1  

Communique #53 Summer (downunder) 2014/2015   Madang, PNG to Port Vila, Vanuatu  October/November 2014 journey with Heritage Expeditions. Melanesian waters that offer some of the greatest marine diversity in the world. For over 25 years, Suzanne Noakes has been guiding international visitors on land and marine expeditions throughout the Melanesian cultures. Her latest adventure was with NZ based Heritage Expeditions to some of the less visited outer islands of PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. www.heritage-expeditions.com

    From the culturally rich arterial of the Sepik River the expedition sailed north across the Bismarck Sea to the remote shores of Manus and Mussau Islands. Then, the history, culture and wildlife of New Ireland and New Britain and across the Buka Channel. Nissan Island provided reminders of intensive World War II activities. The expedition was amongst the first travellers to return to Bougainville in over two decades before sailing to the Solomon Islands and the remote northern coast of Choiseul Island, the New Georgia Islands and the Arnavon Islands north-west of Santa Isabel, and onto San Jorge Island, Santa Isabel Malaita, Makira and Santa Ana (San Cristobal), Nendö – Temotu Province in the Santa Cruz Islands, and the Duff Islands and the archipelago of Vanikolo. Arrived into Vanuatu at the northern outpost of Vanua Lava, then onto Vanuatu’s largest Island, Santo, followed by Malakula before arriving into Port Vila.  

             

  2  

G20 – First East-West Dialogue on Tourism and the Chinese Dream

November 13 – 15, 2014, Crowne Plaze Hotel, Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, Australia. R: Steve Noakes, Prof Susanne Becken, Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University, Australia & Marcio Favilla L. de Paula, Executive Director, UN World Tourism Organisation. L: Professor Dave Weaver addresses the conference. G20 - Obama visits University of Queensland: Saturday 15 Nov 2014  

 

PAT on Facebook. www.facebook.com/PacificAsiaTourism

Full transcript of President Obama’s UQ speech:

www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/15/remarks-president-obama-university-queensland.

The speech online:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=52ZPlDSmEj4

 

Best way to keep up with our various opportunities and intelligence – click ‘Like’ here

  3  

Low Isles, Great Barrier Reef

Nice cruise to Low Isles - a first class, pure sailing experience on the Great Barrier Reef. Daily departures from the Reef Marina Port Douglas via Cairns. Eco Tourism Climate Action Leader and National Sustainability Award Winner 2013.

   

Sailaway to Eco Shamba Tree Farm. 27 Hectares (68 acres) of land, ex cane paddocks close to Port Douglas, adjacent to World Heritage Rainforest and boarding Crees Creek. Ideally suited for permanent rainforest reforestation and Bio Sequestration. http://sailawayportdouglas.com/sailaway-eco-shamba-tree-farm/ http://www.ecoshamba.com/

Sustainable Travel International

Steve Noakes has moved onto the Advisory Board of the USA based not-for-profit, Sustainable Travel International. http://sustainabletravel.org/about/team/advisors/

  4  

Tutition fees for a Masters degree in Tourism.

What are tuition fees for a Master’s degree in Tourism? Now, of course, each degree is unique BUT …. examples from USA, UK, Australia and FINLAND. USA: US$53,640 (or AUD 64,000) for a Master degree in Tourism Administration at George Washington University http://business.gwu.edu/.../tuition-financial-planning/

UK: For UK/EU students GBP 10,600 (about AUD 20,000) and for non EU international students GBP 17,700 (about AUD33,000) www.surrey.ac.uk/postgraduate/tourism-management

Australia: University of Queensland Masters degree in tourism: Indicative annual fee 2015 for Australian students: AUD$ 27360. Indicative annual fee for international students: AUD$ 33280 http://www.uq.edu.au/study/program.html?acad_prog=5548 Finland: Zero Euro. Example – the University of Lapland, Finland, does not charge tuition fees from degree students. Both Finnish and international students can benefit from one of the world's best education systems free from tuition fees. Master's Degree Programme in Tourism, Culture and International Management (TourCIM) http://goo.gl/EAXgNs Steve Noakes is a Visiting Professor in Sustainable Tourism at the University of Lapland, Finland.

  5  

IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Tourism and Protected Areas

Specialist (TAPAS) Group. http://goo.gl/glkOmj

IUCN World Parks Congress, Sydney, November 2014

The specialist group has 6 key objectives: (1) Provide strategic advice to governments and others on the optimum approaches to sustainable tourism in protected and natural areas. (2) Strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of protected area managers and policy makers and others in relation to sustainable tourism. (3) Enhance the level of tourism contribution to the goals of protected areas and protected area systems. (4) Enhance the capacity of WCPA, including through co-operative ventures with networks and partners and, in particular IUCN members, and recognize their contributions. (5) Develop and disseminate knowledge on tourism and protected areas, including case studies and best practice syntheses. (6) Provide an interactive forum for individuals working on protected areas and tourism, which allows them to network, communicate, collaborate, and develop partnerships. Application form - outline what expertise you can bring to TAPAS and how you would like to assist the group in its efforts. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1lVl1kmym68d_T0YCVypvyy30CzA6LYuHG3uO-9POITY/viewform Ranger Federation of Asia The RFA is a group of conservation-focused individuals who want to further the standards of the profession and vocation of rangers throughout Asia. Supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Protected Area Management System (PAMS) Foundation and the International Ranger Federation (IRF) http://www.rangerfederationasia.org/

Global Sustainable Tourism Council

Ø Criteria for Destinations www.gstcouncil.org/docs/category/39-criteria-for-destinations.html

Ø Criteria for Hotels and Tour Operators

www.gstcouncil.org/docs/category/40-criteria-for-hotels-and-tour-operators.html Ø Guidelines For Hotels and Tour Operators (7) http://www.gstcouncil.org/docs/category/42-guidelines-for-hotels-and-tour-operators.html

  6  

Resources Sustainable surf tourism.

Climate Change Toolkit for the Travel Trade in Hong Kong http://www.climate-change-toolkit.com/index.html

USAID-funded online courses in Sustainable Tourism Development.

Nine online courses to train students, practitioners, donor agency representatives, and others working in related fields to understand and develop tourism and its role in international development. All the course materials are public access. http://lms.rmportal.net/course/index.php?categoryid=51

Sustainable Tourism Professionals program provides successful applicants with a formal credential and a professional development opportunity. http://lms.rmportal.net/course/index.php?categoryid=55  USAID: Microlinks. Captures new learning in microenterprise development, disseminates it among practitioners, USAID mission staff, and other donors, and connects those actors to each other in order to improve development outcomes around the world.

Heritage Tourism and Nostalgia Trade https://www.microlinks.org/library/heritage-tourism-and-nostalgia-trade-presentation-and-screencast

Pacific Islands Regional Policy Framework for REDD+

   http://theredddesk.org/countries/policies/pacific-islands-regional-policy-framework-redd Online Guest Reviews and Hotel Classification Systems: An Integrated Approach  

                       

Systematically exploring how surfing culture and industry impacts on social, economic and environmental areas of life at both international and local levels. Innovations and initiatives are highlighted providing the foundations for technological transitions as well as social and environmental initiatives that are improving the lives of thousands of people all over the world. Bringing together the most influential figures from the surf industry, academia, non-profits, and the surfing community to explore the cutting edge of the surfing world's transition to sustainability. www.amazon.co.uk/Sustainable-Stoke-Gregory-Borne/dp/1841023418

New from UNWTO & Norwegian Accreditation: Online Guest Reviews and Hotel Classification Systems: An Integrated Approach http://europe.unwto.org/publication/online-guest-reviews-and-hotel-classification-systems-integrated-approach  

REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) incentivises a break from historic trends of increasing deforestation rates & greenhouse gases emissions.

 

  7  

World Bank: World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior

2014 Human Development Report

The 2014 Human Development Report "Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience" defined life cycle vulnerabilities as threats that individuals face across different stages of their life- including infancy and youth. Focusing on life cycle vulnerabilities and the formation of life capabilities, the Report argues that particular forms of support are needed during key life transitions to preserve and enhance life capacities. http://hdr.undp.org/en/2014-report/download AsianNGO The organization behind AsianNGO is Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) which is an international capacity building NGO based in Manila, the Philippines, with additional offices in India, Vietnam and Indonesia.

 

Learning about education & public policy from the Nordic nations

http://theconversation.com/we-can-learn-a-lot-about-public-policy-from-the-nordic-nations-32204

Get your kids to learn German and then pack them off to the Germany for Uni. Germany didn’t just abolish tuition for Germans. The tuition ban goes for international students, too. http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/10/10/germany_college_is_free_there_even_for_foreign_students_why.html

Online Business Simulations. Website for the Online Business Simulations project funded by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching – evaluates & promote pedagogies that enhance the learning outcomes of online simulations in business education. This site provides a range of resources to support educators who are considering the use of online simulations as a learning tool http://www.bizsims.edu.au/

... main Nordic nations continue to provide living proof that economic prosperity can be combined with social equality and environmental responsibility ... In terms of income distribution these countries have much more equality than Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Canada – and nearly twice as much as the United States ... Finland has achieved stunning success in schools since the 1990s.  

Builds relations between local NGOs in the Asia-Pacific region and fund providers across the globe. http://asianngo.org/

 

Real people are rarely as coherent, forward-looking, strategic or selfish as typically assumed in standard economic models—they sometimes do not pursue their own interests, and can be unexpectedly generous. Such dynamics should be factored more carefully into development policies, a point made in the World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior. http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2015

 

  8  

UN Women in Asia Pacific.

Aside from East Asia, however, they have a higher unemployment rate than men, almost twice the global average. http://www.unwomen.org/en/where-we-are/asia-and-the-pacific Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) International measure of acute poverty covering over 100 developing countries. http://www.ophi.org.uk/multidimensional-poverty-index/

Global population ages – more impacted by disasters.

http://goo.gl/JCXSu5

11 startling stats about Earth's disappearing wildlife Our planet has lost half its creatures since 1970. A new report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) offers some sobering details. The 2014 Living Planet Report reveals the troubling extent of this and other environmental crises around the world, but it also sheds light on the ways we can still protect and rehabilitate what's left.

WWF Living Planet report 2014: http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/

Because the global population is rapidly aging and settling more frequently in natural disaster-prone areas, future disasters will likely be even more devastating. The 60 + demographic is already the world's fastest growing. The world's aging population remains a major social and economic factor as the globe's total population continues to climb. Despite a youth bulge in many parts of the world, the overall trend points to longer lives and older populations. Already the 60 and older segment is larger than that of children 5 and younger. By 2030, that segment will outnumber the 10 and under demographic, according to HelpAge International, a global development NGO.  

Asia and the Pacific region contains some of the world’s most powerful economies—and two-thirds of its poorest people. Integral to Asia’s economic boom, women make up nearly half of business owners.  

  9  

11 startling stats about Earth's disappearing wildlife. Earth is most likely experiencing its sixth mass extinction. It has been through five such catastrophes before, but this is the first one in human history — and the first one with human fingerprints. http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/11-startling-stats-about-earths-disappearing-wildlife

International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) ICIMOD is a regional intergovernmental learning and knowledge sharing centre serving the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush Himalayas – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan –based in Kathmandu, Nepal. http://www.icimod.org

2014 World Giving Index The Index Heat Map showing World Giving Index scores (aggregate % giving money to charity, volunteering and helping a stranger). http://futureworldgiving.org/ The Index has found that a larger proportion of Burmese (Myanmar) people give money to charity every month than any other except the USA which it shares first place with. For a country with a human development index ranking (150th) to achieve such staggeringly high levels of participation in giving money challenges the perception that the propensity to donate money is necessarily tied to wealth. http://futureworldgiving.org/2014/11/19/burma-leads-the-world-in-people-giving-money-to-charity/

.