoover & Natalie Lefevre / EthicalTraveler.org.

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

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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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Article by Eamonn Fitzgerald on November 11, 2011

The first count of the global vote to elect the New7Wonders of Nature has been announced. In alphabetical order, they are: Amazon, Halong Bay, Iguazu Falls, Jeju Island, Komodo, Puerto Princesa Underground River and Table Mountain.

Announcing the results at the headquarters of the New7Wonders Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland, Bernard Weber, Founder-President of New7Wonders, said: “I would like to thank the many champions, citizens, voluntary organisations, public bodies and governments that have helped promote the New7Wonders of Nature campaign over the past four years, starting with over 440 locations from over 220 countries and all the way to the 28 Finalist candidates from whom the New7Wonders of Nature have been chosen.”

The results announced this evening are provisional and based on the first count of votes completed since voting ended at 11:11 GMT this morning. The results will now be checked, validated and independently verified. Once the voting validation process is completed, in early 2012, New7Wonders will then work with the confirmed winners to organise the Official Inauguration events.

Note: It may happen that one or more of the provisional winners announced today will not be confirmed during the validation process, New7Wonders will issue a media update should this happen.

“We congratulate each of these participants on achieving their provisional New7Wonders of Nature status, and look forward to completing the confirmation process to celebrate each one in their own Official Inauguration ceremony early in 2012,” said Bernard Weber, adding, “When the New7Wonders of Nature are confirmed they will join the man-made New 7 Wonders of the World in becoming part of Global Memory for humankind for ever.”

Read more about the New 7 wonders of nature ,

This article is quoted from New7Wonders , read the original article here posted on the 11th of November 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.

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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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GDP: Direct Contribution
The direct contribution of Travel &Tourism to GDP is expected to be USD121.1bn (3.3% of total GDP) in 2011, rising by 4.7% pa to USD192.0bn (3.6%) 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 4.5% pa from USD329.6bn (9.0% of GDP) in 2011 to USD512.4bn (9.6%) by 2021.

Employment: Direct Contribution
Travel & Tourism is expected to support directly 5,829,000 jobs (3.0% of total employment) in 2011, rising by 2.7% pa to 7,618,000 jobs (3.3%) 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 2.3% pa from 15,952,000 jobs (8.1% of total employment) in 2011 to 20,103,000 jobs (8.7%) by 2021.

Visitor Exports
Travel & Tourism visitor exports are expected to generate USD33.5bn (4.9% of total exports) in 2011, growing by 9.1% pa (in nominal terms) to USD70.8bn (5.6%) in 2021.

Investment
Travel & Tourism investment is estimated at USD46.3bn or 6.0% of total investment in 2011. It should rise by 6.0% pa to reach USD83.4bn (or 6.6%) of total investment in 2021.

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

Latin America includes Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela

Download the Travel & Tourism report on Latin America 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’.

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GDP: Direct ContributionThe direct contribution of Travel &Tourism to GDP is expected to be USD483.2bn (2.8% of total GDP) in 2011, rising by 6.6% pa to USD920.6bn (2.7%) 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 6.8% pa from USD1,397.4bn (8.0% of GDP) in 2011 to USD2,727.3bn (8.4%) by 2021.

Employment: Direct Contribution
Travel & Tourism is expected to support directly 66,750,000 jobs (3.4% of total employment) in 2011, rising by 1.9% pa to 80,264,000 jobs (3.6%) 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 2.3% pa from 153,719,000 jobs (7.7% of total employment) in 2011 to 192,905,000 jobs (8.6%) by 2021.

Visitor Exports
Travel & Tourism visitor exports are expected to generate USD184.4bn (3.8% of total exports) in 2011, growing by 9.5%pa (in nominal terms) to USD315.8bn (3.2%) in 2021.

Investment
Travel & Tourism investment is estimated at USD216.2bn or 3.9% of total investment in 2011. It should rise by 7.5% pa to reach USD447.0bn (or 3.9%) of total investment in 2021.

BRICs and N11s Region includes the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and the N11s (Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Phillippines South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam)
Download the Travel & Tourism report on BRICs and N11 Economic Impact Report 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 tourism report on 2011 BRICs and N11 Economic Impact Report here.
Get an overview of all the region reports from WTTC here

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This “En Breve” presents the results of an assessment of the tourism sector based on a top-down model. The results bode well for tourism in Panama, and could be a model for analysis in other LAC countries.

This article is quoted from Tourism ROY Newsletter published on 2010-02-08. Follow this link to read the article . Download the report HOW TOURISM CAN (AND DOES) BENEFIT THE POOR AND THE ENVIRONMENT .

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Two regions that have been impacted greatly by the industry of medical tourism are Latin America and Asia. Both these regions have their share of developing economies and low priced healthcare options. In addition, both have strong tourism industries and best-in-class healthcare providers. In the following report, we will explore some of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the two regions and compare and contrast their potential.

Latin America
This region has many economic opportunities in the future including a growing interest and momentum in the medical tourism industry. Although, not as advanced as a region in medical tourism as are several countries in Asia, Latin America has many advantages that it can grow on, which include: having a close proximity to North America, low cost of labor (particularly compared to North America), many ‘western’ trained and English speaking healthcare practitioners, a culture that many Europeans and North Americans find familiar, limited medical malpractice costs, beautiful locations including world-class beaches and hotels, and a friendly and caring culture. Countries in Latin America that are focused on medical tourism are: Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, and El Salvador (to name just a few of the major players).

The economic numbers for Latin America are not as easy to find as forecasts are for the Asian region and countries. However, Jonathan Edelheit, president of the Medical Tourism Association (MTA) stated in an April 2009 article that by 2017 up to 23 million Americans could be traveling overseas spending up to $79.5 billion per year, and over 50% of that business could be headed to Latin America. Several hospitals and healthcare clusters in Latin America have become international destinations and could continue to grow their market share. There is also a growing awareness of the need of governmental support (if not investment) in Latin America that will only help this industry. Finally, a huge advantage is the number of North Americans that are planning to retire abroad and the core competence in dental care in many Latin American countries.

Latin America Region SWOT Analysis

Strengths
• The proximity of most medical tourism destinations are within a reasonable flight from North America.
• Most Latin American countries have a favorable exchange rate which leads to lower cost good and services.
• Many Latin American countries have high rates of fluency in both English and Spanish.
• Latin America has a booming tourism market with many scenic locations and various types of geography (beaches to mountains) to choose from.
• Latin Americans are known for their overall friendly and family-oriented culture (they also boast the hosting of a variety of world-renowned celebrations).
• The wonderful climate in Latin America destinations is deemed to be conducive to recovery.
• Services and procedures such as: rehabilitation, retirement, dental, cancer treatments, low-cost pharmaceuticals, reproductive medicine, and diabetic care.

Weaknesses
• Many medical tourists are either ill informed or fearful of travelling to Latin America because of a reputation of violence, corruption, and poverty/disease.
• Lack of standardized quality measurement and quality ranking systems.
• Difficulty in seeking legal remedy in the event of malpractice.
• Major insurance carriers have yet to promote or widely cover medical treatments in Latin America.
Several Latin American countries are trying to serve too wide a swath of the market to maintain a sustainable industry.

Opportunities
• Large, growing population of Hispanics in North America that are not opposed to traveling to Latin America to receive healthcare.
• History of Americans and Canadians receiving healthcare and other low-cost services in Latin America.
• Possibility of receiving funding by U.S. or Canadian government-sponsored programs.
• Many Americans can travel freely back-and-forth and in some cases without Visas as a result of free trade agreements (e.g., NAFTA, DR-CAFTA, etc.).
• Some governmental initiatives supporting medical tourism.
• Strong willingness of North American firms to reduce healthcare costs.

Threats
• Disease (particularly pandemics), gang wars, coups, or other negatively perceived events as a result or even caused by poverty, over-crowding, criminals groups, unstable governments, and cultural expectations.
• Increasingly socialist policies that may limit the medical tourism industry in certain countries.
• Competition from Asian Nations for North American and European medical tourists.
• Some opposition to globalization of healthcare by key stakeholders in North America (e.g., unions, politicians, and healthcare associations).
• Due to the economy, many consumers simply do not have large enough cash reserve to pay for services.
• Limited numbers of insurance carriers that have comprehensive relationships with medical providers in Latin America.

Asia
Just as this region was able to become the dominant player in outsourcing of manufacturing, software design, call centers, and design, Asia hopes to become the greatest hubs for medical tourism. Currently, with several of the top medical tourism countries by volume, this region looks to remain a top player in this industry for many years to come. Asia has many advantages, as a region, including having a low cost of labor, recent investments and openings of best-in-breed hospitals, in some Asian countries- healthcare providers are in greater numbers (than compared with more developed ‘Western’ countries), limited medical malpractice costs, beautiful locations including world-class beaches and hotels, and a focus on hospitality and patient comfort. Countries in Asia that are focused on medical tourism are: India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, and the Philippines (to name just a few!]).

According to a recent article on Hotelmarketing.com, Asia’s medical tourism industry is expected to be worth at least $4 billion by the year 2012. Currently, an estimated 1.32 million medical tourists come to Asia from all over the world, including the U.S. and Europe (actually, quite a bit of the current travel comes from within the Asian region itself). Several hospital chains in Asia have created such outstanding reputations for themselves that medical tourism has become a major revenue generating activity for these economies.

In several of the countries in Asia, effective public-private partnerships have been formed in order to market their expertise globally. Finally, the Asian region leads the world in low-cost pricing and has a huge population to provide robust regional medical tourism revenues as well.

Asian Region SWOT Analysis

Strengths
• More mature medical tourism markets, facilities, and practices.
• The public-private partnerships and country/regional cooperation to woo foreign medical tourists.
• Government sponsored tax breaks and open environment for foreign private investments in healthcare infrastructure.
• A relative surplus in the labor pool due to large populations and strong emphasis in education in some countries.
• A history of using complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) alongside traditional ‘Western’ medicine (e.g., yoga, Ayurveda, herbs, TCM/TKM, etc.).
• In close proximity to Middle Eastern medical tourists.
• Asia also has a booming tourism market with many scenic locations and various types of geography (beaches to mountains) to choose from.
• Asians are known for their culture of hospitality and service.
• Services and procedures such as: wellness/CAM, eye-care, musculoskeletal care, cardiac care, transplants, hemodialysis, and general/plastic surgery.

Weaknesses
• The length of travel for many European and North American tourists.
• Some fears of travelling to Asia because of a reputation of social unrest, violence/terrorism, corruption, and poverty/disease.
• The lack of European and North American language (e.g., English, German, French, etc.) ability.
• The culture in Asia is arguably very different from occidental cultures.
• Difficulty in seeking legal remedy in the event of malpractice.
• Large disparity in the healthcare systems for the poor and rich/medical tourists.
• Several Asian countries are trying to serve too wide a swath of the market to maintain a sustainable industry.

Opportunities
• Large populations in the region offer many advantages (e.g., more regional medical tourism, lower cost of labor, more healthcare professionals, etc.).
• Increasing strength and diversity of Asian economies and many fast-growing areas.
• Many strong governmental initiatives supporting medical tourism.
• Shrinking cost of fuel (i.e. gas prices) which makes airfare lower and encourages medical tourism.
• The wealth in the Middle Eastern could lead to more tourists travelling to the Asian region.
• The Asian expertise in off-shoring of various industries to add to their chances to capitalize on this market.
• The emphasis on education and healthcare in many countries in Asia.
• Strong private investments will build the infrastructure of the region.

Threats
• Disease (particularly pandemics), social unrest, terrorism, overcrowding, dirty environments in some areas of Asia are perceived negatively and hurt marketing efforts.
• Competition from Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East for North American, European, and Middle Eastern medical tourists.
• Due to the economy, many consumers simply do not have large enough cash reserve to pay for services or airfare.
• Limited numbers of insurance carriers that have comprehensive relationships with medical providers in Asia.
• Fast growth of medical tourism in other regions and countries outside of Asia.

As these regions continue to mature in their understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, we expect that regions and individual countries will find their ‘niche’ areas in which they excel. The Asian region has the advantage of greater populations (several billion in the region alone) and a more ‘mature’ medical tourism market. Whereas, the Latin American market has an advantage of being in close proximity to over 350 million North Americans and a fast growing and fairly youthful Hispanic population.

The major weakness that many countries in both regions currently have, in our humble opinion, is not understanding their core areas of competence and taking advantage of these by differentiating themselves in the market place. However, both regions have many amazing opportunities to grow their economies in the near term through medical tourism.

David G. Vequist IV, Ph.D. is the founder and Director of the Center for Medical Tourism Research (www.medicaltourismresearch.org) – the very first Medical Tourism research center in the world. He is also an Associate Professor of Management in the H-E-B School of Business & Administration at the University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, USA. He is also a consultant, author and speaker on topics such as healthcare trends and technologies. He can be reached at vequist@uiwtx.edu.

Erika Valdez, a native of Mexico, and just graduated from the MBA program (May 2009) in the H-E-B School of Business & Administration at the University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, USA. She is a Graduate Assistant at the Center for Medical Tourism Research (www.medicaltourismresearch.org) and a promising speaker and author in the area of medical tourism and economic development in developing nations. She can be reached at eri.valort@gmail.com.

Billy Morrison, a native of Chile, is a graduate of the MBA program in the H-E-B School of Business & Administration at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas USA. Billy is a social entrepreneur and promising speaker, author, and futurist. He can be reached at billyamorrison@aol.com.

This article is a column quoted from the Medical Tourism Magazine . Please click here to go to the original article written by David G. Vequist, Erika Valdez and Billy Morrison and published Jun 1, 2009.

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The Jane Crouch (Intrepid Travel, Australia) “Water Filters in Chichubamba Community – Peru” project involves the provision of ceramic water filters and training in their use and maintenance to the people of Chichubamba South Community in Peru. So far, a town meeting was held to explain the project, the production of the 80 ceramic water filters was completed and water containers were purchased for the preparation of the installation in the community. On August 13 there was a meeting with the first group of 15 recipients and each were given a complete water filter. The households also gave a water sample which will be tested to obtain a base line of comparison before and after filter use. The goal is to work with one group every two weeks.
Full report

The Judy Karwacki (Small Planet Consulting, Canada) Winning Project “From Wild to Web – Guyana” involves providing laptops and cameras to a village Wildlife Club, so that they learn how to digitally document field projects and upload them online. The purchase of the equipment has been completed and it will arrive in Guyana in mid-September as hand-luggage to avoid transport costs. Some of the youth have begun to walk short transects and visit the pit traps’ and others are being encouraged to look at the variety of social networking sites available and decide which ones suit the type of publications that they hope to create using the new equipment. The ecological monitoring program will begin in earnest in September once the equipment has arrived and the youth are back at school in September.
Full report

The Manuel Apaza (ICADE, Honduras) Winning Project: “Creating a Community Tourism Cooperative – Honduras” aims to organise a local tourism cooperative for the community of Buenos Aires near the Cusuco National Park. Despite the political turmoil in Honduras, two workshops already took place in August, one on “Organization Alternatives” and one on “Cooperative Basics”. In the first workshop, the community members were presented with various company structure options and then chose the “Empresa de Servicios Multiples en Turismo” structure. In the second workshop, the community members learned about the history of cooperatives in Honduras, their function and their structure. They then chose their representatives, the name of the business and gave the project organiser all the basic documentation to start the legal procedure.
Full report

This year’s ECOCLUB.com Awards theme is “Their Crisis, Our Communities – progressive change through Social Ecotourism”. We asked our Members, tourism professionals, academics & students to undertake innovative projects that help create ‘another world’ at the grass roots level and improve life for all in their communities. The winners were determined in a direct democratic fashion by Member Vote and the winning projects implementation and completion is transparently presented and monitored online at www.ecoclub.com. All three projects must be completed by November 1, 2009.

For details on the ECOCLUB.com Ecotourism Awards
For Press Enquiries
For information on ECOCLUB

This article is quoted from EcoClub Newsletter . The article was originally published on 2009-09-14.

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