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.

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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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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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