Sunday, September 28, 2008

Climate change blamed for declining tourism

Daily Times (Pakistan): Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC), in collaboration with the Tourism Ministry and National Highway Authority (NHA), organised a seminar and photo exhibition at the Pakistan National Library auditorium on Saturday to commemorate World Tourism Day. The day bearing the theme “Tourism Responding to the Challenge of the Climate Change” was observed across the globe under the auspices of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation to make international community aware of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic values. Federal Minister for Water and Power and Tourism Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was chief guest on the occasion who inaugurated the exhibition.

Anti-tourism elements debated: Addressing the ceremony, PTDC Managing Director Brig Amanullah, NHA Geberal Manager Tariq Mehmood Pirzada, Tourism Secretary Ali Arif and Richard Casting from South Africa highlighted different factors of climate changes affecting the tourism sector. They said tourism was a victim of climate change mainly due to global warming and lawlessness. They said climate change inflicted socio-economic stresses on tourists, often leading them to criminality.

Terming global warming worse than terrorism, the speakers said climate change had become a globally proved phenomenon. They also suggested different remedies to get tourism back to its place while fighting against adverse environmental changes. In this regard, they said, competent facilities for visitors should be enhanced and awareness programmes held globally….

Tourist meets a local resident on a beach in Tanzania, shot by fffriendly, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

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