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African Game Rangers: Key conservation tourism partners in stress

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Wildlife is the leading tourist attraction and source of tourist revenue in Africa other than rich historical and cultural heritage the continent has been endowed with.

Wildlife photographic safaris attract millions of tourists from Europe, America and Asia to visit this continent to spend their holidays in wildlife protected areas.

Despite its rich wildlife resources, Africa is still facing poaching problems which had so far, frustrated conservation of wildlife despite the efforts on place to arrest the situation. African governments in collaboration with global wildlife and nature conservation organizations are now working together to save the African wildlife from extinction, mostly the endangered species.

Wildlife rangers in Africa are the number one conservation partners who had committed their lives to protect the wild creatures from human miseries, but working at risk from humans and the wild animals which they had committed to protect.

The rangers are facing numerous psychological pressures leading to potentially serious mental health implications. They are frequently subjected to violent confrontations inside and outside their work.

Many rangers see their families as little as once a year, causing immense stress to personal relationships and the mental strain.

In Tanzania, for example, a community leader was killed by a suspected poacher in an attempt to prevent poaching in the Tarangire National Park, the famous wildlife tourist park in northern Tanzania.

The village leader Mr. Faustine Sanka had his head cut off by a suspected poacher who, disastrously ended the life of the community leader near the park in February this year.

Police said that the brutal killing of the village chairman, Mr. Faustine Sanka was done just to frustrate anti-poaching in Tarangire National Park which is rich in elephants and other big African mammals.

The suspected poachers killed the village leader by cutting off his head using a sharp instrument. After killing him, his body was wrapped in a plastic bag and his motorbike he was riding was left there, police officers said.

Early in April last year, suspected member of an armed militia gunned down five wildlife rangers and the driver in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It was the worst attack in Virunga’s bloody history, and the latest in a long line of tragic incidents in which rangers have lost their lives defending the planet’s natural heritage, conservation media reports said.

Despite a growing awareness of the vulnerability of many of the world’s most beloved and charismatic species such as elephants and rhinos, there is little awareness and virtually no research into the stress and possible mental health implications for those tasked with defending them, conservationists said.

“We have got to take care of the people that make a difference,” said Johan Jooste, head of anti-poaching forces at South Africa National Parks (SANParks).

In real fact, more research has been conducted on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among elephants following a poaching incident than on the rangers protecting them as well.

Wildlife conservation experts further said that 82 percent of rangers in Africa had faced a life-threatening situation in the line of duty.

They described challenging working conditions, community ostracism, isolation from family, poor equipment and inadequate training for many ranger, low pay and little respect as other life threats facing African rangers.

The Thin Greenline Foundation, a Melbourne-based organization dedicated to supporting rangers, has been compiling data on ranger deaths on the job for the last 10 years.

Between 50 and 70 percent of the recorded wildlife ranger deaths in Africa and other wildlife rich continents are carried by poachers. The rest percent of such deaths are due to the challenging conditions rangers face every day, such as working alongside dangerous animals and in perilous environments.

“I can categorically tell you about the 100 to 120 ranger deaths we know of each year,” said Sean Willmore, founder of the Thin Green Line Foundation and president of the International Ranger Federation, a non-profit organization overseeing 90 ranger associations worldwide.

Willmore believes that the true global figure could be much higher, since the organization lacks data from a number of countries in Asia and the Middle East.

Rangers in Tanzania and rest of East Africa are facing the same, life threatening situations while on duty in protecting the wildlife, mostly in national parks, game reserves and forest conserved areas.

Selous Game Reserve, Africa’s largest wildlife protected area has not been spared from such ugly incidents facing the rangers. They work in harsh conditions, traversing hundreds of kilometers on patrol to protect the wildlife, mostly elephants.

Full with stress and psychological problems, the rangers conduct their duties with full commitment to ensure the survival of wildlife in Tanzania and Africa.

In Selous Game Reserve, rangers live far away from their families; succumb to life risks including attacks by wildlife and poachers from neighboring villages, mostly those killing the wild animals for bush meat.

Communities neighboring this park (Selous) have no other source of protein more than bush meat. There is no livestock, poultry and fishing in this part of Africa, a situation which drives villagers to hunt for bush meat.

Rangers in this park as well, suffer from psychological stress from work. Most of them have left their families in towns or other localities in Tanzania to protect the wildlife in the Selous Game Reserve.

“We have our children living alone. I don’t know if my children are doing well in school or not. Sometimes we don’t communicate with our families far away taking into account that no communication services available in this area”, a ranger told eTN.

Mobile phone communication, now the leading source of inter-personal contact in Tanzania, is no longer available in some areas of the Selous Game Reserve due to geographical locations.

“Every everyone is like an enemy here. Local communities are looking for game meat, poachers are looking for trophies for business, the government is looking for revenue, tourists are looking for protection against robbers and all like that. This burden is our backs,” the ranger told eTN.

Politicians and wildlife managers are driving posh cars in big cities enjoying high class lifestyles, banking on hardships the rangers are currently facing.

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Hyatt Regency Cologne says no to President Obama after WTTC Summit Seville

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U.S. President Barak Obama is on a tourism trip. Today he is expected to be the star participant at the World Travel and Tourism Council Annual Summit 2019 in Seville, Spain.

On Thursday the popular former president is on his way to the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Cologne. Mark Hoplamazian, CEO of Hyatt is listed to be a participant at today’s WTTC Summit and most likely would love to make sure the president could enjoy the presidential suite at the four-star Hotel in Cologne Deutz.

Unfortunately, not even the CEO is able to arrange this for the popular former US president,  since the suite is fully booked and occupied until April 30, according to sources at Hyatt.

The hotel is known for an unobstructed view of the famous Cologne Cathedral from Rhine River Facing rooms and junior suites, however. The Hyatt Regency is in a short walk over a pedestrian bridge crossing River Rhein to the Cathedral and the Roman museum are in walking distance from the hotel.

President Obama will be a speaker at the World Leadership Summit in Cologne on Thursday at the Cologne Lanxess Arena. This is a public event, and tickets are available from 85,55 EUR bis 206,30 EUR plus a number of VIP tickets for EURO 5,000.00 that includes a dinner with the president.

According to local media reports the event in Cologne sold 10,000 tickets so far, but there are 5,000 tickets still available.

The former president will meet her half-sister Auma. She studied in Heidelberg and speaks German.

From Cologne, the president will move on to Berlin and will be answering questions by your people on Saturday in a town-hall meeting.

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Death for gay guests at Beverly Hills Hotel or Hotel Bel‑Air? Dorchester Collection issues a statement

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The Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel-Air are part of the Dorchester Collection group and upscale 5-star accommodation in Beverly Hills 2 miles from West Hollywood, known to be the Gayest City in America.

The Sultan controls the Dorchester Collection hotel group, owner of Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel‑Air among others. This is because the Sultan controls the Brunei Investment Agency (SWF). The Sultan hates gays to death.

The Sultan Hassanai Bolkiah is the head of State of Brunei and also one of the richest people on earth. He is powerful enough to put action behind his deadly wishes for the LGBT community. Stoning LGBT visitors to death in Brunei is the law as of tomorrow.

The Brunei Investment Agency (BIA) is a government-owned corporation that reports to the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Brunei. Established in 1983, its offices are located in Bandar Seri Begawan at the Ministry of Finance.

It ranks among the most secretive of sovereign wealth funds It was established in 1983, when the sultanate took over investment activities from its former colonial master, the United Kingdom. BIA invests the government General Reserve Fund, money transferred to it on the order of the sultan. Although the fund is a government entity, the line between its finances and those of the royal family remains indistinct, making its investments difficult to track.

George Timothy Clooney and Elton John and many other stars are no longer are staying in hotels operated by Dorchester Collection because there is a dangerous double standard developing right in the United States of America.

“Dorchester Collection’s Code emphasizes equality, respect, and integrity in all areas of our operation, and strongly values people and cultural diversity amongst our guests and employees.  Inclusion and diversity remain core beliefs as we do not tolerate any form of discrimination.”

This was a statement received today by Brittany Williams, the director of Communication for both hotels has a double standard here.

According to Ms. Williams, this code applies to the Dorchester Collection, and all employees wanting to work for the hotel group need to sign this code. Ms. Williams explained the Dorchester Collection is owned by the Dorchester Group.

However, according to an article in Travel Weekly from 2006, the name Dorchester Group was actually changed to Dorchester Collection. If this was the case Dorchester Collection and both Beverly Hill Hotels are directly owned by the Brunei Investment Agency.

Some major foreign assets of BIA include the Dorchester Collection, which is a portfolio of luxury hotels established in 1996; a 10% holding in the Paterson Securities of Australia, and Bahagia Investment Corporation (Malaysia), dealing with real estate.

BIA’s investment portfolio, apart from investments within Brunei, covers diverse investments in bonds, equity, currency, gold, and real estate. It has substantial investments in the United States.

Brunei investors bought The Dorchester on Park Lane in London in 1985 for US$50 million and in 1996 BIA formed the Dorchester Collection, a conglomerate of luxury hotels in UK, USA, France, and Italy which includes it. BIA owns The Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles which was bought for US$185 million in 1987 as well as the Grand Hyatt Singapore Hotel. BIA has a 10% holding in the Paterson Securities of Australia, and Bahagia Investment Corporation of Malaysia, dealing with real estate.

 

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Seychelles recognized as world’s Most Beautiful Island at GQ Travel Awards Russia

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Destination Seychelles was cited as “The Most Beautiful Island” in the world after walking away with the title at the GQ Travel Awards, a ceremony that took place on March 15, 2019, at the Metropol Hotel, in Moscow, Russia.

The GQ Travel Awards ceremony recognizes the leading companies, hotels, and destinations from the elite travel industry. The winners in the 17 different categories including Seychelles were chosen by GQ readers who voted online on the magazine’s website.

The island destination was presented with the award during a ceremony attended by some 250 prominent guests including industry professionals, representatives of host countries, Russian celebrities, and famous travelers, and was followed by a gala dinner.

Ms. Diana Sarkisyan, PR & Marketing representative from the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) for the Russian and CIS region, accepted the award on behalf of Seychelles.

Seychelles remains a high-end destination, popular among Russian visitors for its sandy white beaches, warm turquoise waters, and diverse unique flora and fauna. Various beaches such as Anse Lazio on Praslin have been seen as being among some of the most beautiful in the world.

The island nation is one of the world’s leading actors when it comes to sustainable tourism and sustainable development, a concept to which the Russian visitors are very responsive.

Speaking about the latest recognition received by the destination at the GQ Travel Awards, Mrs. Sherin Francis, STB Chief Executive, mentioned that it is an honor for the destination to have been voted by the readers of GQ magazine.

“It is such a privilege to feature as the most beautiful island; as a destination, we are conscious of our inestimable resources, and we strive to demarcate ourselves by our uniqueness, and it is rewarding to see that our efforts have not gone unnoticed,” said Mrs. Francis.

The STB Chief Executive further stated that the achievement is the result of hard work and congratulated the various partners for their constant support towards building the destination’s reputation.

GQ is a men’s magazine offering analytics and current reports of international quality with the latest men’s fashion and style news. It is the number one magazine for male visitors of luxury department stores.

GQ’s regular authors are the best of the best in their industry, from both Russia and abroad, and has a close access to celebrities unlike any other Russian magazine in its niche. It is an unrivaled guidance and companion for a successful man.

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Young elephant shot 13 times: Tourists watched in horror

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Balule Associated Nature Reserve has justified the killing of a young elephant bull in front of tourists as an ‘act of self-defense’, backtracking on an original announcement condemning the act and ignoring eye-witness accounts.

Balule Nature Reserve is a protected area in Limpopo Province, South Africa which forms part of the Greater Kruger National Park as a member of the Associated Private Nature Reserve

The young elephant bull was shot 13 times in front of four eye-witnesses standing on a viewing deck overlooking Balule’s Maseke Game Reserve, where the hunt took place.

Balule’s Hunting Incident Report states that “the elephant charged [the hunting party] and they shot it when it was five meters from them.”

However, the hunters were never in any danger, says Annelize Slabbert, one of the four onlookers who witnessed the shooting.

She says guests at the lodge saw the whole incident from their unobstructed vantage point.

Her husband, Gerard, affirms this. “After the first shot, I saw the three men standing by their vehicle in the road; the elephant was 80 to 100 meters away from them and starting running in the opposite direction.”

The Slabberts also say the elephant never charged the hunting party. According to Annelize, “it was calmly feeding on a tree when the first shot rang out. The elephant then gave a loud cry and ran for cover in the thicket, with the hunters running in pursuit, firing more shots. Thirteen shots later, after the elephant had fallen in a ditch in an attempt to escape the hunters, its shrieks ceased.”

Later, a TLB, tractor and trailer had to be called in to retrieve the carcass from the deep ditch, the hunting report confirms.

“It is something I will, unfortunately, never forget,” Annelize says. “It was heartbreaking.”

Balule management has vehemently rejected any claims of alcohol use, but the final report states that one member of the hunting party, Sean Nielsen did, in fact, ‘mess his whiskey’ on one of the witnesses who had approached the hunting party after the incident. The report reads that “a heated exchange took place between the witness and Mr Nielson.”

Photographs taken on the scene show Nielsen, the long-term lessee of Maseke Game Reserve, with a glass of tawny liquid in hand. He reportedly acted as the reserve representative on the hunt.

Photo by witness
A witness took this photo

The photographs, Balule chairperson Sharon Haussmann argues, were taken after the shooting and are, therefore, not indicative of a breach of any ethical or general hunting protocols.

Change of tune

When the incident occurred on 23 November last year, Haussmann initiated a full investigation and said that the parties involved would be held accountable. She labelled the incident as “completely unethical and inconsiderate and a huge embarrassment for Balule.” She said “it did not comply with the sustainable utilization model of ethical hunting in accordance with the hunting protocol that governs all reserves within APNR and to which Balule and hence Maseke are bound.”

The full investigation report was shared in full in Febraury this year. The outcome painted an entirely different picture.

Haussmann backtracked on her initial statement and said that “according to the APNR protocol there were no ethical transgressions.

“We don’t approve that it happened in front of a lodge, but unfortunately, the lay of the land was such that it was in view of a lodge,” Haussmann said in January. The full investigation concludes that “besides poor site selection, there is no evidence of ethical breaches that can be actioned by us.”

When asked about the contradicting statements between Balule’s final report and the witness reports sent in as part of the investigation, Haussmann said it was a case of ‘he said, she said’.

“I wasn’t there. I wish I was; then I could tell you for sure [what happened],” she said. The report simply concludes that there’s no reason to doubt the “version put forward by the ‘hunting party’”.

Hunting continues

Kruger National Park’s managing executive Glenn Phillips also previously condemned the hunt and said SANParks was “keenly awaiting the finalisation of the [Balule] investigation”. When questioned on the outcome of the investigation, no further comment was received.

The increasing number of questionable hunting incidents occurring in the Kruger’s adjoining reserves underscores the growing conflict between hunting and photographic safaris operating on the same land in the Assosiated Private Nature Reserves (APNRs).

While this conflict ensues in meetings regarding protocol and ethics, poaching in the park is on the rise and Kruger’s elephants are caught in a dangerous gap between licensed and unlicensed killers.

Kruger recently launched a campaign aimed at fighting elephant poaching in the park’s northern region, however, Balule was given approval by the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) to hunt 22 elephants during the 2019/2020 hunting season, which begins on 1 April. This amounts to nearly half of the 47 elephants permitted to be hunted in all the APNRs this season.

In the previous year, a total of 53 elephants were legally hunted in the APNR, while 71 elephants were poached in the Kruger Park

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Destinations need new resources to tackle the “invisible burden” of tourism

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A report published today by the Travel Foundation, Cornell University’s Centre for Sustainable Global Enterprise and EplerWood International describes how destinations must uncover and account for tourism’s hidden costs, referred to as the “invisible burden,” to protect and manage vital destination assets worldwide. Failing to do so puts ecosystems, cultural wonders, and community life at increasing risk, and places the tourism industry on a weak foundation that could crack under its own weight.

The range of costs not currently accounted for include those needed to:

  • upgrade infrastructure beyond resident needs, to meet tourism demand;
  • manage and protect public spaces, monuments, the environment and natural habitats;
  • mitigate exposure to climate change risks; and
  • address the needs of locals affected by rising real estate prices, driven by the demand from tourism.

Either residents are left to pay these costs, or they are simply not paid, increasingly leading to environmental crises, spoiled tourism assets, and growing dissatisfaction among local residents. Destination authorities urgently need access to new resources, systems and expertise to ensure that, as tourism grows, the true costs of every new visitor are fully covered.

Amid increasing concern about “overtourism” and calls from within the travel industry for improved destination management, the report, Destinations at Risk: The Invisible Burden of Tourism, was commissioned by the Travel Foundation to better understand the challenges and constraints that national and municipal authorities face. It provides a thorough review of the risks that destinations face and the solutions urgently needed, including:

  • New local accounting systems that capture the full range of costs stemming from the growth of tourism, in place of an incomplete set of economic impact measures.
  • New skills and cross sector collaboration, underpinned by data and technology, to achieve effective spatial planning, manage demand for public utilities and services, and evaluate the availability of vital, local resources.
  • New valuation and financing mechanisms to redress debilitating underinvestment in infrastructure and local asset management and enable the transition to low-carbon destination economies.

Principal report author, Megan Epler Wood, said: “The Earth’s greatest treasures are cracking under the weight of the soaring tourism economy.  New data-driven systems to identify the cost of managing tourism’s most valued assets are required to stem a growing crisis in global tourism management.  With the right leadership, finance and analysis in place, a whole new generation of tourism professionals can move forward and erase the invisible burden while benefiting millions around the globe.”

Salli Felton, CEO of the Travel Foundation, said: “The invisible burden goes a long way to explain why we are now witnessing destinations failing to cope with tourism growth, despite the economic benefits it brings. It’s not enough to call on governments and municipalities to manage tourism better, if they don’t have access to the right skills and resources to do so. Destination managers need support to develop new skills and new ways of working that will enable them to move beyond tourism marketing.”

Dr Mark Milstein, co-author of the report, said: “This is a challenge of investing for the long-term health of a critical global economic sector. Future success will require collaboration among business, government, and civil society so that destinations are managed as the valuable, yet vulnerable, assets that they are.”

The authors conclude that some destinations are more vulnerable to the invisible burden and should be prioritised. For instance:

  1. Where there is a high risk of climate change impacts (which would disproportionately affect a visitor economy) – for instance, island states.
  2. Where the rise of the global middle class is driving tourism growth at unsustainable levels – for instance, in Southern and Southeast Asia.
  3. Where there is a high percentage of economic dependence on tourism – for instance, in the Caribbean.
  4. Where the ability of local government to manage tourism growth is low, in terms of budgets and human capital – a problem that has been found in both advanced and emerging economies.

The analysis draws upon academic literature, case studies, expert interviews and media reports, and provides a wealth of examples of the invisible burden.  Cases are drawn from Thailand, Mexico, and the Maldives, as well as Europe, Africa, and Latin America. The report also gives insights into types of data-driven systems, such as GIS mapping tools and the Smart Cities concept, which can address growth issues and facilitate new forms of investment.

The free report is available at invisibleburden.org.

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African Tourism Board tackles visitor surety to keep Africa safe for visitors

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The official launch of the newly-founded African Tourism Board is only two weeks away, and the U.S.-based interim Chairman Juergen T. Steinmetz explained the organization’s commitment to keep Africa safe for visitors.

“Knowing weak points and confronting problems is the best approach.”

The African Tourism Board is working with Dr. Peter Tarlow to offer his decades of knowledge and workable approach to African members in the public and private travel and tourism industry.

ATB invited Dr. Tarlow to deliver a keynote address at the upcoming African Tourism Board launch event on April 11 during World Travel Market.

A variety of international speakers are on the impressive list of the launch event. ATB will be introducing an African-based president, while the US-based interim chairman Juergen Steinmetz will stay on as an advisor as he hands over leadership to the new president.

Among the speakers are Dr. Peter Tarlow, head of certified.travel, which had recently merged activities with eTN Corporation.

Dr. Peter Tarlow has been working for over two decades with hotels, tourism-oriented cities and countries, and both public and private security officers and police in the field of tourism security.

Tourism and More international staff includes some of the leading experts in the field. Dr. Peter Tarlow is a world-renowned expert in the field and a highly-published author.

Dr. Peter E. Tarlow is an internationally-recognized speaker and expert specializing in the impact of crime and terrorism on the tourism industry, event and tourism risk management, and tourism and economic development. Since 1990, Dr. Tarlow has been aiding the tourism community with issues such as travel safety and security, economic development, creative marketing, and creative thought.

Dr. Tarlow is currently consulting the travel security team for the Jamaica Ministry of Tourism.

Peter Tarlow has worked with numerous US government agencies including the US Bureau of Reclamation, US Customs, the FBI, the US Park Service, the Department of Justice, the Speakers Bureau of the US Department of State, the Center for Disease, US Supreme Court police, and the US Department of Homeland Security. He has worked with such US iconic locations as the Statue of Liberty, Philadelphia’s Independence Hall and Liberty Bell, the Empire State Building, St. Louis’ arch, and the Smithsonian’s Institution’s Office of Protection Services in Washington, DC.

Dr. Tarlow has been a keynote speaker for governors’ tourism conferences around the nation including those for Illinois, South Carolina, South Dakota, Washington State, and Wyoming.

He has addresses large-scale US government meetings for such agencies as:

  • The Bureau of Reclamation
  • The US Center for Disease Control
  • The US Park Service
  • The International Olympic Committee

On the international scene he has addressed conferences such as:

  • The Organization of American States (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Panama City, Panama)
  • The Latin American Hotel Association (Quito Ecuador, San Salvador, El Salvador and Puebla, Mexico)
  • The Caribbean Chiefs of Police Association (Barbados)
  • The International Organization for Security and Intelligence – IOSI  ((Vancouver, Canada)
  • The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Ottowa
  • The French Hotel Association CNI-SYNHORCAT (Paris)

Additionally, Dr. Tarlow is a featured speaker for numerous US embassies and with foreign tourism ministries around the world. For example, in his role as an expert in tourism security, he has worked with:

  • Vancouver’s Justice Institute  (2010 Olympic games)
  • The police departments of the state of Rio de Janeiro (2014 World Cup Games)
  • The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
  • The United Nation’s WTO (World Tourism Organization)
  • The Panama Canal Authority
  • Police forces in Aruba, Bolivia, Brazil, Curaçao, Colombia, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Serbia, and Trinidad & Tobago

In 2013, the Chancellor of the Texas A&M system named him his Special Envoy. In 2015, the Faculty of Medicine of Texas A&M University asked Dr. Tarlow to “translate” his tourism skills into practical courses for new physicians. As such, he teaches courses in customer service, creative thinking, and medical ethics at the Texas A&M medical school.

In 2016, the international engineering firm Gannet-Fleming appointed Dr. Tarlow its Senior Security and Safety Specialist. Also in 2016, Governor Gregg Abbot of Texas named Peter as the Chairman of the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission. As such, he has wide experience in dealing with protest marches and other public events that touch upon that theme.

Dr. Tarlow organizes tourism security conferences around the world, including the International Tourism Safety Conference in Las Vegas along with conferences in St. Kitts, Charleston (South Carolina), Bogota, Colombia, Panama City, Croatia, and Curaçao.

He lectures and trains tourism professionals and security personnel in multiple languages on a wide range of current and future trends in the tourism industry, rural tourism economic development, the gaming industry, issues of crime and terrorism, the role of police departments in urban economic development, and international trade. Some of the other topics about which he speaks are: the sociology of terrorism, its impact on tourism security and risk management, the US government’s role in post terrorism recovery, and how communities and businesses must face a major paradigm shift in the way they do business.

Dr. Tarlow publishes extensively in these areas and writes numerous professional reports for US governmental agencies and for businesses throughout the world. He has been asked to be an expert witness in courts throughout the United States on matters concerning tourism security and safety, and issues of risk management.

As a well-known author in the field of tourism security, Dr. Tarlow is a contributing author to multiple books on tourism security, and he publishes numerous academic and applied research articles regarding issues of security including articles published in The Futurist, the Journal of Travel Research, and Security Management. His wide range of professional and scholarly articles include subjects such as: “dark tourism,” theories of terrorism, economic development through tourism, and religion and terrorism and cruise tourism. Dr. Tarlow also writes and publishes the popular on-line tourism newsletter Tourism Tidbits read by thousands of tourism and travel professionals around the world in its English, Spanish, and Portuguese language editions.

Among the books that Dr. Tarlow has authored are:

  • Event Risk Management and Safety(2002).
  • Twenty Years of Tourism Tidbits: The Book (2011)
  • Abordagem Multdisciplinar dos Cruzeiros Turísticos (co-written 2014, in Portuguese)
  • Tourism Security: Strategies for Effective Managing Travel Risk and Safety (2014)
  • A Segurança: Um desafío para os setores de lazer, viagens e turismo, 2016 published (in Portuguese) and republished in English
  • Sports Travel Security (2017)

At numerous universities around the world, Dr. Tarlow lectures on security issues, life safety issues, and event risk management. These universities include institutions in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Pacific Islands, and the Middle East. He earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Texas A&M University and also holds degrees in history, in Spanish and Hebrew literatures, and in psychotherapy.

Dr. Tarlow has appeared on national televised programs such as Dateline: NBC and on CNBC and is a regular guest on radio stations around the US. He is the recipient of the International Chiefs of Police highest civilian honor in recognition for his work in tourism security.

Peter is a founder and president of Tourism & More Inc. (T&M). Tourism & More recently joined forces with the eTN Corporation under certified.travel.

He is a past president of the Texas Chapter of the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA), and Dr. Tarlow is a member of the International Editorial Boards around the world.

For more on the African Tourism Board and the launch event in Cape Town on April 11, visit africantourismboard.com.

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Ethiopian Airlines CEO believes in The New Spirit of Africa and pledges to work with Boeing

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Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO, Ethiopian Airlines issued a statement today.

He wrote: “It has been more than two weeks since the tragic crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302. The heartbreak for the families of the passengers and crew who perished will be lasting. This has forever changed their lives, and we at Ethiopian Airlines will feel the pain forever. I pray that we all continue to find strength in the weeks and months ahead.

The people of Ethiopia feel this very deeply, too. As a state-owned airline and the flagship carrier for our nation, we carry the torch for the Ethiopian brand around the world. In a nation that sometimes is saddled with negative stereotypes, accidents like this affect our sense of pride.

Yet this tragedy won’t define us. We pledge to work with Boeing and our colleagues in all the airlines to make air travel even safer.

As the largest aviation group on the continent of Africa, we represent The New Spirit of Africa and will continue to move forward. We are rated as a 4-star global airline with a high safety record and member of Star Alliance. That will not change.

Full Cooperation

The investigation of the accident is well underway, and we will learn the truth. At this time, I do not want to speculate as to the cause. Many questions on the B-737 MAX airplane remain without answers, and I pledge full and transparent cooperation to discover what went wrong.

As it is well known in our global aviation industry, the differences training between the B-737 NG and the B-737 MAX recommended by Boeing and approved by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration called for computer-based training, but we went beyond that. After the Lion Air accident in October, our pilots who fly the Boeing 737 Max 8 were fully trained on the service bulletin issued by Boeing and the Emergency Airworthiness Directive issued by the USA FAA. Among the seven Full Flight Simulators that we own and operate, two of them are for B-737 NG and the B-737 MAX. We are the only airline in Africa among the very few in the world with the B-737 MAX full flight Simulator. Contrary to some media reports, our pilots who fly the new model were trained on all appropriate simulators.

The crews were well trained on this aircraft.

Immediately after the crash and owing to the similarity with the Lion Air Accident, we grounded our fleet of Max 8s. Within days, the plane had been grounded around the world. I fully support this. Until we have answers, putting one more life at risk is too much.

Belief in Boeing, U.S. Aviation

Let me be clear: Ethiopian Airlines believes in Boeing. They have been a partner of ours for many years. More than two-thirds of our fleet is Boeing. We were the first African airline to fly the 767, 757, 777-200LR, and we were the second nation in the world (after Japan) to take delivery of the 787 Dreamliner. Less than a month ago, we took delivery of yet another new two 737 cargo planes (a different version from the one that crashed). The plane that crashed was less than five months old.

Despite the tragedy, Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines will continue to be linked well into the future.

We also are proud of our association with U.S. aviation. The general public does not know that Ethiopian Airlines was founded in 1945 with help from Trans World Airlines (TWA). In the early years, our pilots, flight crews, mechanics and managers were actually employees of TWA.

In the 1960s, after the handoff, TWA continued in an advisory capacity, and we’ve continued to use American jets, American jet engines and American technology. Our mechanics are Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certified.

Our first direct passenger service to the U.S. began in June 1998, and today we fly direct to Africa from Washington, Newark, Chicago and Los Angeles. This summer, we will begin flying from Houston. Our cargo flights connect in Miami, Los Angeles and New York.

U.S. travel to Africa has increased more than 10 percent in the last year, second only to travel to Europe in term of the percentage increase — traveling to Africa has increased more than traveling to Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, South America, Central America or the Caribbean. The future is bright, and Ethiopian Airlines will be here to meet the demand.

In less than a decade, Ethiopian Airlines has tripled the size of its fleet – we now have 113 Boeing, Airbus and Bombardier aircraft flying to 119 international destinations in five continents. We have one of the youngest fleet in the industry; our average fleet age is five years while industry average is 12 years. Moreover, we have tripled the passenger volume, now flying more than 11 million passengers annually.

Each year, our Aviation Academy trains more than 2,000 pilots, flight attendants, maintenance workers and other employees for Ethiopian Airlines and several other African airlines. We are the company others turn to for aviation expertise. In the last 5 years, we have invested more than half a Billion dollars in training and other infrastructure in our Addis Ababa base.

We will work with investigators in Ethiopia, in the U.S. and elsewhere to figure out what went wrong with flight 302.

We resolve to work with Boeing and others to use this tragedy to make the skies safer for the world.”

Travel News | eTurboNews

Uganda travel and trafficking

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Sub-Saharan Africa has enormous tourism potential: leopards lounging in acacia trees, elephant herds drifting across vast savannah plains, gorillas and chimps rioting in deep forests, the earliest traces of human beings and their works. But according to the World Bank, the region receives a mere 3% of global tourism arrivals.

What scares tourists off may have something to do with an unfair, continent-wide reputation for lawlessness. There is a way around this. During the 1970s, entrepreneurs created the idea of eco-tourism as an alternative to the sun and sand package tours that wreaked havoc on the environment and local communities. Perhaps the eco-tourism concept could be expanded to encompass human rights more broadly, focusing not just on the ethical conduct of companies but on governments as well. Thus, travelers could be assured that their fees, taxes and entertainment dollars aren’t being used to support regimes engaged in grand corruption, human rights abuses, wildlife trafficking and the persecution of minorities.

Uganda’s new tourism push is a case in point. The government hopes to welcome four million visitors in 2020, more than double the current number. The Uganda Investment Authority is expediting bids from eco-tourism companies to develop ten sites in the nation’s national parks, including Queen Elizabeth, Masindi and Kidepo Valley. The World Bank has lent Uganda $25 million dollars to build a new hotel and tourism school, purchase equipment such as buses, game drive trucks, boats and binoculars and hire public relations firms to market Uganda in US, Europe, the Middle East and China. In October, Kanye West boosted the publicity effort by recording a music video in one of Uganda’s fine resorts and also visited Statehouse where he presented President Yoweri Museveni with a pair of his patented sneakers. Then in January, Tourism Minister Godfrey Kiwanda launched a beauty contest to identify Miss “Curvy” Uganda, whose zaftig figure will appear in tourism brochures.

The downside of Uganda’s tourism campaign is that every safari-goer it attracts will pay fees to government agencies such as the Uganda Wildlife Authority, which is currently engaged in a program of violent evictions that have left thousands of people in northern Uganda’s Acholi region destitute, and has also been implicated in trafficking in ivory, pangolin scales and other illegal wildlife products, both inside Uganda and in neighboring countries.

Since 2010, thousands of huts in Apaa, northern Uganda have been burned to the ground, and animals and belongings stolen by UWA officials and members of other security agencies. The government claims the area is gazetted for a game reserve, but residents say their families have lived in the area for generations and have nowhere else to go. Sixteen people have been killed and thousands, mainly women and children are now homeless. Some of the raids appear to have been carried out by members of the neighboring Madi ethnic group, and government officials have characterized them as ethnically motivated. However, the Madi and Acholi have lived in peace for generations and some suspect that senior government officials may be inciting the attackers.

Meanwhile, CITES, the international body that tracks endangered species has named Uganda as a global hub for the illegal wildlife trade. After damning reports about the scale of poaching in Kenya and Tanzania revealed that elephant populations were plummeting in both countries, stricter laws and better enforcement resulted in a nearly 80 percent decline in poaching in Kenya since 2013. Tougher enforcement has also resulted in steep declines in poaching in Tanzania. But between 2009 and 2016 an estimated 20 tons of ivory were trafficked via Uganda, along with over 3000 kilograms of pangolin scales.

The trade in wildlife products appears to be organized by senior officers of the army and UWA. Ivory traffickers working along the Uganda-Congo border told Belgian political scientist Kristof Titeca that much of their loot came from Congo and the Central African Republic, where the Ugandan Army, with US support, unsuccessfully tried to track down the notorious warlord Joseph Kony between 2012 and 2017. Thus, US taxpayers may have inadvertently facilitated Uganda’s wildlife crimes.

Uganda’s recently established Standards, Utilities and Wildlife Court, which is supposed to deal with trafficking crimes has begun prosecuting and convicting low level traffickers—the men who transport the goods to Kampala for export – but as yet there have been no prosecutions of those suspected of organizing the trade. When 1.35 metric tons of confiscated ivory disappeared from a Uganda Wildlife Authority storehouse in 2014, the director was suspended for two months and then reinstated. According to a 2017 Enough Project report, two senior Uganda Wildlife Authority officials quit the force in despair after apprehending traffickers and then being ordered by officials in President Yoweri Museveni’s office to drop the cases.

Uganda’s own elephants have largely been spared, and their numbers may even have increased in recent years. But other animals have not been so lucky. In 2014, the UWA granted a local company a license to collect thousands of pounds of scales from the shy, aardvark-like creatures known as pangolins. While officials claimed that the intention was to purchase the scales from people who’d collected them from animals who had died of natural causes, there’s little doubt that huge numbers of pangolins were killed as a result.

Unfortunately, the World Bank’s assistance to Uganda could be making things worse. It’s $25 million Tourism Sector Competitiveness and Labor Force Development loan, approved in 2013, is part of a larger $100 million Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project which, according to project documents, allocates 21% – or $21 million, to government agencies, including the Uganda Wildlife Authority. World Bank spokespersons declined say how much of that will go to the UWA, and what the money will spent on, other than “systems strengthening and procuring tourism assets.”

Before the World Bank launches any project, it commissions an environmental impact assessment, as well as a review of safeguards to protect habitats and indigenous people who might be affected by it. In this case, the safeguards and Impact Assessment documents don’t consider the risk that Ugandan security agencies, including the army and UWA, might use funds raised from the project to engage in human rights abuses and trafficking.

This matters because countless development groups, including the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, the Red Cross and the World Bank itself– have seen millions of dollars in funding sink into Uganda’s swamp of corruption. Billions more have been siphoned out of the Treasury and the workers’ pension fund and or in inflated bids for infrastructure projects such as roads and dams.

In power for 33 years, Uganda’s leader Yoweri Museveni has hung on in part by spending funds looted from various development projects on voter bribery and harsh repression. In 2017, he sent Special Forces troops into Parliament to beat up MPs who were trying to block debate about a bill that would enable him to rule for life. One of the victims, MP Betty Nambooze, may never walk unaided again. Then in August, the same Special Forces arrested and tortured four other MPs and dozens of their supporters, including the famous pop star-politician Bobi Wine

Some of Museveni’s opposition-politician-victims, if allowed to govern, might – like the leaders of Tanzania and Kenya–do a better job of protecting Uganda’s people and its wildlife than he has. But as long as the World Bank and other donors keep allowing Museveni’s government to get away with corruption, human rights abuses and wildlife trafficking, these activities will only continue. While the World Bank continues to ignore this reality, Uganda’s prospective investors and tourists should steer their dollars towards less odious regimes.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Passenger evacuation underway from Viking Sky cruise ship stranded off Norway

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The cruise ship Viking Sky, which lost engine power and drifted towards land off Norway earlier on Saturday managed to start one of its engines and is now anchored 2km off the shore, Norwegian police say.

While initial reports indicated the ship had 1,300 passengers aboard, the ship operator’s website lists its capacity at 930, thus the figure appears to include the vessel’s crew.

Several helicopters and sea vessels have been dispatched to the location to evacuate people from the stalled ship.

The passengers were hoisted up one by one from the deck and airlifted to land, according to the rescue service, which said “it will take a long time” to evacuate everyone, if the need arises.

About 100 people were evacuated by 15:30 GMT, according to police.

Travel News | eTurboNews