UNDP Europe and CIS Blog:
Community-based ecotourism is currently the hot topic in UNDP’s Local Government Support Project office in Uzbekistan. We see it as a key part of supporting and empowering regional and local development, particularly in the regions of Djizak and Namangan.
One of the most exciting activities of the joint project between the Cabinet of Ministers and UNDP is the opening of the ski resort in Zaamin for another season.
Community-based ecotourism is currently the hot topic in UNDP’s Local Government Support Project office in Uzbekistan. We see it as a key part of supporting and empowering regional and local development, particularly in the regions of Djizak and Namangan.
Continue reading “UNDP Europe & CIS: Ski tourism for local development”
UNDP Europe and CIS Blog: In the midst of a chaotic exhibition hall, visitors to the Tashkent International Tourism Fair (TITF) were drawn to a trickling waterfall set against a backdrop of a panoramic view of mountains. This was the booth for Zaamin. The mountain scenery was photographically reproduced to transplant the visitor from the middle of Tashkent city to the soothing, lush green mountain forests of Zaamin. Visitors including industry specialists from Uzbekistan and beyond came for the calming display and stayed to learn more about the unique tourism endeavour between the local government, the Uzbek government and the UNDP’s Local Governance Support Project (LGSP).
In the midst of a chaotic exhibition hall, visitors to the Tashkent International Tourism Fair (TITF) were drawn to a trickling waterfall set against a backdrop of a panoramic view of mountains. This was the booth for Zaamin. The mountain scenery was photographically reproduced to transplant the visitor from the middle of Tashkent city to the soothing, lush green mountain forests of Zaamin. Visitors including industry specialists from Uzbekistan and beyond came for the calming display and stayed to learn more about the unique tourism endeavour between the local government, the Uzbek government and the UNDP’s Local Governance Support Project (LGSP).
Continue reading “UNDP Europe & CIS: Green Tourism in Uzbekistan: A view from the field”
Thirteen of the nineteen nations and geopolitical region that comprise the G20 and represent 85% of the world’s wealth are all football mad!
A Football Report: By Soraya Soemadiredja, Toronto.
For Canadian residents, the World Cup isn’t the only world event they’ve got their eye on this June. The G8 and G20 annual summits are going to be hosted, at great cost the Canadian taxpayers, in Toronto and Ontario.
Yes, yes, this is all well and good for political watchers, you say, but can I go back to my football? In a second, I promise. According to the Globe and Mail’s Canadian columnist, Michael Kesterton, thirteen of the nineteen nations and one geo-political region that represent 85% of the world’s wealth have “soccer” as their “national past time”, whether or not they are represented in the current World Cup.
FIFA takes marketing the Global Game “FIFA-style” to Global fans by opening their first Official Store in Singapore Changi Airport, one of the busiest airport and transport hubs in the world.
A Football Report: Soraya Soemadiredja, writing not from Singapore, but Manila.
A month before the World Cup, Africa and African footballing culture—at least, as dictated by FIFA—has taken over a little area of Southeast Asia in the FIFA Official Store. Not in Geneva, not in Johannesburg, but in Singapore.
To remind us that the World Cup is A Big Deal, in January of 2008 FIFA opened its first Official Store in the new terminal of Singapore international airport, where in 2009, there were 27 million passengers that came and went. That’s means foot traffic from anywhere of 200 cities in 60 countries. That’s a lot of mobile football fans.
How Jakarta Slum Tours in Indonesia is exploitative of the local community while playing to the guilt of tourists rich enough to visit a cosmopolitan town where poverty and richness collide and who are lazy enough to not do anything about the poverty they feel guilt over.
Dear Hidden Jakarta Slum Tour,
As an indonesian and a student who has spent most of her life doing development work with urban and rural underprivileged and in emergency relief in several countries, it is disgusting to see the Slumdog Millionare Hollywood trend being manifested into an appalling, undignified, profit-making experience by your company by your marketing of tours in the slum areas of Jakarta.
If what you intend to do is show rich and poor Jakartans as the same as rich and poor of other cities, there are better ways to do this.
An afternoon in Cascais with a choice of delicious culinary delights.
There is an avenue on which the flat in Cascais is where I invited myself to stay, one sunny but still chilly June a few years ago, is. Straight ahead, the Praia dos Pescadores, the fishermen’s beach and then the crystal blue of the Oceano Atlântico, but don’t forget a stop by the fish market a few metres closer to us, and wonderful views throughout and many places to satisfy the appetite.
Writing Portfolio 