Good news in tourism June 7 – 13, 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 …”:

• Reopen­ings
• Mar­kets & messages
• Eco­tour­ism & the great outdoors
• Avi­ation
• Odds & ends

It’s “Good Tour­ism”. And go!

Reopenings

Jamaica will reopen its bor­ders to inter­na­tion­al travel on June 15. Tour­ism min­is­ter Edmund C Bart­lett reck­ons those who come will be “Gen‑C trav­el­lers” defined by their health and safety con­cerns: “Tour­ism and hos­pit­al­ity com­pan­ies will need to demon­strate their com­mit­ment to imple­ment­ing new stand­ards, as the Gen‑C trav­el­ler will be look­ing for these reas­sur­ances around health and safety when book­ing travel to domest­ic and inter­na­tion­al des­tin­a­tions. It’s a brand new way of thinking.”

“100% pure.” Life in New Zea­l­and has returned to nor­mal in all respects, except inter­na­tion­al travel, after the patient with the last known case of COVID-19 fully recovered June 8 (and hav­ing not iden­ti­fied a new case for more than two weeks). At “alert level 1”, Kiwis can resume nor­mal busi­ness, domest­ic travel, and social inter­ac­tions, includ­ing hug­ging and shak­ing hands. How­ever, bor­ders remain closed to all but return­ing cit­izens and res­id­ents who are required to com­plete a 14-day quar­ant­ine upon arrival. 

Aus­tralia is not far behind NZ in terms of the bug. Only the most pop­u­lous states — New South Wales and Vic­tor­ia — have recor­ded cases of com­munity trans­mis­sion in recent days. Except for travel between those two states (and the Aus­trali­an Cap­it­al Ter­rit­ory), inter­state travel restric­tions largely remain in place as states and ter­rit­or­ies that have not seen com­munity trans­mis­sion for weeks wish to keep it that way. Life with­in those jur­is­dic­tions is gradu­ally return­ing to nor­mal as restric­tions are eased.

Iran has recor­ded more than two mil­lion overnight stays since the begin­ning of June after restric­tions on domest­ic tour­ism were lif­ted. This is a bet­ter res­ult than Ali Asghar Moun­esa, min­is­ter of tour­ism (and oth­er port­fo­li­os), expec­ted. He hopes for­eign inbound travel will be per­mit­ted in July.

Canada’s cap­it­al Ott­awa and oth­er parts of Ontario province advanced to “Stage Two of Ontario’s eco­nom­ic reopen­ing plan” on Fri­day. The lim­it on gath­er­ings will increase from five to 10 people province-wide. Phys­ic­al dis­tan­cing remains a thing through­out. Ontario’s min­is­ter of tour­ism (and oth­er port­fo­li­os) Lisa MacLeod hopes res­id­ents will choose to stay close to home when plan­ning travel.

Ken­tucky, USA has taken a phased approach to reopen­ing tour­ism with­in the state. By the end of June, events of up to 50 people will be per­mit­ted. As he reopened a his­tory centre on June 8, gov­ernor Andy Bes­hear said: “Ken­tucky tour­ism serves a vital role in sus­tain­ing loc­al com­munit­ies and small busi­nesses.” 

State gov­ernor Janet Mills of Maine, USA said accom­mod­a­tion pro­viders can, from June 26, begin serving inter­state vis­it­ors who meet either the 14-day quar­ant­ine require­ment or the state’s “new test­ing alternative”.

Markets & messages

Switzer­land Tour­ism is ask­ing res­id­ents to choose ‘stayc­a­tions’ over for­eign travel through two cam­paigns: ‘We need Switzer­land’ focuses on the diversity of the land­scape; ‘Clean and Safe’ emphas­ises the country’s repu­ta­tion for being that. Fur­ther­more there is fierce com­pet­i­tion for the domest­ic tour­ism franc among cit­ies and can­tons.

Should the cab­in­et approve the THB 20 bil­lion (USD 650 mil­lion) pack­age next week, Thai­l­and’s gov­ern­ment will sub­sid­ise domest­ic tour­ism spend­ing next month; 40% of up to THB 3,000 (USD 97) per per­son for air­line tick­ets and hotel bookings. 

Egypt is pack­aging togeth­er incent­ives to stim­u­late for­eign tour­ism arrivals once they are per­mit­ted by the cab­in­et. The civil avi­ation min­istry has gran­ted a 50% dis­count on land­ing and park­ing fees and a 20% dis­count on ground ser­vices to air­lines. The tour­ism & antiquit­ies min­istry is offer­ing 20% off tick­ets for all museums and archae­olo­gic­al sites. And the min­istry of pet­ro­leum in May agreed to reduce avi­ation fuel prices.

Aggress­ive giveaways in the UAE. In a bid to encour­age book­ings of three nights or more at par­ti­cip­at­ing hotels, the Ras Al Khaimah Tour­ism Devel­op­ment Author­ity is giv­ing away rides on “the world’s longest zip line” and tick­ets to oth­er attrac­tions. And chil­dren get to stay and eat for free. There’s also a weekly chance to win a lux­ury car.

As vis­it­ors return to White­fish, Montana, USA, the City and CVB want them to “wander lightly”; stay “clean, care­ful, and con­nec­ted”; and have a backup plan should there be clos­ures or crowds.

Are you a Good Partner? Special deal

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Ecotourism & the great outdoors

Three years after Kenya’s nation­wide ban on single-use plastic bags, vis­it­ors to the coun­try’s nation­al parks, forests, beaches, and con­ser­va­tion areas who carry single-use plastics of any form — bags, bottles, plates, cups, cut­lery, straws — can now be arres­ted and pro­sec­uted. The pen­alty is a fine of KES 2 mil­lion (USD 18, 800) to KES 3 mil­lion (USD 28,200) or a jail term of up to three years.

The cent­ral Asi­an nation of Kaza­kh­stan has adop­ted the US mod­el for the devel­op­ment of eco­tour­ism in its 13 nation­al parks, accord­ing to Mag­zum Mirz­a­gali­yev, the min­is­ter for eco­logy, geo­logy, & nat­ur­al resources.

Phil­ip­pines’ Depart­ment of Tour­ism in Dav­ao is sup­port­ing agri­t­our­ism and eco­tour­ism to help the tour­ism industry recov­er from coronavir­us. PDOT is offer­ing train­ing to stake­hold­ers in the top­ics of car­ry­ing capa­city, site man­age­ment, and vis­it­or man­age­ment as well as digit­al mar­ket­ing, vir­tu­al tours, sales, and pro­mo­tions. On agri­t­our­ism, Dav­ao region­al dir­ect­or Tan­ya Rabat-Tan said: “Based on what happened, we all real­ised that food secur­ity is import­ant […] we can integ­rate the tour­ism side of that.” Dav­ao de Oro pro­vin­cial tour­ism officer Christine Dom­por said: “One of our ini­ti­at­ives is link­ing our farm­ers to tour­ism […] It is part of the sus­tain­ab­il­ity plan.”

A “key com­pon­ent of pub­lic health” dur­ing the pan­dem­ic has been the great out­doors, accord­ing to Lee Hart of the Alaska Out­door Alli­ance, USA. In an op ed Hart asks: “What if our greatest asset as a state, Alaska’s out­doors, could be part of build­ing a strong, diver­si­fied eco­nom­ic future that sup­ports our com­munit­ies, pro­motes a healthy envir­on­ment, and provides a healthy found­a­tion for well-paid jobs and resi­li­ent businesses.”

A team of aca­dem­ics and offi­cials vis­ited the Don­grim-Man­dur area of Goa, India to invest­ig­ate the poten­tial for eco­tour­ism, includ­ing cro­codile- and bird-watch­ing. Vil­lage res­id­ent Mahendra Shirodkar said paddy cul­tiv­a­tion in the area had almost dis­con­tin­ued: “We are look­ing at altern­at­ive ways in which the youth of the vil­lage can gen­er­ate sus­tain­able income through eco-tourism.”

Chief Wild­life Warden Rajiv Bhar­tari of Uttarakhand state in India has con­sen­ted to the open­ing of the Corbett and the Rajaji tiger reserves “for eco­tour­ism activ­it­ies”, sub­ject to a strict adher­ence to health and safety guidelines. How­ever, the reserves will be open only a few days as they close every year on June 15 for monsoon!

Reopen­ing on June 15 with ‘safety first’ in mind are the Lok Kawi Wild­life Park, the Sepilok Oran­gutan Rehab­il­it­a­tion Centre, and the Bornean Sun Bear Con­ser­va­tion Centre, all of which are in Sabah state, Malay­sia. Sabah Wild­life Depart­ment dir­ect­or Augustine Tuuga said the centres would adhere to gov­ern­ment-man­dated SOPs.

Friends indeed

As lock­downs lengthen, more tins rattle … Here are fun­draisers well worth con­sid­er­ing due to the involve­ment of “GT” Friends. (This con­tent has appeared in “Good news in tour­ism” before so enjoy it again … or scroll down to the next sub­head­ing to skip.)

“GT” Insight Part­ner Second Look World­wide is endors­ing a worthy 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 con­trib­uted a “GT” Insight into “How bees, trees, & tour­ism reduce human-wild­life con­flict in Uganda”.]

The tem­por­ary clos­ure of Car­damom Ten­ted Camp due to the COVID-19 shut­down has meant that 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 both of which depend on tour­ism. And there is no tour­ism. An emer­gency fun­drais­ing page to keep rangers employed and adequately sup­plied is live … and worthy. [“GT” Friends Willem Niemeijer and John Roberts are asso­ci­ated with the fun­draiser via Car­damom and GTAEF respectively.]

The expres­sion “an ele­phant in the room” means an uncom­fort­able truth we can­not ignore. With tour­ism cash flows stemmed, many Asi­an ele­phants and their mahouts in Thai­l­and and else­where are in deep trouble. “GT” Friend Hol­lis Burb­ank-Ham­marlund of Work for Wild Life Inter­na­tion­al wrote about why that’s the case and how we can help.

Not a fun­draiser as such, but an idea for accom­mod­a­tion pro­viders: “GT” Friend Rachel Sher­wood, a travel blog­ger from Oxford­shire in Eng­land, is organ­ising well-deserved hol­i­days for health­care work­ers at the front lines of the coronavir­us COVID-19 fight. Oper­a­tion Recu­per­a­tion is col­lect­ing pledges from accom­mod­a­tion pro­viders and second home own­ers from all over the world. “GT” invited Ms Sher­wood to write about “Oper­a­tion Recu­per­a­tion” and how hotels and resorts might get involved.

Aviation

UK gov­ern­ment min­is­ters have cre­ated a “jet zero coun­cil”. Trans­port sec­ret­ary Grant Shapps said that the body would include avi­ation lead­ers, envir­on­ment­al groups, and gov­ern­ment offi­cials to cre­ate “zero-car­bon air­lines”. The gov­ern­ment is back­ing a sus­tain­able avi­ation fuel developer and will con­trib­ute GBP 500,000 (USD 626,000) to build a bio­fuel plant for avi­ation and road freight. Air­lines UK wel­comes the news.

On June 10, the European Avi­ation Safety Agency (EASA) awar­ded the first type cer­ti­fic­a­tion (for air­wor­thi­ness) to an elec­tric air­craft: the two-seat Vel­is Elec­tro by Pip­istrel Air­craft of Slov­e­nia. The Vel­is Elec­tro is designed to be a train­er air­craft. Pip­istrel plans to deliv­er 31 to cus­tom­ers in sev­en coun­tries in 2020.

South Korea’s min­istry of land, infra­struc­ture, and trans­port is shoot­ing to have at least some com­mer­cial urb­an air mobil­ity (UAM) ser­vices oper­at­ing by 2025. Start­ing with one or two routes in the met­ro­pol­it­an area of the cap­it­al Seoul, South Korea hopes UAM will help reduce traffic con­ges­tion in major cities.

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Odds & ends

Good news bits ‘n pieces that don’t eas­ily fit into this week’s arbit­rary clusters:

The rep­res­ent­at­ive in Greece of Cruise Liners Inter­na­tion­al Asso­ci­ation (CLIA) reck­ons Greek cruise des­tin­a­tions could fol­low the example of Dubrovnik, Croa­tia and have the Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil (GSTC) con­duct a sus­tain­ab­il­ity assess­ment.

The Ghana Tour­ism Fed­er­a­tion reck­ons the private sec­tor should spear­head the devel­op­ment and main­ten­ance of tour­ism infra­struc­ture. Mean­while, the gov­ern­ment has secured a USD 9 mil­lion World Bank facil­ity for tour­ism sites and build­ing SME capacity.

The land­locked region his­tor­ic­ally known as Slavo­nia has been largely over­looked by trav­el­lers to Croa­tia. This may change with the launch of a new digit­al plat­form Slavonia.travel and its three key mes­sages: Osjeti, okusi, upoznaj (Feel, taste, meet). The Slavo­nia region very roughly cor­res­ponds to five counties — Brod-Posav­ina, Osijek-Baranja, Požega-Slavo­nia, Virovit­ica-Podrav­ina and Vuko­var-Srijem — whose tour­ism boards are cooper­at­ing on the project.

The “tour­ist-depend­ent com­munity” of Lake George in New York state, USA, has plans to reduce green­house gas emis­sions from muni­cip­al oper­a­tions by 80% over the next 30 years, includ­ing a plan to devel­op a 10-acre (4‑ha) com­munity sol­ar farm.

The Eurobodalla Shire Coun­cil in New South Wales, Aus­tralia, has approved plans for the new Narooma Arts & Com­munity Centre. Narooma School of Arts pres­id­ent Jenni Bourke said the build­ing will be a “vital arts and cul­tur­al hub” that would “strengthen our com­munity [and] stim­u­late our eco­nomy through cul­tur­al tour­ism”.

Stay healthy, smile, and have a good week!

Fea­tured image (top of post): Just hanging around at Sepilok Oran­gutan Rehab­il­it­a­tion Centre, Sabah, Malay­sia. By Rob & Stephanie Levy (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr. “GT” cropped it.

Donations, diversity, disclaimers

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You are a tour­ism stake­hold­er — yes, YOU! — so what’s your view? Do you dis­agree with any­thing you have read on “GT”? Join the con­ver­sa­tion. Com­ment below or share your “Good Tour­ism” Insights. Diversity of thought is wel­come on The “Good Tour­ism” Blog. And you will be sup­port­ing an inde­pend­ent pub­lish­er with your ori­gin­al content.

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! 🙂