[ tourism to-be ]

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched an online ‘Green Passport’ campaign to raise tourists’ awareness of their ability to contribute to sustainable development by making responsible holiday choices.The new campaign, launched at the Berlin Tourism Fair, is aimed at shrinking the environmental footprint of vacation travellers, according to UNEP.

Among many tips on the Green Passport website, the campaign encourages tourists to choose responsible service providers, reduce the consumption of energy in transit or in hotels and buy locally made, environmentally-friendly souvenirs.

The website, developed in English, Portuguese and French, together with additional communication tools, is available for dissemination among other partners in the tourism community, UNEP stated.

“Packing a Green Passport along with airline tickets, the swimming costume and the sun lotion means tourists no longer need to leave their green credentials at home but can make them part of the holiday of a lifetime,” UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said.

Stressing that tourism had great potential for development, he noted that by 2020 the number of international arrivals by air and by sea could reach 1.6 billion annually.

He further added that as tourist numbers grow, so will their demands for energy, water and natural resources to support their holidays.

Pointing that the challenge is to manage this growth sustainably, Steiner said that governments have a key role to play, but so too do individuals and families when planning and going on holiday.

The French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning, and the Brazilian Ministries of Environment and Tourism co-sponsored the campaign launch, UNEP stated.

The euro breaks a new record and the American professionals of tourism are smiling, hoping that the weakness of the dollar will encourage more visits to the United States.

Four days of unrestrained shopping in New York for less than 800 euros? It is possible!  Flight, overnightsnight stays and excursion in a shopping mall included. It is also possible to find nights in a hotel hotel in Las Vegas starting from 14 euros per anybody and of the circuits in Florida starting from 300 euros.

For this reason United States are for the moment a real success. And the European tourists are all welcome as the economy of the country is far from to be good. Moreover, they supply their strongcurrency and they spend more regardless of costs than the American tourists.

However, in the United States, the profession it is not so optimistic because the number of visitors of the other side of the Atlantic still did not find its level of before the attacks of September 11.

posted by nicolas nys for tourismtobe

UNO has announced today that it will ask to the world professionals of tourism to help the tourist sector in Kenya, struck hard by three months of politico-ethnic crisis.

They will organize (in Berlin) contacts and actions of communication (…) in order to start again the confidence of the large actors of world tourism.

Berlin welcomes on March 5 one of the most important tourism show in the world, which joins together tourist agencies and tour operators from 180 countries and attracts tens of thousands of visitors.

posted by nicolas nys for tourismtobe

An English, father of three young children, was arrested in the airport of Dubai because the customs found a small piece of marijuana (0,003 gram) under one of its tread. The man was condemned to four years of prison in Dubai.

posted by nicolas nys for tourismtobe