22 July 2011 -

Jamaica's Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, is embracing a tourism plan for the island that offers several distinct, focused tourism packages, such as sports tourism and faith-based tourism. But toursim officials like Bartlett are being criticized for pushing this approach, as opposed to a more holistic marketing strategy.
Dr. Janice Lindsay, a world heritage scholar, said she thinks marketing the culture of Jamaica as a whole, rather than breaking down its tourist-attracting potential into specific areas of interest, would be a better approach. She says Jamaica should draw tourists' attention to the overall cultural heritage of the island. She argues that the fragmented approach to tourism is not only unnecessary - especially because Jamaican culture in general holds a great deal of appeal worldwide - but more expensive.

See the original article, on jamaicaobserver.com's news website, here.

Despite letter to UN, proposed Serengeti Highway could remain a possibility

29 June 2011 -

A letter from the Tanzanian government to the United Nations's World Heritage Center is causing confusion in the international community about the proposed construction of a commercial Serengeti Highway through Serengeti National Park.
Conservationists and world heritage advocates are puzzling over the letter's ambiguous language and certain indeterminate word choices. Though many throughout the international heritage community originally heralded the letter as an announcement of the construction project's abandonment, second looks at the message have raised alarming doubts about the Tanzanian government's intentions on whether or not to build the road.
The Tanzanian government incited uproar among the international heritage committee last summer when it announced its intentions to build a 33-mile highway across the national park, a World Heritage Site. Such a highway would seriously impede the annual north-south migrations of a number of species of iconic African wildlife, including the blue wildebeest.

See the original article from nationalgeographic.com's Daily News page here.

26 new sites inscribed to World Heritage list

24-28 June 2011 -

The World Heritage Committee has inscribed a total of 26 new sites to the World Heritage list, including an extension of one existing World Heritage Site, this week at their 35th annual session, held in Paris.
The newly inscribed sites include locales of exceptional natural or cultural value in Kenya, Australia, China, Japan, Senegal, Barbados, Germany, Italy, France, Colombia, Sudan, Jordan, Ethiopia, Viet Nam, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, Mongolia, and Nicaragua. Germany's Beech Forests were inscribed by inclusion with Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians, in Slovakia and Ukraine, included on the World Heritage Site list in 2007. One of the sites, Pile Dwellings around the Alps, encompasses 111 small sites in Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy, Germany, and Slovenia. Bridgetown and its Garrison is Barbados's first World Heritage Site.
This year's session brings the total number of World Heritage Sites to 936. Twenty of the new World Heritage Sites are listed as cultural, five natural (including Germany's Beech Forests), and one, Wadi Rum Protected Area in Jordan, mixed.
There will be no more sites inscribed to the list this year. The 35th World Heritage Committee session will end tomorrow.

See press releases on the session from UNESCOPRESS here.

35th Committee inscribes four new World Heritage Sites

24 June 2011 -

The World Heritage Committee inscribed four new World Heritage Sites today: Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya; Nigaloo Coast, Australia; Ogasawara Islands, Japan; and West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou, China.
The Committee's 35th annual session began June 19, in Paris, France. Delegations from 21 States Parties to the World Heritage Convention will be reviewing the conservation statuses of 169 existing World Heritage Sites and considering 33 proposals for new World Heritage Sites until the session ends on June 29.

See the latest press releases from UNESCOPRESS here.