IIPT India Announces the Winners of the 4th Celebrating Her awards at ITB Berlin
For the fourth consecutive year ITB Berlin will play host to the International Institute for Peace – India’s (IIPT India) Global Awards for Empowered Women in Tourism – “Celebrating Her.”
The IIPTI Global Awards, “Celebrating Her” are intended to acknowledge and felicitate exceptional women in the fields of travel, tourism and hospitality; individuals with a clarity of vision and mission who understand and believe that tourism, perhaps the biggest industry in the world, could become the first global peace industry and who have committed themselves to fostering the tourism business as a vehicle for peace.
Five exceptional women from the world of tourism will be felicitated at the 4th edition of the Awards for their achievements and for their contribution to promoting tourism as a vehicle for peace and understanding.
The Awards will be held from 1400 to 1500 at the Palais am Funkturm (Hall 19) on the ITB fairgrounds on Thu 07 March and will be followed by a networking reception from 1500 to 1530.
Key speakers at the awards include Dr. Taleb Rifai, former Secretary General of UNWTO (2010 – 2017), H.E. Eliza Reid, First Lady of Iceland, The Hon. Marie-Christine Stephenson, Minister of Tourism and Creative Industries, Haiti and others.
The Celebrating Her award winners for 2019 are:
H.E. Rania al Mashat – Minister of Tourism for Egypt for Tourism Policy and Leadership
Helen Marano – Founder & President, Maranao Perspectives for Building Global Alliances that promote Tourism as a Force for Good
Mechtild Maurer – General Director, ECPAT Germany for promoting Socially Responsible Tourism
Jane Madden – Managing Partner, Global Sustainability & Social Impact, FINN Partners for Sustainability and promoting Corporate Social Responsibility
Hon. Elena Kountoura – Minister of Tourism for Greece for Tourism Strategy and Resilience
Commenting on the Awards, Ajay Prakash, President of IIPT India says, “Each one of our winners this year is a champion; these ladies have reached the top of their chosen paths in tourism and are an inspiration. The Awards are being held on the eve of International Women’s Day but our champions need to be felicitated every day of the year.
Gender equality, which is a critical part of the United Nations SDGs, is intrinsic to IIPT’s global aims and objectives and integral to fostering peace. Through the Awards we’re aiming to create a network of powerful women across the world who would serve as role models and mentors while they represent IIPT as our Global Ambassadors of Peace.”
Dr. Talib Rifai, former Secretary General of UNWTOP and Chair of IIPT’s International Advisory Board says, “Celebrating Her is a timely initiative. Travel and tourism has become today’s grand human activity, greatly affecting the life and livelihood of people and communities and in turn, Peace and Sustainable Development all over the world.
Leaders in travel and tourism should be the first to recognize that we cannot any more go about life, progress, development and building peace without HER and without reintegrating half of the human community in advancing towards our goals. It is, therefore, only natural that IIPT India, the country that is standing up bravely to achieving our goals, picks up the issue on behalf of all of us – To state clearly that, CELEBRATING HER IS CELEBRATING US”
Rika Jean-Francois, CSR Commissioner for ITB Berlin – co presenters of the Awards, said “ ITB is extremely delighted to have partnered with IIPT India to give out these important awards. There are so many amazing women in the tourism industry who are doing an excellent job, committed to improve conditions, who are often never seen, never officially recognized. We are proud to foster change.”
5th UNWTO World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism in San Sebastián: Job Creation, Entrepreneurship and Development
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Basque Culinary Center (BCC) are co-organizing the 5th UNWTO World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism, on 2-3 May 2019 in San Sebastián, Spain. The Forum is supported by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism of Spain, the Basque Government, the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the City Council of San Sebastián, a city that has hosted the Forum every other year since its first edition, in 2015.
The main content and objectives of the Forum were presented at a press conference at the UNWTO headquarters, presided by UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, Spain’s Secretary of State for Tourism, Isabel Oliver, and the Director of the Basque Culinary Center (BCC), Joxe Mari Aizega. They were accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Tourism and Trade of the Basque Government, Isabel Muela, the Deputy for Culture, Tourism, Youth and Sports of Gipuzkoa, Denis Itxaso, and the First Vice-Mayor of the City of San Sebastián, Ernesto Gasco, representing the key partners for the holding of this international event.
Through the World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism, the UNWTO and the Basque Culinary Center aim to promote the exchange of experiences among tourism and gastronomy experts, and identify good practices. The objective is to promote gastronomy tourism as a factor for the sustainable development of countries, by virtue of its close links with local products and culture. Consequently, it is a driver of professional training, job creation, and community development. This focus is the reason behind the partnership between UNWTO and the Basque Culinary Center.
Thus, the 5th Forum will analyse the skills and knowledge that gastronomy tourism will require in the future and highlight gastronomy as one of the main motivations for travel. In addition, the event aims to identify favourable frameworks that promote entrepreneurship and the creation of ecosystems that, in turn, stimulate connections among emerging companies throughout the gastronomy tourism value chain. The Forum will also address the potential of gastronomy tourism to promote better inclusion of disadvantaged groups and raise the quality of work environments. It will address some of the main challenges facing the sector, such as the gender wage gap, the employment of persons with disabilities, youth unemployment and the problem of seasonality, among others.
Entrepreneurship and sustainable development
The Forum will serve as the setting for the announcement of the winning startup of the 1st Global Gastronomy Tourism Startup Competition, launched with the support of Promperu. To date, the competition has attracted gastronomy tourism startups from 65 countries around the world, united by their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals. The deadline for the submission of entries is 5 March 2019.
The winning startup will be invited to take part in the Culinary Action accelerator programme during the second semester of 2019, where it will benefit from the mentoring and advice of the network of experts of BCC Innovation, a workspace in LABe’s Digital Gastronomy Lab project incubator, and a grant of up to 5,000 euros to cover the cost of accommodation and travel during this period.
The five finalist startups will be announced on 1 April and will be invited to present their projects to the sector’s investors during the Forum, as well as at the Ibero-American Gastronomy Fair (Miami, USA, 9-11 May 2019).
Nepal Tourism Minister Rabindra Adhikari among dead: What happened?
The Government of Nepal issued a statement on the crash of an Air Dynasty helicopter that killed Nepal Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Rabindra Adhikari today together with 6 more, including the owner of Air Dynasty.
The helicopter went to Chuhandanda in Tehrathum district during beautiful weather. The minister and his team were to inspect a site for a new airport project followed by a stop at Parthivara temple, Taplejung, Nepal. The helicopter got caught in bad weather on its return to Kathmandu.:
The government statement was released to Nepal media and reads:
“An Air Dynasty Heli Services Pvt. Ltd’s AS 350 Helicopter crashed in Pathivara ( North Eastern Nepal) at 1330 hrs (NST), Wednesday, February 27.
As per the information received, there were 6 passengers and 01 Captain ( all Nepali Citizen) on board. The rescue and search team of Nepal Army and Police have been activated. ”
Further government statements assume all passengers and the pilot died in the crash.
The minister was supposed to leave for Berchtesgaden, Germany to attend the 4th UNWTO Euro-Asian Mountain Tourism Conference on March 2.
After March 2 the minister was scheduled to attend ITB Berlin, the largest travel industry trade show in the world. He was to launch the Nepal 2020 year at a VIP dinner in Berlin on March 7 and organized by eTN Corporation, owner of this publication.
Rabindra Prasad Adhikari was born on May 5, 1969. He was a member of the Nepal Communist Party and the current Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation as of Mach 16, 2018. He was the Kaski District secretary of the party.[In the 2008 Constituent Assembly election, Adhikari was elected from the Kaski-3 constituency, with 13,386 votes. In the 2013 Constituent Assembly election, he was re-elected from the Kaski-3 constituency, with 15456 votes. Since 2013 he was Central Committee member of CPN UML and was President of Development Committee of Legislative Parliament of Nepal. He was also author of the book (Constituent Assembly, Democracy and Re-structuring) and (Samriddha Nepal).
He was elected as Member of Parliament from the election held on 26 November 2017.
Air Dynasty Heli service Pvt Ltd. was established in 1993. Air dynasty’s fleet includes 5 Ecureuil As350 Series Helicopters. Air dynasty is the oldest among a few operators of light helicopters and the operators of Ecureuil helicopters in private aviation in Nepal.
These helicopters are certified to fly up to 23000 ft. AMSL. Each aircraft can normally accommodate 5 adult passengers subjective of altitude and temperature at the landing site. Expert key professionals managing and operating at air dynasty have extensive experience of managing aviation operation in national and international civil aviation.
Travel & Tourism continues strong growth above global GDP
The global Travel & Tourism sector grew at 3.9% to contribute a record $8.8 trillion and 319 million jobs to the world economy in 2018. For the eighth consecutive year, this was above the growth rate of world GDP.
This is according to the World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) annual research into the economic impact and social importance of the sector. The research conducted over the last 25 years by WTTC, which represents the global private sector of Travel & Tourism, shows that Travel & Tourism in 2018:
- Contributed $8.8 trillion to the global economy
- Grew faster than the global economy for the eighth successive year (3.9% for Travel & Tourism versus 3.2% for global GDP)
- Generated 10.4% of all global economic activity
- Contributed 319 million jobs, representing one in ten of all jobs globally
- Is responsible for one in five of all new jobs created in the world over the last five years
- Is the second-fastest growing sector in the world, ahead of Healthcare (+3.1%); Information Technology (+1.7%) and Financial Services (+1.7%) behind only Manufacturing, which grew by 4%
- Increased its share of leisure spending to 78.5% (from 77.5% in 2017) meaning 21.5% (22.5% in 2017) of spending was on business
- Increased its share of spending from international tourists 28.8%, up from 27.3% in 2017. This means that 71.2% of spending comes from domestic tourists.
Gloria Guevara, WTTC President & CEO, said: “2018 was another year of strong growth for the global Travel & Tourism sector reinforcing its role as a driver of economic growth and job creation. For the eighth consecutive year, our sector outpaced growth in the wider global economy and we recorded the second-highest growth of any major sector in the world.
“In 2018, Travel & Tourism generated $8.8 trillion and supported 319 million jobs across the world. Yet again, this proves the power of Travel & Tourism as a tool for governments to generate prosperity while creating jobs which particularly support women, youth and other, often marginalised groups of society. In fact, Travel & Tourism now accounts for one in five of all new jobs created worldwide and is forecast to contribute 100 million new jobs globally over the next ten years, accounting for 421 million jobs by 2029.”
US travel sector retains #1 status and grows despite trade tensions
The United States retained its status as the world’s largest Travel & Tourism economy despite a standstill in international visitors from China, according to major new research released today by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
The research shows that the United States remained the biggest Travel & Tourism market in the world in 2018 with the sector contributing almost $1.6tn to GDP. This translates to 7.8% of US GDP with the sector growing by 2.2% (accounting for inflation) last year.
After registering average annual growth of 23% over the previous decade, Chinese travel to the US was flat last year partly due to trade tensions between the two countries.
International visitors from China account for 4% of total US visitors but 11% of all spending, demonstrating their economic importance to the country.
WTTC President & CEO, Gloria Guevara, said: “The US continues to be the largest travel economy in the world registering growth of 2.2% last year. However, after recording ten years of stellar growth, international visitor numbers from China were flat year on year, caused in part by the deteriorating trade relations between the two countries. Given the economic importance of Chinese visitors, any thawing in the trade relations between the two countries would have a positive effect for the wider US economy.”
For over 25 years, WTTC, which represents the global private sector of Travel & Tourism, has produced the authoritative research on the economic contribution of the sector across 185 countries and the impact of employment.
This year’s analysis for the United States shows that the direct, indirect, and induced impact of Travel & Tourism accounted for:
- $1,595 billion, 7.8% of United States GDP (2.2% real annual increase)
- 15.6 million jobs
- $198.8 billion in spending by international visitors (0.9% annual decrease)
Guevara continued: “Travel & Tourism, has been a consistent driver of employment in the United States. The sector creates jobs, drives exports and generates prosperity. Its continued resilience and our projections for growth serve to highlight the importance of the industry to the US economy. The US is the biggest travel market in the world, the sector is integral to the country’s broader economic performance and must be prioritised.”
To strengthen the US travel sector and ensure it remains both robust and competitive, WTTC recommends that US policymakers focus on:
- Preserving Brand USA: We support the renewal of Brand USA this year—a program with broad bipartisan support—beyond its current 2020 authorisation to continue marketing the US as a premier global Travel & Tourism destination.
- Expanding, rebranding the US Visa Waiver Program: With its bilateral security and travel facilitation benefits, we support the rebranding of the VWP as the “Secure Travel Partnership Program” and its expansion beyond the current 38 participating nations to other qualified countries.
- Modernising US airport and other infrastructure: WTTC recognises the importance of world-class Travel & Tourism infrastructure – particularly airports.
- Biometric passenger identification: WTTC recognises and supports the biometric passenger identification and processing initiative, an area where the US is leading the world. The work being undertaken by US Customs and Border Protection for the roll-out of a seamless traveller experience is helping us to transform the passenger experience, enhance security and create jobs.