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LGBT Meeting Professionals Association announces more member benefits

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Today the LGBT Meeting Professionals Association (LGBT MPA) announces new member benefits including the first LGBT Supplier Diversity resource guide and a new member portal with educational content, mentoring, and professional development opportunities. The new benefits also include a Members Guide and Forum are designed to build community and advance inclusivity of the meeting planning industry.

The MPA Supplier Diversity Guide is the first comprehensive resource listing vendors that meet the LGBT
MPA’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) standards. The guide is available online at the organization’s website.

“We know some meeting planners don’t control where their meetings are held. This alone can make it difficult to meet diversity expectations,” said David Jefferys, Executive Director. “Our new Supplier Diversity Guide provides information so meeting planners can choose to support vendors that meet LGBT MPA D&I standards and allow them to plan meetings that comply with their organization’s inclusivity goals.”

The LGBT MPA’s new member portal is a business resource as well as an active professional development source. In addition to the LGBT MPA Supplier Diversity Guide, members can post RFPs and job listings.

“We are very proud of our new member professional benefits and we are equally proud of the addition of our business-focused benefits,” said Jim Clapes, LGBT MPA Board Chairman and Conference & Events Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance. “We believe that the LGBT MPA Supplier Diversity will allow members to allocate dollars to vendors who support inclusivity.

Because, in the end we are all business professionals and diversity is good for business.”

More about LGBT MPA

The LGBT Meeting Professionals Association (LGBT MPA) is the first and only association for this industry group. Statistically, there are an estimated 100,000 meeting professionals currently practicing in the United States. LGBT MPA predicts in the US that 8,000 to 12,000 of these professionals working in the field are members of the LGBT community. Globally the current estimate is 18,000 to 23,000.

The LGBT MPA was founded in August 2016 by Dave Jefferys, president and CEO of the Altus Agency, a Philadelphia-based marketing enterprise firm specializing in LGBT travel and the Executive Officers and the Board. Membership for LGBT professionals is free.

MEDIA CONTACT: David Jefferys, Executive Director LGBT Meeting Professionals Association [email protected]    

Association of National Tourist Offices joins African Tourism Board

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ANTOR , the Association of National Tourist Offices and Representatives in the U.K. recently joined the African Tourism Board as a founding member.

ANTOR is the principal lobbying organization for the world’s tourist offices in Britain.

ANTOR celebrates its 67th anniversary in 2019 with 60 members worldwide. ANTOR’s objectives include providing a fraternal forum for its members to meet and exchange ideas, to forge close relationships with all other sectors of the travel industry; to be recognized as one of the foremost advocates of responsible tourism and to comment on a wide range of issues affecting worldwide travel and tourism.

Founded in 2018, the African Tourism Board an association that is internationally acclaimed for acting as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to the African region.

More information on the African Tourism Board: www.africantourismboard.com

MEDIA CONTACT: TravelMarketingNetwork, 954 Lexington Ave. #1037, New York, NY 10021 USA, PH: (+1) 718-374-6816, [email protected]   

African Tourism Board and Africa Tourism Association join forces to support World to Africa’ Tourism Conference in Johannesburg

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New York-based African Tourism Association is getting ready for their World to Africa’ Tourism Conference. The event in Johannesburg is organized in partnership with South Africa Tourism. ATA’s conference is scheduled for July 22-26 at  Constitution Hill, one of South Africa’s most important historic sites.  Constitution Hill is a living museum that tells the story of South Africa’s journey to democracy. The site is a former prison and military fort that bears testament to South Africa’s turbulent past and, today, is home to the country’s Constitutional Court, which endorses the rights of all citizens.

The conference will focus on innovative business models, best practices, creative industries, and strategic partnerships growing in the tourism sector. The Conference will bring together government leaders, international investors, industry stakeholders, and travel professionals from across the globe to discuss how tourism can be utilized as a platform for resiliency, an engine for economic growth, and job creation.

Conference features include capacity building sessions for SMEs and a pop-up marketplace showcasing African designers from across the continent.

ATA wants stakeholders to join them. ATA’s message is:

  • Meet key stakeholders from the travel and tourism industry
  • Market your brand and generate new business leads
  • Discover Innovative Models transforming African tourism
  • Experience different African destinations and grow your travel services and packages
  • Explore opportunities for investment along the tourism and hospitality value chain
  • Take part in discussions focused on Africa’s tourism market development
  • Engage with government leaders and initiate public-private community partnership discussions

South Africa and U.S. based African Tourism Board president  Alain St. Ange from Seychelles will be delivering a keynote speech. ATB CEO Doris Woerfel and Vice President Cuthbert Ncube will be in the audience.

African Tourism Board (ATB) Chairman Juergen Steinmetz said from Hawaii: “We’re humbled Naledi Khabo, The Africa Tourism Association (ATA) executive director invited the African Tourism Board to be part of this important event for Africa.
We are pleased to work with ATA as a partner and also encourage our members and supporters to join in and make Africa one Tourist Destination. My publication eTurboNews supported ATA for many years and we are pleased to be able and do this again.  #ThisIsAfrica is a very appropriate hashtag to use when tweeting.”

More information and to register. Go to  www.worldtoafrica.org

More information on African Tourism Board: www.africantourismboard.com
More information on the Africa Tourism Association: www.ataworldwide.org/

Moscow selected to host annual GSMA Mobile 360 Series event

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Eurasia conference, a regional event held as part of the activities of GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association), will be held in Moscow, October 8-9 2019.

The decision to host the event in Moscow was adopted as a result of an active work of the Russian Convention Bureau which provided the proposal for venues, and organized an inspection visit for representatives of the international association.

The event will be held in Moscow for the second time, following the successful launch in 2018 which gathered over 600 attendees from 21 countries and 52% were Director-level and above.

In 2019, the conference and exhibition will bring together over 600 policymakers, regulatory authorities, international organisations, Mobile Network Operators, mobile technology solution providers and broader ICT ecosystem players from Russia, the CIS region and the international market leaders in 5G technology. The event will be held at the Lotte Hotel Moscow.

Anton Kobyakov, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, said: “The sphere of mobile and high technologies plays a key role in stimulating economic growth, attracting foreign investments and increasing global competitiveness through development of science and technology. Adding more industries to the list of events organized by the Russian Convention Bureau will not only facilitate the development of corresponding areas of the real economy sector but also help create the image of the country on the international arena as one of the most meaningful players on the market of the event industry.”

Alexey Kalachev, Director of the Russian Convention Bureau, said: “We use various tools of working with international associations as we work to attract various business events to Russia. We are ready to offer universal and customized solutions that will correspond to the needs and expectations of conference organizers of various scale in different industries.”

Travel News | eTurboNews

State of the Air: Hawaii boasts some of the best air quality in the nation

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The American Lung Association’s 2019 “State of the Air” report found that Hawaii has some of the cleanest air in the U.S. and Honolulu and Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina are two of the cleanest areas in the country. Honolulu County had a new record low for an annual average of particle pollution, and less than half the highest ever level recorded in 2009-2011.

Each year the “State of the Air” provides a report card on the two most widespread outdoor air pollutants, ozone pollution, also known as smog, and particle pollution, also called soot. The report analyzes particle pollution in two ways: through average annual particle pollution levels and short-term spikes in particle pollution. Both ozone and particle pollution are dangerous to public health and can increase the risk of premature death and other serious health effects such as lung cancer, asthma attacks, cardiovascular damage, and developmental and reproductive harm.

“People in Hawaii are breathing some of the cleanest air in the nation, but increasing climate change is threatening our air quality,” said Kahala Howser, Executive Director for the American Lung Association in Hawaii. “While we are very happy with this report, Hawaiians must remain vigilant when we have vog episodes. Additionally, more than four in 10 Americans are living with unhealthy air, and we’re heading in the wrong direction when it comes to protecting public health and people’s lives.”

Honolulu had no unhealthy air days for ozone pollution. Nationally, this year’s report showed that ozone levels increased in most cities nationwide, in large part due to the record-breaking global heat experienced in the three years tracked in the report.

While the report examined data from 2015-2017, this 20th annual report online provides information on air pollution trends back to the first report. Learn more about Hawaii’s rankings, as well as air quality across and the nation, in the 2019 “State of the Air” report at Lung.org/sota. For media interested in speaking with an expert about lung health, healthy air, and threats to air quality, contact Holly Harvey at [email protected] or 206-512-3292.

2019 Cleanest Cities

Cleanest cities in the U.S (on all three categories of cleanest cities described below)

• Bangor, ME
• Burlington-South Burlington, VT
• Honolulu, HI
• Lincoln-Beatrice, NE
• Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL
• Wilmington, NC

Cleanest for Ozone Pollution (zero unhealthy air days – all counties)

• Anchorage, AK
• Bellingham, WA
• Casper, WY
• Fairbanks, AK
• Idaho Falls-Rexburg-Blackfoot, ID
• Honolulu, HI

Cleanest for Short-term Particle Pollution (zero unhealthy air days – all counties)

• Honolulu, HI

Cleanest Cities for Year-Round Particle Pollution (twenty-five cities with the lowest annual levels)

1. Cheyenne, WY (tie)
1. Honolulu, HI (tie)
1. Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, HI (tie)
4. Casper, WY (tie)
4. St. George, UT (tie)
6. Elmira-Corning, NY
7. Duluth, MN-WI (tie)
7. Pueblo-Canon City, CO (tie)
9. Bismarck, ND (tie)
10. Bellingham, WA (tie)
10. Syracuse-Auburn, NY (tie)

Travel News | eTurboNews