Good news in tourism July 19 – 25, 2020
… because it’s everyone’s business!
Published every Sunday, “Good news in tourism” is the perfect pick-me-up for the start of a new week in travel & tourism.
This week in “Good news …”:
- Destination development & investment
- Tourism recovery
- Community-led tourism
- Cultural heritage tourism
- Wildlife tourism
- Getting around green
- Friends indeed
- Odds & ends
It’s “Good Tourism”. And go!
“GT” Partner news first:
Geoffrey Lipman of “GT” Partner SUNx — Strong Universal Network is excited to announce the launch of a blockchain-based app called WISeTravel, “a comprehensive ‘Swiss army knife app’ for travellers and travel partners”, he reckons. “It is a free app that we will release this quarter. It is an aggregator of clean and green travel support, with a major emphasis on health (SAFE Travel per WTTC), green maps (per Ecotrans), and above all on climate with SUNx Malta’s soon-to-be-launched Climate Neutral 2050 Ambitions Registry; to support companies and communities practicing ‘Climate Friendly Travel’.”
Destination development & investment
Some 2,525 tourism-related projects worth IRR 1.3 quadrillion (USD 32 billion) are being implemented across Iran, according to the tourism ministry’s public relations and information centre. Iran is sticking to its strategy of more than quadrupling its annual arrivals of 4.8 million in 2014 to 20 million in 2025.
Andros is the largest island in The Bahamas. And it is the least developed. That fact, combined with the current circumstances make it the new national leader in the industry, according to Peter Douglas of the Andros Tourist Office. “A lot of Bahamian tourism is based on mass tourism, but Andros took a different path. We took a sustainable tourism path and developed the small hotel industry.”
Experiential and cultural tourism will be at the heart of a new plan and campaign for England’s Suffolk and Norfolk counties. The Visitor Economy Recovery Plan and its “Unexplored England” campaign were devised by the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership and Visit East of England. They want the area to become a “Tourism Zone” under a government initiative to boost holiday destinations across the country. VisitEngland director Andrew Stokes said the counties’ engagement is “encouraging”.
The People’s Committee of Dong Thap province, Vietnam says it will focus on developing roads, transportation, accommodation, and packaged tours, during a year-long programme of investment in tourism. Tourism in the Mekong Delta province is “seeing rapid development with households and villages investing billions of đồng” as well.
Communities in British Columbia, Canada affected by challenges brought about by a downturn in the natural resources sectors will receive a one-time CAD 200,000 (USD 150,000) boost thanks to tourism destination development funding. Beneficiaries includes six communities within the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association area.
Tourism in Scotland’s northern islands of Outer Hebrides, Orkney, and Shetland will be one of the beneficiaries of a 10- to 15-year GBP 100 million (USD 127.3 million) Islands Growth Deal. The Scottish and UK governments are investing half each. It is the last of the regional “growth deals”, which together cover the whole of Scotland, including all of its 96 inhabited islands.
Hotel chains are investing in Africa despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Tourism recovery
Nepal’s government on Tuesday announced the end of a four-month-long lockdown so as to “not hamper the upcoming tourist season in autumn”. Good news, although it took the industry a little by surprise!
Thailand’s unlicensed hotels may now join the “We Travel Together” tourism stimulus in which domestic travellers get 40% of their accommodation expenses paid by the government. The looser restrictions apply to “hotels in the process of obtaining a licence, hotels whose licences expired less than a year ago, and small or boutique hotels that do not fit the hotel licence criteria”.
Tourism stakeholders are optimistic in the Philippines. While 88% of the 247 surveyed expect losses of more than 50% in 2020, 63% remain positive that their businesses will be back on track in 2021.
To help local tourism destinations in the Philippines’ Ilocos Norte province, the Ilocos Norte Tourism Office (INTO) is organising a series of “hyperlocal” pop-up activities. INTO’s plans have been emboldened by the “success” of the Ilocos Cordillera Drive Tour in which nearly 100 people joined a drive-in concert and a scenic mountain drive. Ilocos Norte is in the northwest corner of Luzon Island.
Community-based tourism could help revive the economy of Sabah, Malaysia, according to state rural development minister Ewon Benedick who affirmed his support for it.
Community-led tourism
Indonesia’s government appears to be respectfully negotiating mutually-agreed terms and conditions for tourism with the indigenous Baduy tribe in the westernmost Javanese province of Banten.
Researchers at the Cayman Islands Department of Environment believe the COVID crisis is an opportunity to rethink the British Overseas Territory’s approach to development, including tourism. Department boss Gina Ebanks-Petrie said: “This is a tremendous opportunity to rethink the relationship with tourism. The community is calling out for things to be different.”
The dwindling ranks of original residents of Bulinegyed, the touristy party district of Hungary’s capital Budapest, are fighting back. And they have the support of district mayor Peter Niedermuller who reckons the COVID-19 crisis is an opportunity to “find a solution that is acceptable to everyone”.
A community group in the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario, Canada, wants to participate in conversations between tourism stakeholders. Residents for Sustainable Tourism spokesperson Bruce Gitelman said: “We simply want to be supportive of anything that makes sense to prevent in the future overtourism that harms everybody […] to be a part of a process of making Niagara-on-the-Lake a better place.”
The importance of good partnerships
Many commentators would like to see previously overcrowded destinations recover from the COVID-19 depression with a focus on quality rather than quantity. That would be nice, of course, particularly if host communities want that. However, some or many extant tourism stakeholders will likely go out of business should this happen. Don’t let one of those be you. Stay as positive as you can be. And seek out good partnerships with those who make you their priority.
“GT” is a good partner. Please verify that with a Good Partner. And then ask your correspondent about partnership opportunities. There’s something for everyone.
Cultural heritage tourism
After Eid-ul-Azha (about July 31, 2020), the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, will launch the Gandhara Strip, an area home to sites and relics of the Gandhara Civilization. The initiative will offer a seven-day tour of 22 heritage and archaeological sites.
India’s tourism ministry is pitching the country as “the land of Buddha” in a bid to attract visitors from China and Buddhist-majority nations; “part of India’s bid to leverage its soft power in the neighbourhood”.
A new GBP 4 million (USD 5.1 million) Museums Resilience & Recovery Fund will help Scotland’s museums and galleries make it through the COVID-19 crisis.
Wildlife tourism
Concerned by increased illegal wild animal hunting, the Andhra Pradesh state forest department in India is redeploying ecotourism centre staff in forest patrols. The 400 people involved are from tribal villages inside the forests.
The Great Barrier Reef Foundation is seeking local “Reef champions” to deliver AUD 2.4 million (USD 1.7 million) of Reef-saving projects. The initiative is to help the Whitsunday Islands off the coast of Queensland, Australia, “become the next climate change refuge through the Foundation’s AUD 14 million [USD 10 million] Reef Islands Initiative”.
As part of its support package for tourism, the Queensland state government will waive the annual commercial whale watching fee. This will help 18 operators save AUD 6,045 (USD 4,313) each.
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Getting around green
The UK government and aerospace industry plan to invest GBP 400 million (USD 505 million) in new research & development projects to propel the growth of green aviation.
More importantly, perhaps, the chief technology officers of key stakeholders on the UK’s Jet Zero Council are confident that their 2050 net-zero target can be hit. CTO of engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce, Paul Stein, reckons the supply of 100% sustainable aviation fuel will increase to meet demand at a price point that will make net-zero long-haul flights possible. For shorter routes, electric, hybrid-electric, and hydrogen drive trains will not only become viable but will also scale up to larger aircraft.
Case in support of Mr Stein’s latter point: Electric Aviation Group has unveiled a new hybrid-electric aircraft design which is hoped will carry more than 70 passengers nearly 1,500 kilometres. The Bristol, UK-based outfit claims operators will be able to switch the plane to all-electric as battery technology improves or to carbon-neutral alternative fuels and other powertrain technologies as they become affordable.
Meanwhile, in the UK capital, mayor Sadiq Khan and Transport for London want all of the London Underground’s electricity use to be zero-carbon by 2030.
Friends indeed
As international travel bans lengthen, belts tighten further in places previously reliant on foreign tourism … Here are fundraisers worth considering because “GT” Friends & Partners are involved. (This content has appeared in “Good news in tourism” before, so enjoy it again or scroll down to the next subheading to skip.)
Khiri Reach, the charitable arm of “GT” Partner Khiri Travel, has set up a fund to support freelance tour guides. Khiri Reach boss Nia Klatte said: “We want to support a group of people who are among the very hardest hit by the current crisis: our freelance guides. Unfortunately, in Southeast Asia, the government safety nets are extremely minimal if they exist at all for freelancers. And while some domestic tourism is coming back, it will take months or years for tourism activities to return to ‘normal’.”
“GT” Insight Partner Second Look Worldwide is endorsing a fundraiser organised by “GT” Friend James Nadiope, who said: “Since Uganda went into quarantine with total lockdown followed by curfew, many families where we work go empty stomach with no food to eat. I would like to appeal to all well-wishers for financial donations to help these vulnerable families.” [Callback: In January, Mr Nadiope wrote about “How bees, trees, & tourism reduce human-wildlife conflict in Uganda”.]
Many Asian elephants and their mahouts in Thailand and elsewhere are in deep trouble. That’s why Hollis Burbank-Hammarlund, founder & director of “GT” Insight Partner Work for Wild Life International, would ask that you contribute to the Elephant Healthcare Emergency Lifeline Fund, which helps keep veterinarians on the job delivering essential emergency veterinary care to elephants that need it most … when they need it most.
Forest patrols by Wildlife Alliance rangers in Botum Sakor National Park in southwest Cambodia may have to be suspended. The rangers’ equipment, food and wages are provided in entirety by the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation (GTAEF) and Cardamom Tented Camp both of which depend on tourism. And there is no tourism. An emergency fundraising page is live. [“GT” Friends Willem Niemeijer and John Roberts are associated with the fundraiser via Cardamom and GTAEF respectively.]
Not a fundraiser as such, but a great idea for accommodation providers: “GT” Friend Rachel Sherwood is organising well-deserved holidays for healthcare workers at the front lines of the COVID-19 fight. Operation Recuperation is collecting pledges from accommodation providers and second home owners from all over the world.
Odds & ends
Bits ‘n pieces that don’t easily fit into this week’s arbitrary clusters:
Iran and Tunisia have signed a MOU to expand tourism ties.
Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism in coordination with the Department of Health has launched a new website on medical tourism, the first of its kind in Vietnam.
Stay healthy, smile, have a good week … And when you can travel again, remember:
It’s not ‘no’. It’s ‘know’.
Gotta go? Then go!
If you’ve time, go slow
If you don’t, try low
Do what you know is good
And know there is more to know
Featured image (top of post): Flora and fauna of Andros, The Bahamas. By Matt MacGillivray (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr.
Donations, diversity, disclaimers
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Disclaimer 1: It is “GT’s” policy to fully disclose partner/sponsor content. If an item is not disclosed as partner or sponsor-related then it will have caught “GT’s” attention by some other more organic means. Partner with “GT”. You know you want to.
Disclaimer 2: None of the stories linked from this week’s post have been fact-checked by “GT”. All terminology used here is as the linked sources used it according to the knowledge and assumptions they have about it. Please comment below if you know there has been buzzword-washing or blatant nonsense relayed here, but be nice about it as the linked sources might get offended. (“GT” won’t.) And as for “GT” bringing it to your attention so that you might be the one to set the record straight, you are welcome! 🙂
