World Travel & Tourism News

[XxRyoChanxX]

^ yup very true.
but now they're starting to take notice, and actually doing something about it.

[pedang]

uly 27, 2007 13:12 PM

Malaysia Wins Four Pata Gold Awards

BANGKOK, July 27 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has won four awards in the prestigious Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata) Gold Awards this year.

Tourism Malaysia clinched three of the awards, winning the "Marketing media-Broadcast Media" (Malaysia Truly Asia global TV commercial), "Marketing Media-Print Media" (Malaysia Truly Asia media campaign) and "Marketing Media-Website" (www.malaysia.travel) categories.

AsiaReach Events won in the "Marketing Campaign-Industry" category with "The Malaysia International Gourmet Festival 2006."

This year's winners in 28 categories were chosen from an unprecedented 339 entries from 132 organisations worldwide by the Bangkok-based Pata.

According to Pata, cultural heritage and environmental tourism were the dominant themes of the winning entries in this year's Gold Awards.

The four best-of-show Grand Awards went to the Indian Ministry of Tourism in the Marketing category, the Macau Tourist Office (MGTO) for Heritage, Six Senses Resorts & Spas of Thailand for the Environment, and Jetwing Hotels of Sri Lanka for Education & Training.

The winners will be honoured at a special luncheon during the Pata Travel Mart 2007 in Bali on Sept 28.

-- BERNAMA

[hkskyline]

Eco-tourists take to village life in India's 'Little Tibet'

RUMBUK, India, Aug 1, 2007 (AFP) - Answering the call of nature over a pit of manure with no flush water in sight and learning how to churn butter may not be everyone's idea of a great holiday.

But in India's "Little Tibet", the remote Himalayan region of Ladakh, a pioneering scheme to offer tourists the authentic tastes of mountain life is taking off -- and could hold the key to preserving a fragile ecosystem.

"Himalayan Homestays," as the programme is called, started out as one environmental group's way of protecting the endangered snow leopard, which roams the high-altitude plateau and towering peaks on the border with China.

In the past, villagers here hunted the predator that each year bit into their earnings by killing 13 percent of their livestock -- sheep, goats, yaks and dzos, a cow-yak hybrid.

"We wanted to do something that would serve as an incentive for the villagers not to kill the snow leopard," explained Rinchen Wangchuck, the head of the non-profit Snow Leopard Conservancy.

Now, residents have a new source of income.

Wangchuck says his group helped villagers transform their wish to operate run-of-the-mill guesthouses into a niche tourism concept that would boost their income and protect the delicate environmental balance in the rural areas.

Five years on, the homestay programme -- which allows trekkers to sleep and eat with families in the Hemis National Park or Sham and Zanskar mountains -- is catching on as a local model for eco-tourism.

About 15 villages with 65 households are involved, charging couples 700 rupees (17 dollars) a night for their stay. All but 50 rupees go straight to the family.

-- Alternative sanitation --

For 35-year-old Swedish tourist Melinda Kinnaman, her stay at Padma Dolma's home in the tiny Ladakhi village of Rumbuk gave her a true break from her work back home as an actress -- a taste of a simpler, old-fashioned life.

"This morning the grandfather was churning the butter and I've never seen that before," Kinnaman said as she sat next to a window in Dolma's house looking out at snow-capped peaks and bright green fields of barley.

The home -- a three-floor flat-roofed earthen house with carved wooden window frames -- appeared, like its neighbours, to blend seamlessly into the surrounding mountains of the Stok range.

There's little in the way of technology -- a tape recorder sits in one corner of the room while government-distributed solar panels power a few bulbs after dark.

"In Sweden, it would be much more modern and mechanised," said Kinnaman.

Visitors get breakfast and dinner -- and a crash course in alternative sanitation, with Ladakhi villages still using dry composting rather than the flush toilets increasingly in vogue in Leh, Ladakh's main town.

The region is dependent on glaciers for 90 percent of its water and with little infrastructure to deal with sewage or garbage, wasting water has never been an option.

A visit to the ladies' room during a Ladakh homestay involves crouching with a leg on either side of a rectangular hole over a storage chamber and pouring a shovel of dirt over any new additions to the pile below.

Eventually, the whole lot turns into manure that is used by the villagers in the fields.

"The toilet -- sometimes it's a little difficult," laughed Kinnaman.

Most food comes directly from the land, such as the Ladakhi pasta-type dish skyu -- small thumb-indented flour balls that are boiled and served with freshly picked peas and cream.

"How I live, I don't even know who makes my food or where it comes from. They have so much knowledge that I don't," said Kinnaman, who had watched her hosts go out to gather food for meals from the farm.

"It's such a different tempo from Sweden. There's just another sense of time here."

-- Cash for education, clean-up --

The homestays are mainly run by women, who plough 10 percent of the proceeds back into a village conservation committee in charge of keeping the area free of plastic bottles, soft drink cans and the other kinds of tourist litter that ruins many of the world's scenic spots.

Dolma, who was hosting Kinnaman, has also been able to send her youngest daughter to a private boarding school -- something that would have been unattainable before Rumbuk, a picturesque but simple hamlet of nine households, joined the tourism industry.

"Here there is no income. Everyone would stay in campgrounds," said Dolma, reflecting on the previous tourism trends, which kept the money out of reach of villagers, to the benefit of mainstream tour operators and hoteliers.

"Now we get four to five thousand rupees (over a hundred dollars)" a season, she said in her spotless mountain home, with woven mats spread on the kitchen floor for guests to sit on.

Dolma, who says she was the first one to sign up for the homestay programme, said she never doubted the wisdom of allowing strangers into her home but admitted feeling a little shy.

"First we had problems in speaking. Now there's no problem -- we speak a bit of Hindi and English," said Dolma, a smiling, rosy-cheeked mother of three who has embraced globalisation with the help of an English language cassette.

"We had to learn how to cook and serve food. First we didn't even know if they would eat dinner like us."

In Leh, 30 kilometres (18 miles) away from Rumbuk, officials are hoping they can spread the homestay model to other villages -- and perhaps even to Leh.

Last year, 40,000 tourists visited Ladakh and the number is going up 10 percent each year -- a major boost for the isolated region's economy but also laden with potential disastrous environmental consequences.

A 2005 study for the governing Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council found that Leh produced 6,000 tonnes of waste during the tourist season, about three times what it produces in the rest of the year.

"We are never prepared. Every year there are more hotels and guesthouses," council chief Chering Dorjay told AFP. "They are not eco-friendly."

[hkskyline]

Tourist numbers to Tibet double on new railway

BEIJING, July 31 (Reuters) - The number of tourists visiting the remote Himalayan region of Tibet in the first half nearly doubled to more than 1 million, helped by a new rail link and new airport, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.

They spent 990 million yuan ($130.8 million), again almost double the same period last year, the report said.

There was also a one-fifth rise in flights to Tibet, which now has three civil airports with regular services.

"The opening of the Qinghai-Tibet railway and Nyingchi airport as well as other improvements in basic infrastructure have driven the development of Tibet's tertiary sector," it said.

Most the tourists were domestic. Just 73,000 came from overseas, the report said.

Train services from Beijing to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa began last July, opening the door to a surge of Chinese and foreign tourism to the region.

Tibetan activists have warned that tourism and migration by Han Chinese could swamp Tibet's distinctive culture, with Tibetan people receiving less than their share of new jobs and income.

China, which expects the number of tourists visiting Tibet to reach 6 million in 2010, is building a fourth airport at Ngari in the west, which will be the world's highest. ($1=7.569 Yuan)

[F-ian]

World Leading Writer Says Bali is Safe

One of the world's leading travel writers has emerged from trips to Australia and Bali bemused at the huge difference between the fears about Bali often generated in this country and the exquisitely rich and tranquil experiences of those who actually visit there.

Pico Iyer, author of eight books whose articles are published worldwide in magazines such as Time, the New York Times and the Financial Times. says he encountered superb security, among the best in Asia, and "Aussies who couldn't believe that so many of their friends and neighbors were staying at home".

He also found the island was bustling and crowded with visitors from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and other parts of Asia while many Australians missed out on the attractions of one of the top destinations in the world.

"The island struck me as far safer than Los Angeles, where I maintain a home, or Delhi, which I visited soon afterwards, or New York, or carjack-filled London, or most of the places I visit.

http://www.my-indonesia.info/page.php?ic=7&id=2709

[hkskyline]

Greek hotels to star in new ratings system

ATHENS, July 31, 2007 (AFP) - Visitors to Greece will soon be able to choose hotels with help from a star-based rating system incorporating international standards, a government minister said Tuesday.

"Greek hotel companies will finally have a classification system based on credible international criteria, filling a void that has hindered the development of Greek tourism," said Fani Palli-Petralia, Greece's minister of tourism development.

An international call for bids amounting to 10 million euros (14 million dollars) has been launched to choose who will carry out the ratings.

The new classification system should apply to all hotels, while the current system has involved only 40 percent, the minister said.

[hkskyline]

Six companies given green light to develop Cambodian islands

PHNOM PENH, July 30, 2007 (AFP) - Six companies have been given permission by the Cambodian government to develop resorts worth 627 million dollars on islands off the country's southern coast, according to government documents.

The two Cambodian and four foreign companies signed agreements with Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh last Friday, said the documents from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), which were obtained by AFP Monday.

This marked the second time Cambodia has allowed a private company to develop the islands near the popular seaside tourism towns of Sihanoukville and Kampot.

Last year a Russian company was granted permission to build a 300 million dollar resort on Koh Poh, or Snake Island.

The six companies now have one year to submit their development plans to the CDC for approval.

"The CDC believes that these projects ... will build momentum to attract other foreign investment," the CDC said.

"These developments will inform the world's investment markets that Cambodia is a potentially good area for tourism investment. The CDC is optimistic that these projects will become a magnet to attract tourists as well as investors to Cambodia," it added.

Cambodia recorded about 1.7 million tourist arrivals in 2006, bringing 1.4 billion dollars in revenue to the impoverished country.

Visitors have flocked mostly to the Angkor temples in northwestern Cambodia but as the number of tourists is expected to increase, the government is looking more towards its coast as a development gold mine.

The airport in Sihanoukville re-opened earlier this year after being closed for decades in a bid to attract more visitors to the area.

[haze]

Tourists pack KL hotels
By Vasantha Ganesan
bt@nstp.com.my


August 4 2007


HOTELS in Kuala Lumpur city centre were almost full in July, one of their best performances in years, as more tourists visited the country.
August could also be a record, said an industry consultant that compiled the figures.




"The light is brighter at the end of the tunnel," said Ivo Nekvapil, the group chairman and chief executive officer of hospitality consultant MIHR Consulting Sdn Bhd.


The hotels had an average occupancy of 92.89 per cent in July this year.


With such healthy numbers, the hotel industry could post a higher full-year average occupancy than projected earlier at 70 per cent.


"Occupancy level has been good since mid-June 2007 and will be so until mid-September 2007," Nekvapil said.


MIHR compiles the monthly data for hotels in the Klang Valley.


"The high occupancy levels were a result of the push for Visit Malaysia Year and the Middle Eastern market has helped as they have been the biggest group in the Klang Valley," Nekvapil said.


Some 33 four- and five-star hotels with total rooms of over 11,500 had submitted their July occupancy figures to MIHR.


Average room rate (ARR) per night in July, meanwhile, was RM284.34 with one hotel, the Mandarin Oriental, achieving close to RM600 per night.


This compares to July 2006 when the average occupancy and ARR was 80.6 per cent and RM249.19 respectively.


General manager of Dorsett Regency Christina Toh when contacted said, "We achieved 98.65 per cent occupancy last month, which was better than July 2006."


In fact, she said, the response at some hotels has been so overwhelming that there has been overbooking and the guests have had to be moved to another hotel.


Leo Kuscher, the general manager of The Royale Bintang Kuala Lumpur, said: "We had full occupancy in July 2007 and we expect August to be the same up until the first week of September."


Traditionally, average occupancy rates dwindle every year during the fasting month.


Kuscher added that its ARR for July and August 2007 is 25 per cent more than other months.


Meanwhile, Nekvapil, who is also the vice-president of the Malaysian Association of Hotels, said the industry body may have to revise its full-year occupancy forecast of 70 per cent.

[marching]

Originally Posted by Farean

World Leading Writer Says Bali is Safe

One of the world's leading travel writers has emerged from trips to Australia and Bali bemused at the huge difference between the fears about Bali often generated in this country and the exquisitely rich and tranquil experiences of those who actually visit there.

Pico Iyer, author of eight books whose articles are published worldwide in magazines such as Time, the New York Times and the Financial Times. says he encountered superb security, among the best in Asia, and "Aussies who couldn't believe that so many of their friends and neighbors were staying at home".

He also found the island was bustling and crowded with visitors from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and other parts of Asia while many Australians missed out on the attractions of one of the top destinations in the world.

"The island struck me as far safer than Los Angeles, where I maintain a home, or Delhi, which I visited soon afterwards, or New York, or carjack-filled London, or most of the places I visit.

http://www.my-indonesia.info/page.php?ic=7&id=2709

I'm sure for it

[hkskyline]

China in line for record foreign tourists: report

BEIJING, Aug 5, 2007 (AFP) - More than 12 million foreign tourists visited China in the first half of 2007 and the country is in line to set a new record if the trend continues, according to the national tourist body.

The total for the first six months of the year is 18 percent up on the same period from 2006, suggesting the number of foreign visitors could exceed last year's record of 22 million.

Tourism growth is expected to stay strong in coming years with an expected boost from next year's Beijing Olympics, and another shot in the arm supplied by the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

As a result, China is tipped to overtake France by 2014 as the world's top tourism destination, according to the World Tourism Organisation.

According to the China National Tourism Administration, total spending by foreign tourists in the first half of the year -- excluding vsitors from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan -- rose to 18 billion dollars, up 13.1 percent.

The report published Saturday by the official news agency Xinhua said that arrivals from South Korea were up 30 percent in the first half of 2007, while arrivals from India and Russia rose by around 16 percent.

Arrivals from Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and the United States also registered growth of more than 10 percent.

Beijing is expecting to welcome 500,000 overseas visitors during the 2008 Summer Games from August 8-24 next year.

[LordCarnal]

Cebu tourist arrivals increase; Koreans top list

TOURIST arrivals in Cebu jumped almost 24 percent in the first five months of the year compared to that of the same period in 2006, records from the Department of Tourism (DOT) 7 revealed.

From a total of 508,028 in the same period last year, visitor arrivals registered in the province rose to 629,541 from January to May this year. Of the total figure, 262,539 were foreign visitors while domestic travelers reached 367,002.

According to a DOT 7 document furnished to Sun.Star Cebu, the top market visitors continue to be the Koreans, followed by Japanese and Americans.

The Koreans, which make up the fastest growing market of the country’s tourism industry, numbered 98,822 from January to May this year, up by 61.26 percent from 61,280 in the same period last year.

Japanese visitors totaled 57,201 with a growth rate of 15.57 percent while the Americans numbered 29,285 or an increase of 34.31 percent.

Visitors from the country’s Asean neighbors grew from 3,722 in the first five months of 2006 to 7,411 in the same period this year, or an almost 100 percent increase.

Leading the growth in terms of number of tourists is Singapore with 3,583, followed by Malaysia with 1,735 and Thailand with 928.

Tourism Undersecretary Phineas Alburo attributed the growth in the number of Asean visitors to Cebu’s successful hosting of the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit last January.

Perception

“It has placed Cebu in the map of the world as a tourism and business destination. We created the right perception and image that’s why we have become a prime destination,” he said.

Travelers from East Asian countries like China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan went up by 40.93 percent or a total of 173,333 this year while last year’s figure was only at 122,993.

In terms of growth rate, Chinese tourists, who are seen to be a potentially strong market, grew by 120.96 percent from 2,624 in 2006 to 5,798 this year.

Indian visitors and those from other South Asian countries, considered as another potential market, numbered 1,476 which jumped 67.92 percent from 879 in 2006.

Cebu is also attracting more Europeans. The number of European guests rose to 42.19 percent in the first five months of the year to 28,944 from 20,356 last year.

Tourists from the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland were identified as the top three visitors of the province.

Europeans perceive the province as a leisure destination, which is why they are considered among the longest staying visitors, Alburo said.

In the same data however, visitors from Finland decreased by 39.52 percent or from 167 guests in January to May 2006 to 101 this year.

Cebu is also a destination for those from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries. Visitors from this region totaled 1,586 from January to May this year.

The province is also a favorite among overseas Filipino workers whose numbers rose to 1,637 from January to May this year from the 954 in the same period last year.

With the country’s economic growth, more tourists are expected to arrive at the end of this year, said Alburo. (MMM)

[LordCarnal]

Korean firm to invest P3B on resort in Cebu

A well-known hotel chain in Korea will be building a P3-billion (US$67-million) five star resort in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.

Proponents of the Imperial Palace Waterpark Resort and Spa held the groundbreaking ceremonies of the project on a 7.5-hectare in Barangay Maribago, in Lapu-Lapu City last Friday.

Construction will begin immediately as the resort is scheduled to open in 2009.

The water park and resort, which will be designed by TPJavier Architects and Associates, is “the biggest Korean investment in hotel development in the country,” says Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano.

Jong Hwan Park, chairman of the Philippine BXT Corporation, conceptualized the project.

Vacation

“He went on a vacation here for four days and stayed in a Mactan hotel. He decided to stay a little longer than expected pero kulang ang accommodation,” explained project consultant Jefferson Lim.

Park saw the shortage of accommodations, especially in Mactan, and found it to be an opportunity for investment.

Durano said there is an increased demand for beach resort as a type of accommodation “because it is what we are short of.”

He said the construction of Imperial Palace Hotel will help solve the shortage of rooms in the province.

“It is a virtuous cycle. By increasing investment volume, we are increasing employment and business opportunities,” he said.

Since the waterpark resort will be marketed in Korea, Durano is sure of a further influx of Korean tourists in the next few years.
With this, he also encouraged existing hotels to upgrade their services and facilities.

Philippine BXT Corp., owned and operated by Korean stakeholders, tapped the services of Imperial Palace Hotel in Seoul to run and manage the resort.

Known to be one of Korea’s finest hotel chains, Imperial Palace Hotel has been recognized for its excellence in providing world-class luxury hotels. This will be their first venture in the Philippines.

“They are also looking into developing a 110-hectare golf court resort and retirement village in Cordova as an added facility,” said Lim.

Why Cebu?

Lim did not elaborate on the Cordova project, however.

The Korean firm decided to implement the project in Cebu because of “the mild temperature…a sea condition (with) which various sea sports can be enjoyed, easy access to big tourist markets, the use of English as a common language and inexpensive prices,” read a statement of Imperial Palace’s Shin Chul Ho.

The world class resort will have 616 rooms in six medium (16-storeys) and three low-rise buildings. There will also be 40 single-units complete with amenities.

“The waterpark won’t just be a swimming pool, it will be a milestone in the water entertainment business, and Imperial Palace Waterpark Resort will become a hotel with a true imperial scent” Chul Ho’s statement read.


Perspective:



Actual construction photo:

[paradyto]

from Travel+Leisure

[Alibaba]

well deserved for Bali

beautiful island with wonderful people...!

[hkskyline]

Tiny Lesotho aims to build Africa's biggest ski resort

MAHLASELA VALLEY, Lesotho, July 26, 2007 (AFP) - The tiny kingdom of Lesotho is the unlikely venue for ambitious plans to create the number one destination for skiers in Africa.

"This is going to be the biggest ski resort in Africa," says Ollie Esplin, manager of the Afri-Ski resort, as he tries to explain how to minimise the risks of meltdown in Lesotho's picturesque Mahlasela Valley.

"When you make a ski slope, especially in Africa, it must be facing south where it receives the least sun," adds Esplin as skiers on a break from neighbouring South Africa snake down the single slope currently in operation.

While the exact numbers of visitors to Afri-Ski are unknown, 5,000 people came through the local ski shop to rent or buy equipment last winter which was only the second season that it had been open for business.

Eventually the resort will have five ski slopes ranging from red (medium difficulty) to blue (easy), some 100 ski chalets and one of the highest altitude golf courses on the planet at 3,300 metres (10,800 feet) above sea level.

Several chalets imported from the small Baltic state of Estonia already dot the mountainside, but the flavour of Africa is never far away with cattle-drawn carts and traditional mud huts running alongside the hairpin road which leads to the resort.

Billed by tourist chiefs as the Switzerland of the South, landlocked Lesotho is in fact one of the poorest countries in Africa with most people having eke out a living on subsistence agriculture.

The 400-rand (58 dollars, 42 euros) fee for a four-hour ski lesson is well beyond the budget of most locals in a country where salaries average less than a thousand dollars a year, but the tourists have provided a shot in the arm to the economy.

"Our main clients are from Gauteng (the largest province in South Africa which includes both Pretoria and Johannesburg), and we are bringing a lot of tourists into Lesotho," says Esplin.

The resort has received royal approval from Lesotho's King Letsie III who has given his name to the annual King's Cup skiing and snowboarding and has visited the resort during the event.

Billy Becker, visiting from Pretoria, was thrilled by the proximity of the resort.

"It's my first day today," said Becker who came to the slope to snowboard.

"It's very comfortable, only four hour's drive, and it's stunning. The drive up to the place is brilliant, with the mountains covered in snow."

Lebohang Ramonotse, from nearby Butha-Buthe in Lesotho, is one of the few locals who have ventured onto the slope, enrolling for his first lesson from the resort's only black instructor, South African Charles Mositoane.

It is hoped the resort will create many opportunities for locals like Ramonotse, who works in the ski shop.

"Its a big thing to us, even though the majority of us don't see this opportunity," Ramonotse tells AFP after a run down the slope. "Now everybody can see the world I can see."

The Lesotho Tourism Development Corporation says tourism contributes to 2.4 percent of the country's gross domestic product, with some 300,000 people visiting the country in 2005.

According to a ski travel expert, the only other ski resort in Africa is the popular Tiffendell in South Africa's Eastern Cape mountains, which has three slopes and charges 1205-rand for a four hour lesson.

Afri-ski, which may prove closer and cheaper to skiing hopefuls from Gauteng, has however "done very little publicity", he said.

In Lesotho, where the main tourism attractions are pony trekking in the mountains or hiking, Mositoane loves the fact that Africans get to enjoy the slopes.

"For them it's a lot of fun, it's a lot closer to where they live. They are like, yo, we couldn't believe it when people said there is a resort here in Lesotho."

According to Esplin, skiers have actually been using the slope since the 1970s, as the area has at least one good snowfall a year, before an Austrian and South African partnership decided to go ahead and build the resort.

"The nicest thing is it's in the middle of nowhere, not like European resorts. This is Africa," he adds.

With business booming, the management team wants to make the resort an all-year destination with plans under way for a health spa and a high-altitude training facility for athletes and cyclists.

Those less inclined to take to the slope can also go fishing for trout in the nearby Motete river.

[hkskyline]

Hundreds in repair effort at Brunei's historic Water Village

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, July 26, 2007 (AFP) - Hundreds of rescue personnel have been deployed to help repair almost 200 storm-damaged homes in Brunei's historic Water Village, an official said Thursday.

The homes -- a key tourism attraction for Brunei -- were damaged Monday night when high winds struck the labyrinthine collection of large houses on stilts where about 30,000 people live, continuing a tradition set by their seafaring ancestors.

Of the 192 damaged homes, 31 were seriously affected and some collapsed, said Station Officer Noor Aflan of the Fire and Rescue Department.

Nobody was hurt, he said, adding that at least 200 fire and rescue, military and other personnel were helping rebuild the area.

"We have sent a lot of help," he said. "If there are no obstacles or bad weather, two or three days more."

It could be the first time such a vicious storm had heavily damaged the riverfront villages, he said.

Kampung Ayer, as the area is known in Malay, has schools, mosques, fire stations and other facilities linked by pathways above the water where speedboats ferry people to and fro.

[hkskyline]

Guam welcomes military personnel and their wallets
6 August 2007

HAGATNA, Guam (AP) - With fewer visitors coming this year, the island's business community has looked forward to this week's joint U.S. military exercises.

Gerald Perez, chairman of the Guam Chamber of Commerce Armed Forces Committee, said the exercises is expected to create an "economic surge across the island" when the sailors make port visits.

The average sailor spends $200 to $300 per day during a port visit, and the exercises, called "Valiant Shield," could bring up to 20,000 sailors to Guam, Perez said.

"Just do the math," he said. "If only half of those people spend a few days on Guam, we are talking about millions of dollars."

All told, Valiant Shield could send at least $4 million flowing into the economy of this U.S. territory. The expected infusion comes at time when the island's main economic engine -- the $1.2 billion tourism industry -- is seeing fewer tourists and lackluster visitor spending. More than 1 million tourists, mostly from Japan, visit Guam each year.

Perez explained that port visits are not only a boon for hotels, restaurants and bars. He noted that many sailors want to play golf or become certified to skin dive once they hit land.

"There are a lot more women on these boats than people realize, too. They make port and want to get their hair done or go to a spa," Perez said.

To maximize spending, the Chamber of Commerce has convinced bus companies to schedule extra bus routes to military installations. Perez expected all local businesses to feel some effect from the port visits.

Naval Base Guam and Andersen Air Force Base will play a "support role" in Valiant Shield, said Lt. Donnell Evans, Naval Base Guam's public affairs officer.

So will Jan Z's Lounge.

Assistant manager Joe Pangelinan expects the visiting military personnel to swarm the restaurant and bar throughout the week.

"Basically, we will need to double up all of our preps -- more lemons, more burgers, more staff, more of everything," he said. "But we'll be ready for them."

The Horse & Cow also stocked up for a rush of military personnel. A retired Navy submariner owns the bar, which is popular watering hole for locals and military alike. The bar proudly displays the banners and colors of U.S. submarine groups.

Manager Rebecca Corley expects large crowds with simple needs.

"Whenever we know there is a carrier coming in, we just order a lot more booze," she said.

But some military will be doing more than eating, drinking and relaxing.

Dozens of servicemen and women have joined their Guam-stationed military counterparts and local civilians in donating their time, sweat and skills to a community effort to prepare, clean and fix Guam's more than 30 public schools.

With only a couple more weeks left before more than 30,000 public school students return to their classrooms, the volunteer work -- included painting walls, cutting grass and fixing doors, classroom fixtures and furniture -- couldn't have come at a better time.

Guam, with a population of 170,000, is located 3,700 miles southwest of Hawaii.

[isaidso]

I'd be interested in the numbers of tourists major cities receive each year. Overall totals, both foreign and domestic would be nice. Does anyone have statistics, or could direct me to an online resource that compiles such estimates?

[hkskyline]

FEATURE-Tourists and investors to Iraq? Why not, say Kurds
By Bernd Debusmann, Special Correspondent

ARBIL, Iraq, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The Ministry of Tourism has 417 employees and big plans: "We need three or four times as many hotels as we have now," says Nimrud Youkhana, the minister, "and we need to get more airlines to fly here."

Tourism in Iraq? More hotels in a country whose name evokes images of truck bombs and mayhem, kidnappings and beheaded foreigners?

This is what an advertising campaign in the United States called The Other Iraq, the three northern provinces that blossomed into a quasi-independent state in the 16 years since the U.S. placed a protective umbrella -- the 'no-fly zone' -- over the region to stop a genocidal anti-Kurdish campaign waged by Saddam Hussein.

Administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the provinces have largely escaped the violence that has been tearing apart the rest of Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003, toppled Saddam and uncorked long-suppressed sectarian hostility.

"We have some way to go still," said Youkhana, "but we plan to eventually hold annual folklore events like the Jerash festival," a reference to the Jordanian city which brings together performers from all over the world each summer.

Customers the ministry wants to attract are Arabs from the Gulf who appreciate mountain resorts in an Alpine setting (and a relaxed attitude towards alcohol) and Europeans in search of exotic destinations and archaeological remains dating back thousands of years.

Youkhana's plans, and the mere existence of a Tourism Ministry, highlight a bullish view of Kurdistan's future which is also evident in building projects on a grand scale, from a 6,000-shop mall to a string of U.S.-style gated communities with names such as Dream City, Empire Villas and American Village.

Near the airport, Naz City, a new complex of 14 high-rise apartment towers, is cabled for high-speed Internet access. New hotels under construction include one by the German luxury chain Kempinski.

And rising in the shadow of Arbil's citadel, near where Alexander the Great defeated King Darius of Persia, the huge Nishtiman mall features Kurdistan's first escalator -- a magnet for children who ride it up and down in wide-eyed wonder.

There are no detailed figures on how much money has been invested in Kurdistan since 2003, when the rest of Iraq slipped into violence and the north remained stable. The Board of Investment, a government agency set up last summer, has approved more than $3.5 billion in development projects.

The Kurds' main argument to persuade foreigners to visit and invest is security: there is no other place in Iraq where a foreigner can shop in local markets or walk the streets without fear of being killed or kidnapped.

"I feel safer in Arbil or Suleimaniyah than in Camden, New Jersey," said Harry Schute, a retired U.S. army colonel who served in Iraq and is now a security adviser to KRG president Massoud Barzani.

"But people hear 'Iraq' and they think violence. There's a lack of understanding that Baghdad and Arbil are different worlds."

OWN FLAG, ARMY, BORDER PATROL

So different that the KRG has all the trappings of an independent state -- its own flag, its own army, its own border patrol, its own national anthem, its own education system, even its own stamp inked into the passports of visitors.

Turkey, Iran and Syria -- all of which have sizeable Kurdish minorities they do not want to become autonomous -- are viewing the KRG's progress with considerable concern. They fear full independence for Iraqi Kurdistan would set off a chain reaction in the region.

The Iraqi Kurds' sense of tranquillity was shattered by two bombs in May -- a truck bomb outside the regional government's Interior Ministry killed 15 people and wounded more than 100 and three days later, a car bomb in the office of Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) left 30 dead and injured 50.

The government responded by stepping up security, already tight, and virtually sealing the roads into KRG-controlled territory to non-Kurds. Travellers from outside the region are not allowed to pass unless a Kurdish resident meets them in person and "guarantees" their stay.

Despite the May bombs, Austrian Airlines, the only European carrier with a regular service to Arbil, added a flight to its schedule in July to bring Vienna-Arbil connections to four a week. The flights are usually packed.

"The bomb attacks did not dent business interest," said Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the London-based head of the Kurdish Development Corporation (KDC). "In fact, inquiries picked up after a few days."

They did not dent a booming business in luxury cars, either. "Things are looking good," said Lezan Shafeea, a sales manager at the sprawling Mercedes dealership in Arbil. "We are selling more top-end models, at $138,500 apiece, than mid-size cars."

These are cash-only transactions -- Kurdistan's embryonic financial system has no provision for consumer credit.

Obstacles to opening up Kurdistan to the world, Kurdish officials say, include the travel advisories governments issue to their citizens. The U.S. State Department, for example, makes no distinction between the Kurdish north and the rest of Iraq and "continues to strongly warn" against travel there.

But other countries have taken Kurdistan off their list of life-threatening destinations, according to Falah Mustafa Bakir, the head of the KRG's Foreign Relations Department -- the region's de facto foreign minister.

"Denmark, Japan, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands have all changed their advisories," he said.

Not even the rosiest optimist predicts a travel boom soon to Kurdistan but a British company, Hinterland Travel, led a group of adventurous tourists in their 50s and 60s on a package tour through the three provinces administered by the KRG in May. Another is scheduled for September.

"This is for people interested in archaeology and history," said the company's owner, Geoff Hann, "and who are not faint of heart." (Editing by Sara Ledwith)

[pedang]

Tourists Advised To Stay Outside KL As City Hotels Fill Up
August 14, 2007 00:33 AM

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 (Bernama) -- The Tourism Ministry is encouraging foreign tourists to stay in cities just outside Kuala Lumpur as the city's hotels are facing a shortage of rooms as occupancy hovers at 98 per cent.

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said the tourists could stay in Shah Alam, Nilai and Seremban.

The shortage of rooms occurred as many tourists, especially Arabs, preferred to stay longer in the country, he told a news conference held to announce the KL International Tattoo 2007.

"Arab tourists come in groups of seven to 17 people and they travel first class or business class. We have to always work hard to ensure that they have every facility which they require (as tourists)," he said.

He also said that military bands from 13 countries including Malaysia would participate in the KL International Tattoo 2007 to be held at the Merdeka Stadium from Sept 7 to 9.

The tattoo is being organised jointly by the Armed Forces and the Tourism Ministry at a cost of RM9 million, he said.

-- BERNAMA