Around the world on Italy Tourism

Source: Xinhua ()

    KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) — For the first time
in Malaysia, the Mister International 2007 will be held in Kuching, capital city
of eastern Sarawak state, local media reported on Tuesday.
    Twenty participants from Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica,
Egypt, Greece, Guam, Guatemala, India, Italy, South Korea, Latvia, Lebanon,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, China’s Taiwan, the
United States and Venezuela will join the contest on Dec. 31.
    They will also participate in several tourism-related
activities.
    The inaugural pageant was held in Singapore last
year.
    Wissam Hanna of Lebanon who was the pageant’s first
winner will be here to crown his successor.
    The founder of the pageant is Alan Sim, Mister Young
Singapore (1996) and first runner-up of Mister Young International (1997).
    Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the
35-year-old Singaporean said he established the event out of frustration.
    ”The frustration lies in the fact that winners of
national pageants have nowhere to proceed to after clinching the title in their
respective countries,” the New Straits Times quoted Sim as saying.
    Amr Samaha of Egypt is excited about his first
international competition.
    The 19-year-old model said being in this
international pageant has widened his knowledge and understanding of the
cultures of other countries.
    Samaha added that his fellow contestants were not
here to compete to who was the best.
    ”We are here to make new friends, establish contacts
and experience new cultures,” he said.

Source: Independent ()

After seven lean, intifada years, Joseph Canavati, owner of the modern Alexander Hotel on Manger Street, the snaking main road leading to the Church of the Nativity, is dusting off his “No vacancies” sign. The pilgrims are coming back.

“This is the best year we’ve had since the uprising,” he beamed. “There are peace talks. There’s no violence in the Bethlehem area, no violence in Jerusalem. Our business depends on tranquillity. If there is no violence, there is business.” The guests for his 44 rooms come from the United States, Italy, Lithuania, and South Korea.

All 2,000 beds in Bethlehem hotels and hostels are booked for Christmas for the first time since 2000. Victor Batarseh, the West Bank city’s Roman Catholic mayor, expects 40,000 pilgrims to visit Jesus’s birthplace for the holiday.

Despite the bleak welcome of Israel’s concrete security wall at the entrance to the city, there is renewed buoyancy in the streets: more coloured lights and decorated trees, few if any political slogans or portraits of Chairman Arafat. The roads, once ravaged by Israeli shells and armoured vehicles, are swept and repaired.

“God bless this bus station” reads a sign in the underground coach park built for the Millennium. The Muslim feast of Id al-Adha shades this year into Christmas. Every one of Bethlehem’s 32,000 residents has something to celebrate.

Israel is trying to help. “We all share the same economic interest,” said Shaul Tzemach, director general of the Tourism Ministry. Procedures have been streamlined for pilgrims at checkpoints between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, 10 minutes’ drive to the north.

Tourism is Bethlehem’s main source of income. The figures are up throughout the year. “We had an excellent summer,” Mr Canavati reported, “followed by a good October and November. The hotels in Jerusalem were so full that we the overflow.”

The Israeli Tourism Ministry logged one million Christian visitors to the Holy Land in 2007, …

Source: Toronto Star ()

2007 – Not exactly what it said on the brochure, was it?

Talk about a year with the fidgets, a year with so much angst rippling down its backbone it made you want to sign up for the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Last New Year’s Eve, protesters in the French city of Nantes marched with banners reading "No to 2007" and "Now is better." Calling on the world’s governments to stop time’s "mad race," they demanded a moratorium on the future, starting with this year.

If only.

But then we’d have missed a lot of state-of-the-art judgment. Barbara Amiel Black, say, who spent most of ‘07 with a look on her face like poison come to supper. Especially when hissing "slut" and "vermin" at reporters covering hubby Conrad’s fraud trial. Maybe she was still smarting over his emailed revelation from their fabled Bora Bora holiday that, compared with the youthful sybarites in situ, they both felt like "geriatric freaks."

Ultra low-impact Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion probably felt much the same way, but he didn’t let on in either of his one-and-a-half official languages, choosing instead to go about the land stirring up apathy.

Despite a troop surge in the spring, the demented war in Iraq trundled on, as did whatever we call the mess in Afghanistan. But democracy scored one in, well, Glasgow. During a failed car-bomb attack at the city’s airport in June, baggage handler John Smeaton punched one of the bombers and became an instant hero.

Asked if he had a message for future terrorists, the plain-talking Smeaton said yes: "This is Glasgow. We’ll just set aboot ye."

Staying with the direct-action theme, while mindful of the economy, (the formerly quite sane) Republican presidential candidate John McCain told workers at a weapons factory that, if elected, "I will Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell and I will shoot him with your products."

After …

Source: Prensa Latina ()

Spain Still Betting on Cuban Tourism
Havana, Dec 22 (Prensa Latina) Spanish companies are reaffirming their choice of Cuba as a favorite tourist destination, with airlines inaugurating trips to the island and companies from diverse spheres publicizing this destination in the world.
Company spokespersons gave Prensa Latina the recent example of Spanish Aircomet airline ó s presentation in the Cuban capital and its journal “Lugares,” which, in a a ceremony at Cuba ó s National Hotel, highlighting its trips as well to Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Italy, England and Spain.
Cuba is now a host to Aircomet, the only Spanish company to buy the new Airbus 380, the largest airplane in the world, to begin providing services by the first quarter of 2010.
By 2009, the airline will have a total fleet of 19 top-drawer airplanes and will have 19 international flights by next year, up from 13.
The journal “Lugares”, produced by the Spanish company “Mas Viajes,” intends to be the ambassador publication of Cuban culture in Spain and the world.
Spain constitutes one of the main tourist markets for Cuba, ó” for the fourth consecutive year - welcomes more than two million world travelers.
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PL-1

Source: AllAfrica.com ()

REDUCING poverty in half the population living in extreme poverty by the year 2015 is the song that world leaders and civil society organisations have been singing since the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) declaration in 2000.

Almost half way towards the year 2015, the picture still indicates that poverty is still rife in most parts of the world especially in Sub-Sahara Africa owing to among other factors, inadequatefinancing to the agriculture sector, lack of political will, natural factors such as droughts, floods and the adverseeffects of climate change.

The most recent estimate of the number of chronically undernourished people in the world is about 854 million for the period 2001-2003, of whom 820 million live in developing countries, 25 million in countries in transition and 9 million in developed market economies.

The World Bank report on agriculture for development states that although the sector offers a way out of poverty if efforts are made to increase productivity in staple foods, the sector has suffered neglect over the past 20 years.

While 75 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, the report states that a mere four per cent of Official Development Assistance (ODA) goes to agriculture in developing countries.

"In Sub-Sahara Africa, a region heavily reliant on agriculture for overall growth, public spending for farmingis also only four per cent of total spending and the sector is still taxed at relatively high levels," the report further says.

Although financing and investment has over the years increased, the share of funding being channeled to the agriculture sector is still inadequate.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report on financing for agriculture, however, says Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), to developing countries has substantially increased in the last years 17.5 per cent of the world total FDI share in 1998-2000 to 35.9 percent in 2003-2005.

In …

Source: San Diego Union Tribune ()

Just two years ago, Andrea Martin would see a designer handbag or a pricey cocktail dress in a store window and buy it without a thought.

JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune

At Tiffany & Co. in Fashion Valley, Edith Serrano showed jewelry to a shopper. This year, luxury chain store sales have increased 7.9 percent, versus 2.4 percent for the total retail chain business.

“Now you think two or three times,” she said.

The Temecula resident said the economy has her so nervous that she's cutting back on everything.

“People are losing their homes, so it's hard to think about a Coach bag,” Martin, 36, said as she shopped with her mother at Fashion Valley in San Diego. “In the past, we would have been to Nordstrom's five more times, but not this year.”

Sentiments like Martin's are causing a ripple of concern among luxury retailers. Until now, upscale shops have been able to shrug off the troubles in the larger economy and outperform their more moderately priced competitors, in part because so-called aspirational shoppers would splurge on such luxe items as a Gucci purse or Hermes scarf.

Now there are signs those shoppers are cutting back.

According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, luxury retailing began showing particularly strong growth in 2004, when its sales increased 9.6 percent from the previous year while the overall retail market grew 3.8 percent. So far in 2007, luxury chain store sales have increased 7.9 percent, compared with 2.4 percent for the total retail chain business.

While few analysts see the ultra-rich trimming their spending dramatically, there is concern that middle-class shoppers who helped create the boom in high-end brands from Gucci to Burberry might be cutting back, as skyrocketing gas prices and declining housing market continue to eat away at consumers' discretionary spending.

Steve Sadove, chairman and CEO …

Source: BBC News ()

By Paul Kirby

EU reporter, BBC News

Quality of healthcare varies widely from one country to the next

It may sound like a brave new world for healthcare in the EU, but the latest blueprint is bound to face substantial changes before it is agreed by governments.

As far as funding operations abroad is concerned, the UK Department of Health has already made it clear that the National Health Service (NHS) will decide what it will pay for and what it will not.

The problem for the commission is that it has had to respond to court rulings telling EU governments they had to fund treatment abroad if the patient was facing an undue delay.

Indeed, the commission points out that it was EU health ministers themselves who asked for a draft directive.

But some governments may argue that Brussels has overstepped the mark.

They are likely to include countries such as the Irish Republic, Italy and Spain, which provide direct government funding for health services.

The commission’s argument is that the cost for governments would be marginal as the money would have been spent on the patient in any case.

Health tourism

Dental tourism already exists in some parts of the EU, but would the patient’s home country be willing to fund it?

The commission is careful to include only treatments that the patient is already entitled to at home.

So, if your provider does not allow plastic surgery, you would still have to pay.

The European Commission and the UK are agreed that the number of people these proposals are likely to affect will not be high.

More than 90% of patients are treated by their home system.

It is generally accepted that most patients would have care close to their homes and carried out by people who speak their language.

The …

Source: BBC News ()

Ryanair has announced new routes from Edinburgh Airport

No frills airline Ryanair has announced five new routes from Edinburgh airport.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said the flights to Marseille, Pisa, Bremen, Frankfurt and Alicante would significantly benefit the airport.

The routes are Ryanair’s first to continental Europe from Edinburgh, which currently only operates Irish flights to Dublin and Shannon.

According to recently released figures, Edinburgh Airport is on track to become the busiest in Scotland this year.

Expansion welcomed

BAA Edinburgh Airport managing director, David Johnston, welcomed Ryanair’s plans for a major expansion of its route network out of the Scottish capital.

He said: “This is fantastic news for Edinburgh Airport, our passengers and for the city.

“Ryanair’s expansion from Edinburgh opens up brand new destinations such as Bremen and Marseille, and adds further choice and frequency for passengers flying to Spain, Italy Germany.

“It is also a boost for Scotland’s tourism industry, strengthening our country’s connectivity with key inbound visitor markets.”

Source: MSNBC ()

NEW YORK - Here are some of the hot spots, trends and statistics for travel in the new year.

U.S. TOUR OPERATORS ASSOCIATION: For the fifth straight year, Italy placed first as the most popular international destination for vacation packages and tours, according to an annual informal poll of USTOA member companies. Croatia, followed by China, were the hottest up-and-coming countries for tours and packages.

YAHOO! TRAVEL: Yahoo! Travel’s biggest domestic “Movers & Shakers” - destinations that got the biggest increase in page views in Yahoo! Travel Guides - were Lancaster, Pa., Ocean City, N.J., South Lake Tahoe, Calif., Wildwood, N.J., Helen, Ga., and Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

LONELY PLANET: Top 10 destinations for 2008, according to a survey of the guidebook publisher’s U.S. staffers, are the U.S., with an emphasis on national parks and Hawaii; Mexico, with an emphasis on Mexico City and the Pacific Coast; Argentina; Japan; India and Canada (tied); Australia and China (tied); Spain and France.

JWT TOP TRAVEL TRENDS: Top trends identified by JWT (formerly J. Walter Thompson), the largest ad agency in the U.S.: “Staycations,” where travelers stay closer to home and take long weekends instead of weeks away; cruising; volunteer vacations; climate sightseeing (visits to see phenomena threatened by climate change); couch-surfing (using the Internet to find strangers who will put you up in their home when you travel); medical tourism; babymoons (where couples take a vacation before their first baby arrives); and “trans-entertainment” (Wi-Fi transportation making it easier to watch videos or surf the Web while traveling).

NATIONAL PARKS: The National Park system received 223.7 million recreation visits January-September 2007, a 1.3 percent increase or 2.8 million more visits than in 2006. The biggest gains were seen in the Gate National Recreation Area (in California, up 437,000 recreational visits); the Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway …

Source: Malta Independent Online ()

I originally wrote this article about three years ago, but have never got round to publishing it. While things have improved in the last three years, one notable example being SmartCity, there is still much to be done to point us in the right direction for a knowledge-based economy.

In 2004, a study by Sir David King, then the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, analysed the scientific productivity of 31 of the world’s 193 countries, using highly quoted research publications as an indicator of the level of innovative research. The 31 countries studied are responsible for 97.5 per cent of the world’s most cited papers. The study, entitled The Scientific Impact of Nations, was published in Nature and quoted in Cordis, the EU’s R&D information magazine. It also notes the political implications of the strong relationship between innovation and national wealth. The author is quoted as saying: “My key point in response to these statistics is that sustainable economic development in highly competitive world markets requires a direct engagement in the generation of knowledge”.

This message is one that Malta must heed, and with some urgency. Recent EU surveys listed Malta at the very bottom of the scale among the EU 25 nations in terms of two very important markers: the percentage of the population with a completed tertiary education and the percentage with science or engineering qualifications (including anything from a technical diploma upwards). Changing these two indicators is an essential move to help Malta break more and more into the intellectual property market and become ever more its own master, by efficiently using its major resource, people.

Changing these indicators should, however, be done in the real terms of lifelong scientific engagement, not as a way of satisfying EU statistics. One example of what I mean is that are often encouraged to enter post-secondary education by a student grant, when the numbers actually progressing …