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Gorilla & Hollywood STARs Build Conservation Awareness for Uganda

11/013/09 – Kampala, Uganda

In a bid to raise awareness of conservation at a national and global level as well as build Uganda’s image as a prime sustainable tourism destination, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) with support from the USAID funded STAR - Uganda (Sustainable Tourism in the Albertine Rift) program, launched an awareness and promotional campaign, Friend-a-Gorilla(www.friendagorilla.org). The campaign uses social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to inform people about the Gorilla’s activities and build awareness of these unique animals. People can ‘friend’ a gorilla, learn about their gorilla, see video’s and pictures, and get updates from the rangers on their activities. The program officially launched on September 26th and already has 13,000 followers on Facebook. The program was also covered by hundreds media outlets, including CNN International,USA Today and BBC News.

To  assist UWA in this effort, STAR mobilized Hollywood stars JasonBiggs, Kristy Wu, and Simon Curtis, to help launch the campaign and act as Uganda’s spokespeople for conservation. The stars joined in the gorilla trekking as part of the launch along with the Uganda cabinet Minister of Tourism Kahinda Otafire.  Ultimately the campaign stands as a tool to achieve conservation goals while at the same time raising awareness and funds for conservation. 

STAR - Uganda (Sustainable Tourism in the Albertine Rift) is a 5-year program of the Global Sustainable Tourism Alliance, started in August 2009 and Solimar International is the lead organization driving the program. The approach embraced by STAR is to build collaboration among tourism and conservation partners by engaging the whole tourism industry in the process and building momentum through catalytic activities identified by the partners. STAR was able to realize fast action by meeting with partners such as UWA, identifying quick activities that could build large-scale support and awareness and then injecting targeted assistance to help catalyze action by these partners. UWA had the great concept of Friend-a-Gorilla, STAR helped to take it to scale so that the program could have maximum impact for conservation.

For more information CLICK HERE

To 'friend' your own gorilla visit www.friendagorilla.org


 
2009 National Geographic Traveler Destination Scorecard Released

11/03/09 – Washington, DC

WORLD’S ICONIC DESTINATIONS RATED

In conjunction with the National Geographic Society's Center for Sustainable Destinations, National Geographic Traveler Magazine National Geographic Traveler has devoted its sixth annual “Places Rated” Destination Stewardship survey to the world’s most celebrated and iconic travel destinations and how well they have weathered the pressures of mass tourism and other threats. The survey is the cover story of the November-December 2009 issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine, on newsstands Nov. 3rd.

A total of 133 destinations were surveyed by a panel of 437 well-traveled experts in a variety of fields related to sustainable tourism. Chris Seek and David Brown of Solimar International were among the experts in the panel.

See more details on the 133 iconic destinations ranked for wisely managed tourism at http://traveler.nationalgeographic.com/2009/11/destinations-rated/list-text

 

 
Operations Training Program Conducted for New Enterprises in Ecuador

4/05/09 – Yachana Lodge, Ecuador

In an effort to fill a void of understanding regarding community tourism enterprise operations, Solimar International has recently completed the first of four modules in the ESTA Operations Training Program.  This training program takes a comprehensive approach to tourism product development, focusing on building capacity of community members to manage and promote the end product.  The course participants include four local community “Managers”, each from a place where the ESTA is either establishing a new community tourism enterprise or supporting an existing one.   The training will culminate in each participating Manager receiving their own customized Operations Manual for their enterprise, including financial procedures, tour and job-specific “checklists”, reservations forms, annual training calendars, and job descriptions, among other critical resources.  Given the participants’ positive response to the first training module, great things are expected from future sessions.

 
Launch of Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria

10/06/08 – Barcelona, Spain

United Nations Foundation Founder and Chairman Ted Turner today announced the launch of The Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC) at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) conference in Barcelona, Spain.  Solimar played a central role in the development of the criteria, which offer a common framework for implementing sustainability in the tourism industry.  Specifically, Solimar led efforts to aggregate, weigh, and vet over 1,000 criteria used worldwide.  Solimar also provided comprehensive private sector outreach to acquire feedback on the applicability and utility of each criterion, and to better understand what is needed to mainstream sustainable tourism and foment criteria compliance.  Efforts to implement the Criteria are ongoing on several fronts: education and training resources, marketing and distribution solutions, indicator development, and communications. Given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Criteria received at the IUCN conference and the growing number of businesses and organizations interested in joining the GSTC Partnership, the GSTC will continue to play an increasingly important role in the mainstreaming of sustainable tourism.  

To learn more, visit www.sustainabletourismcriteria.org

 
Launch of Geotourism MapGuide for Northern Mozambique

3/1/09 – Maputo, Mozambique

Solimar is pleased to announce the launch of the Geotourism MapGuide for Northern Mozambique.  The MapGuide highlights the North’s unique tourism attractions and is being distributed to inbound and outbound tour operators all over the world. The launch event coincided with the unveiling of a new national brand for Mozambique’s tourism industry, and was attended by a host of dignitaries, including the President of Mozambique, Armando Guebuza.   Jonathan Tourtellot, director of National Geographic’s Center for Sustainable Destinations, demonstrated both the online-interactive and printed versions of the MapGuide, each of which elicited very positive feedback from those in attendance.

To learn more, please visit www.northern-mozambique.com/geotourism