With the scare mongering of man-made global warming going, going and almost gone off the radar map, climate change gurus are opening the door to “World Green Tourism” starting in Abu Dhabi.
It’s a “new kind of sustainable tourism” that “can protect (the) United Arab Emirates (UAE’s) cultural heritage” (Automobil Sport.com, Dec. 5, 2011).
And God only knows the UAE’s cultural heritage must be sustained.
Last month when the green in most people’s minds came with the family Christmas tree, ‘World Green Tourism’--the first commercial conference and exhibition specifically for the sustainable tourism sector--opened in Abu Dhabi.
Dragged out of Hong Kong mothballs for the World Green Tourism conference with its declaration that “a new kind of sustainable tourism can help protect the UAE’s cultural heritage” was UN Poster Boy, Maurice Strong, introduced as Founder Chairman of Cosmos International Inc. and Senior Advisor to Secretary General of United Nations Rio+20.
Strong has been living in China since the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal.
While Strong’s former business cohort in the Chinese Chery venture, deliberately aimed at putting the USA car market out of business George Soros was working to crash the euro before going after the US dollar, Strong, at age 82, was “greening” what is left of the world tourism industry.
This is not the stuff of Science Fiction, but the New World according to Strong and Soros.
For his “pivotal role in shaping the global sustainable development agenda”, Strong was presented with the “inaugural Green Tourism Award” at the conference.
Sponsored by the Etihad Airways, in partnership with the International Council of Tourism Partners (ICTP), the award also acknowledges Strong’s “outstanding efforts to encourage thought leadership and action for green initiatives in travel and tourism”.
Moderated by Professor Geoffrey Lipman, a world authority on green tourism, the first of a series of panel debates dealt with the question of how can large scale tourism ever be made sustainable, and whether the industry’s large players are doing enough. The speakers were Amr Abdel Ghaffer, Regional Director for the Middle, East, UNWTO, Ruth Holroyd, Group Head of Sustainability, the Thomas Cook Group, Prof. Harold Goodwin, Director, International Centre for Responsible Tourism and Hisham Zaazou, Egypt’s Senior Assistant Minister of Tourism.
"How can large-scale tourism ever be made sustainable" should start with "why do so many green gurus fly so often on airplanes to United Nations conventions held in faraway and exotic places?"
Speakers also included Dr. Rebecca Hawkins, Consultant and Associate, Travelwatch Ltd., Niranjan Khatri, General Manager, WelcomEnviron Initiatives, ITC Hotels, Joseph Dolan, Managing Director of the award-winning Bush Hotel in Northern Ireland, and Raki Phillips, Area Director, Sales & Marketing, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.
While greenies gather to “green” tourism most little people worry about the disappearing ‘greenbacks’ the leaders of the Go Green UN is creating.
Green travel to the masses is how to pay for the gas needed to get them to jobs in 10-year-old cars.
Meanwhile, until the man-made recession came along in 2008, the tourism industry was already green.
Judi McLeod——Bio and Archives
-- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.
With the scare mongering of man-made global warming going, going and almost gone off the radar map, climate change gurus are opening the door to “World Green Tourism” starting in Abu Dhabi.
It’s a “new kind of sustainable tourism” that “can protect (the) United Arab Emirates (UAE’s) cultural heritage” (Automobil Sport.com, Dec. 5, 2011).
And God only knows the UAE’s cultural heritage must be sustained.
