Middle East map

According to industry business leaders, travel and tourism industry has signaled continued growth rates for 2008 despite being moderately impacted by repercussions of the ongoing global credit crunch.
A recent research produced by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and Oxford Economics (OE) highlighted that Travel and Tourism has entered this recent period on the back of another solid performance in 2007, reported Asia Pulse.
Jean-Claude Baumgarten, president of the WTTC, said: “Tourism growth has been particularly rapid in developing countries in 2007 with the fastest average growth in tourism arrivals in the Middle East region at 12.9 percent, according to the WTO.“
These countries are not only recognizing the development potential of Travel and Tourism and therefore investing heavily in new infrastructure and facilities but their citizens are also seeing rapid economic growth boost their incomes beyond the level where international travel becomes both a feasible and desired option. Baumgarten’s statement came at a media briefing held Monday during a flash visit to Dubai as part of preparations to the World Travel and Tourism Council’s meeting. The global event will be held in Dubai in April 2008.

Greece may see a drop in the number of visitors this year for the first time after three years of growth, but high-spending tourists will keep revenues rising, the country’s tourism minister said.
Tourism, a main pillar of euro zone member Greece’s economy, accounts for about 18 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and about one in five jobs, Reuters reported.
Following the Athens 2004 Olympics, Greece saw the number of tourists increase from about 11 million to over 15 million last year as the country reaped the rewards of greater investment and international publicity ahead of and during the Games.
“I am not interested in the actual number of tourists but rather the quality of visitors coming to Greece,“ Spiliotopoulos told Reuters in a telephone interview. “We are determined to move away from mass tourism and offer high quality services.“
He said a different, more accurate system of counting visitors was being put in place, which could show a drop in arrivals. “If it shows less tourists for this year, so be it.
“As a percentage of GDP, I see growth this year. We are on an upward trend as far as revenues are concerned,“ he said.
Spiliotopoulos said his ministry has divided Greece’s tourism product into nine sectors to target specialized visitors, including spa tourism, cultural tourism, conference tourism and city breaks among others.
“We are selling more specialized products and that is the solution. We may lose some share in mass tourism but we are more interested in attracting high-end visitors and balancing the gap between arrivals and revenues.“
The minister said a strong euro was creating considerable headwinds for Greece but that would also be felt among its southern European competitors--Spain, Portugal and Italy.

Shahzade Garden

With an area of 175,069 square kilometers, Kerman is one of the largest provinces of Iran with 11 percent of the total area of the country. It is located on the southeast part of Iran and its main cities and towns are: Kerman, Rafsanjan, Kahnooj, Shahr-e-Babak, Sirjan, Bam, Jiroft and Zarand.
The mountainous area of the province is a part of the central mountains of the country formed by some old volcanic highlands which starts from Azarbaijan, on the northwest and ends in Baluchestan. Between mountain chains of the region there are many plains. Bashagerd and Koohbanan mountains are the highest in the region, while there are some famous peaks such as Toghrol, Syrach, and Tahrood.
There are some other peaks located on the northern part of the province e.g. Shahr-e-Babak, Koohrange, Cheheltan, Lalezaar and Hezarbahr Aseman, said Farhangsara.com.
Kerman is 1,076 km (645 miles) southeast of Tehran and 370 km (222 miles) southeast of Yazd. Its population is over 310,000 while it has an altitude of 1,860m (6138’).
It is said that Kerman was founded by Ardeshir I, founder of Sassanid Dynasty in the early 3rd century.
There are numerous interesting sights in and around Kerman. Kerman has relied on production of carpet since the Safavid period (1502 to 1722) and is a world famous carpet town.
Shahzade Garden is one of the must-see historical places in Kerman. Lovely Shahzade Garden is located near Mahan city with a collection of pools leading to a large palace (once was the summer residence of a prince who now is unknown). The palace is now partly converted to a nice restaurant.
Mineral springs and hot water sites of Areen, Qalaa Askar,Tah-Khatoon, Abareq, Boujan, Reza-Abad, Pachenar, Beeshe, Ekhtiyar Abad, Houze-nou, Houzeabad and country sides of Jopar, Raien, Koohpayeh are some of the most visited places in Kerman.
Also don’t forget to visit: historical and cultural complex of Ganj Ali Khan including reservoir, public bath and Teahouse (cafe); caravansaries of Chaharsouq (4 bazaars), Vakeel, Mirza Alinaqi, Lahafdoozan, Haj Mehdi, Hindoha and Haj Aqa Ali; old schools of Ganj Ali Khan, Hayati and Ebrahim Khan; tombs of Sheikh Nematollah Valy, Khajeh Atabak, Shahzade Hussain Chopar and Peerbaba Mosafer.
The bazars of Ark Square, Vakeel complex, Ganj Ali Khan, Mozaffari and Attari; domes of Jabaliyeh, Sabz and Moshtaqiyeh; old quarters such as Darvaze Vakeel, Naseri and Darvaze Gubri; Jami mosque and Forty Column Mosque of Kerman (Chehelsotoon); Zarrabkhane and anthropology museums are other attractions.

India’s union tourism ministry has decided to hire retired defense personnel for security, after taking serious note of the rising incidence of foreign tourists’ rape.
The ministry called a meeting of tourism secretaries of all states and union territories to discuss the safety and security of foreign tourists, IANS reported.
Talking to reporters, Tourism Secretary Shilbhadra Banerjee said: “It has been decided that the large bank of trained, disciplined ex-servicemen in the country can be used to provide security to tourists. Each year around 60,000 defense personnel retire from service.“
The concept of tourist police, which has been in the offing for sometime now, was also stressed in the discussions.
“Till now 10 states, including Delhi, have tourist police. We have reiterated this need in the meeting and advisories are being sent to the states,“ Banerjee said.
However, when asked whether a dedicated police force for the purpose will be formed, Banerjee said policing was a state subject and he had little say in the matter. “I wish this could happen,“ he said.
In the past 24 days around seven cases of rape or molestation of foreign tourists have been reported from various parts of India. India attracts around four million foreign tourists every year.
Other measures to be adopted include formation of complaint cells and dedicated phone numbers for tourist security in all the major tourist destinations.

The historical school of Darolfonoon in south Tehran. (Photo by Ali Hassanpour).

Uganda is a popular tourist destination for its gorilla and chimpanzee sanctuaries as well as waterfalls.

Holidaymakers in Uganda have dropped by up to 30 percent since post-election violence in neighboring Kenya rocked the region, tourism officials said.
“Our numbers (of tourists) have gone down by 20, 30 percent,“ Edwin Muzahura, spokesman for the Uganda Tourist Board, told AFP.
According to the board, tourism is the fastest-growing sector in Uganda and more than half a million arrivals in 2007 injected $375 million (255 million euros) into the economy.
The country is a popular tourist destination thanks to its gorillas, chimpanzee sanctuaries and waterfalls.
“We have suffered a lot--Uganda is largely marketed through Kenya,“ Muzahura said.
Foreign tour operators often organize holiday packages that include both countries, beginning on Kenya’s beaches and ending in Uganda’s gorilla-inhabited forests.
But Kenya’s December 27 elections, which saw incumbent President Mwai Kibaki re-elected in a race opposition leader Raila Odinga alleged was rigged, broke into country-wide riots and tribal revenge killings.
Images of hacked Kenyans and women and children burnt alive scared off visitors during east Africa’s peak tourism season.
Close to 800 people have been killed and a quarter of a million uprooted by Kenya’s political crisis.
Several European countries, including Britain and France, have issued travel advisories discouraging their citizens from non-essential travel to Kenya, and foreign travel insurance companies have pulled coverage from the area.
“When this crisis started in Kenya, tourists started asking themselves whether they should come to east Africa,“ said Lillian Nsubuga, spokesman for the Uganda Wildlife Authority. Several Uganda-Kenya packages were cancelled.
Nsubuga said that tour companies have only now, four weeks after the election, begun to arrange holiday trips to Uganda without a stop in Kenya.

Austria, which has a population of just 8.2 million, saw a record 31.1 million tourists last year, an increase of 3.3 percent over the previous year, official data showed.
Two thirds of the visitors were from abroad, Statistik Austria said in a statement. At the same time, the average length of stay of those tourists declined to 3.9 days last year, compared with 6.5 days 30 years ago, statisticians calculated, AFP reported.
Austria is a particularly popular destination for eastern European tourists, with the number of overnight stays by Romanian guests soaring by 75.3 percent.
In the case of Bulgarians, the number shot up by 35.6 percent, in the case of Russia there was an increase of 24.7 percent and of Poland a rise of 15.9 percent.
Tourists are increasingly drawn to stay in luxury hotels, the data also showed. The number of overnight stays in four- and five-star hotels went up by 3.6 percent to 41 million, while those in three-star hotels rose by 1.2 percent to 26.85 million.

Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China saw a huge increase in the number of overseas tourists in 2007, an annual growth of 136 percent, according to a local tourism official.
The plateau region received 365,000 visitors from abroad last year, 210,500 more than a year ago, Xinhua reported.
They brought in US$135.29 million of revenue, up 122 percent year-on-year, said Wang Songping, deputy head of the tourism bureau of the regional government.
Japan replaced the United States as the largest source of overseas tourists to Tibet, and the number reached 78,000, 5.2 times that of 2006, Wang said.
Tibet hosted a record high of more than 4 million tourists both from other places of the country and overseas last year, an annual growth of 60.4 percent, statistics show.
The region’s revenue from tourism surged 75.1 percent year-on-year to 4.85 billion yuan (US$668 million).
Tourism revenue accounted for 14.2 percent of the gross domestic product in Tibet last year, 4.6 percentage points higher than previous year.
The number of visitors to Tibet is expected to hit 5 million this year, up 25 percent from a year earlier, and tourism revenue is predicted to reach 6 billion yuan (US$826 million), up 24 percent.
Local authorities attributed the tourism boom to overseas promotional drives, the opening of Qinghai-Tibet railway and the third civilian airport in Nyingchi.