The Japanese government aims to establish 500 areas for homestays on farms and fishing communities across the country to help attain its goal of boosting the annual number of foreign visitors to 40 million by 2020, according to a draft action plan on tourism.
The four-year action plan through 2020 when the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games are held will be approved by the Cabinet by the end of March, aiming to promote tourism particularly in rural areas, according to the draft.
Under such homestay programs, visitors will experience agriculture, craft-making and other aspects of local cultures. The government believes the plan could also help increase farmers’ income, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The draft also calls for designating 200 areas to attract tourists by making use of various cultural assets, particularly in the Tohoku area in northeastern Japan hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
It also aims to attract more foreign visitors to national parks.
The previous target of 20 million foreign visitors was reached last year.
Tourism, Travel, Hospitality, Conservation: News,Stories And Experiences From Allover The World
Showing posts with label earthquake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label earthquake. Show all posts
Friday, 3 February 2017
Saturday, 19 November 2016
NEW ZEALAND: Hundreds OTourists Evacuated From Kaikoura
Hundreds of tourists were evacuated from Kaikoura overnight in a major operation organised by Civil Defence and the Navy.
Commander Simon Rook in Kaikoura said the priority was to get tourists out to take the pressure off the town's dwindling resources.
The naval equivalent of a mighty steed, HMNZS Canterbury was poised to ferry the trapped and weary tourists from Kaikoura to Lyttleton.
After registering and a medical interview, a hearty meal has been very welcome for those on board.
The trauma of the past few days is starting to catch up with everyone and some have even mastered the art of sleeping on the move.
The earthquake has not been a great tourism advertisement for New Zealand, but the spirit and resilience of the people has.
Commander Simon Rook in Kaikoura said the priority was to get tourists out to take the pressure off the town's dwindling resources.
The naval equivalent of a mighty steed, HMNZS Canterbury was poised to ferry the trapped and weary tourists from Kaikoura to Lyttleton.
After registering and a medical interview, a hearty meal has been very welcome for those on board.
The trauma of the past few days is starting to catch up with everyone and some have even mastered the art of sleeping on the move.
The earthquake has not been a great tourism advertisement for New Zealand, but the spirit and resilience of the people has.
Wednesday, 20 April 2016
JAPAN: Holidays To Kyushu, Japan Suspended After Earthquake
Organized trips to Kyushu were canceled by travel agencies, following the recent powerful earthquake
The 6.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Japan on April 14 has already affected tour operators providing trips in the region.
Full refund or alternatives were offered to the travelers planning to visit the southwestern island of Japan. Also, a travel warning was issued, advising holiday-makers to avoid visiting Kyushu.
For safety reasons, travel operator Ctrip has suspended trips to Kyushu and Kumamoto and has changed routes and schedules for the organized tours in the area.
Tuniu, an on-line travel agency, warned tourists visiting the island be cautious and also applies the free cancellation policy for Kumamoto until April 22, due to the high number of bookings for this destination.
Tongcheng is another agency that made routes adjustments to avoid potential hazards when visiting Japan.
Moreover, airlines have announced full refunds or free change of travel dates for air tickets until April 30. China Southern Airlines and Air China will apply this policy for all routes between China and Fukuoka.
The 6.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Japan on April 14 has already affected tour operators providing trips in the region.
Full refund or alternatives were offered to the travelers planning to visit the southwestern island of Japan. Also, a travel warning was issued, advising holiday-makers to avoid visiting Kyushu.
For safety reasons, travel operator Ctrip has suspended trips to Kyushu and Kumamoto and has changed routes and schedules for the organized tours in the area.
Tuniu, an on-line travel agency, warned tourists visiting the island be cautious and also applies the free cancellation policy for Kumamoto until April 22, due to the high number of bookings for this destination.
Tongcheng is another agency that made routes adjustments to avoid potential hazards when visiting Japan.
Moreover, airlines have announced full refunds or free change of travel dates for air tickets until April 30. China Southern Airlines and Air China will apply this policy for all routes between China and Fukuoka.
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
NEPAL: New Blow To Nepal's Quake-Ravaged Tourism Industry
Just when Nepal was recovering from the devastating earthquake that killed thousands, flattened communities and chased away foreign tourists, protests by ethnic groups and severe fuel shortages are again keeping visitors away from the nation known for the world's highest peaks.
The comeback that the damaged tourism industry had hoped would begin in October, normally the high season for visitors, has failed to materialize, in part because of protests and other troubles that began in August.
"We have already had at least 40 percent cancellations from tourists who had planned to visit Nepal in autumn season, and that number is expected to be much, much more," said Hari Man Lama of Kathmandu-based Incentive Tours, who added that it would take at least a year for the industry to recover.
This time of year at the tourist hub of Thamel in Kathmandu, people usually walk shoulder to shoulder along the narrow alley lined with stores for trekking gear, souvenirs, cafes and restaurants. Yet today, there is only a thin presence of visitors.
Those who have made it to Nepal are having difficulty getting around because of the fuel shortages.
Canadian tourist Darren Flach, from Calgary, had plans to trek the Mount Annapurna circuit, a picturesque trail surrounding the world's 10th-highest mountain. But now he is thinking of shortening his vacation.
"I did not imagine it was going to be so tough. I am planning to return, the sooner the better," Flach said, adding that he was just going to cycle around Kathmandu because taxis were asking too much money.
"I have come before to Nepal during this season, and I can tell you there is lot less people this year," he said.
The poor Himalayan country is expected to receive far fewer than the 790,000 tourists it saw last year. Tourist money is one of the main sources of foreign currency for Nepal, and which is necessary to import everything from oil and cars to clothes.
The April earthquake that killed 8,900 people — including 19 Mount Everest climbers — and destroyed hundreds of thousands of houses across much of Nepal was the worst but not the only disaster to hit the country and its tourist industry.
Sixteen Nepalese guides were killed in avalanche in April 2014, and that October, a freak storm swept through a popular trekking route and killed 42 people, including foreign hikers.
While the country has much rebuilding ahead, its latest problems are political.
Since August, Madhesi ethnic groups in southern Nepal have been blocking highways to protest the country's newly adopted constitution. They have blocked a border crossing with India that is normally the entry point for most of Nepal's fuel and other supplies.
India, which has close ties to the Madhesis, denies Nepal's accusation that it has imposed a blockade.
The fuel shortage has left long lines at service stations and created a black market for gasoline. Much of the country's bus service has been canceled, and those buses still operating are so packed some passengers must travel on the rooftops.
To ease the crisis, the government this week announced a one-time sale of 15 liters (4 gallons) per vehicle. But Tuesday marked the beginning of the two-week Dasain festival, a time when Nepalis travel to their home villages to be with family. At the main bus station in Kathmandu, hundreds of people lined up hoping to get tickets on the few buses that were leaving.
Taxi fares, meanwhile, have increased manifold. Norwegian couple Tom Omdal and Elise Skogheim paid $30 for what would normally be a $6 trip from the Kathmandu airport to their hotel.
"The situation is more serious than what I had expected. It is insane. I did not think it was so bad," said Skogheim, 26, from Oslo.
It's not just transport that has been affected. Many restaurants in Thamel have closed because they ran out of cooking gas.
"We did not even get eggs with our breakfast," Omdal said, sipping his coffee and eating a ham and cheese sandwich at the popular New Orleans Restaurant in Thamel.
The restaurant, one of Kathmandu's best-known, was serving only a small number of items, none of which required much cooking. And while the place would ordinarily be packed with customers, on this morning the crowd was as sparse as the menu.
Prajun Giri, who runs a trekking gear shop selling thick jackets, boots, lights and rucksacks, said his business is no better.
"Because of the political troubles, blockade and shortages, the number of tourists have really gone down this year. And those who have come here are not going trekking, so not many people are buying from our shop," he said.
Nepal's newly installed government says it is determined to resolve the problem. It's been negotiating with the Madhesi and other ethnic minorities whose demands include more autonomy and a redrawing of state boundaries.
"The first priority of the new government is to resolve the protests and then fully restore the fuel supply," said Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa.
The comeback that the damaged tourism industry had hoped would begin in October, normally the high season for visitors, has failed to materialize, in part because of protests and other troubles that began in August.
"We have already had at least 40 percent cancellations from tourists who had planned to visit Nepal in autumn season, and that number is expected to be much, much more," said Hari Man Lama of Kathmandu-based Incentive Tours, who added that it would take at least a year for the industry to recover.
This time of year at the tourist hub of Thamel in Kathmandu, people usually walk shoulder to shoulder along the narrow alley lined with stores for trekking gear, souvenirs, cafes and restaurants. Yet today, there is only a thin presence of visitors.
Those who have made it to Nepal are having difficulty getting around because of the fuel shortages.
Canadian tourist Darren Flach, from Calgary, had plans to trek the Mount Annapurna circuit, a picturesque trail surrounding the world's 10th-highest mountain. But now he is thinking of shortening his vacation.
"I did not imagine it was going to be so tough. I am planning to return, the sooner the better," Flach said, adding that he was just going to cycle around Kathmandu because taxis were asking too much money.
"I have come before to Nepal during this season, and I can tell you there is lot less people this year," he said.
The poor Himalayan country is expected to receive far fewer than the 790,000 tourists it saw last year. Tourist money is one of the main sources of foreign currency for Nepal, and which is necessary to import everything from oil and cars to clothes.
The April earthquake that killed 8,900 people — including 19 Mount Everest climbers — and destroyed hundreds of thousands of houses across much of Nepal was the worst but not the only disaster to hit the country and its tourist industry.
Sixteen Nepalese guides were killed in avalanche in April 2014, and that October, a freak storm swept through a popular trekking route and killed 42 people, including foreign hikers.
While the country has much rebuilding ahead, its latest problems are political.
Since August, Madhesi ethnic groups in southern Nepal have been blocking highways to protest the country's newly adopted constitution. They have blocked a border crossing with India that is normally the entry point for most of Nepal's fuel and other supplies.
India, which has close ties to the Madhesis, denies Nepal's accusation that it has imposed a blockade.
The fuel shortage has left long lines at service stations and created a black market for gasoline. Much of the country's bus service has been canceled, and those buses still operating are so packed some passengers must travel on the rooftops.
To ease the crisis, the government this week announced a one-time sale of 15 liters (4 gallons) per vehicle. But Tuesday marked the beginning of the two-week Dasain festival, a time when Nepalis travel to their home villages to be with family. At the main bus station in Kathmandu, hundreds of people lined up hoping to get tickets on the few buses that were leaving.
Taxi fares, meanwhile, have increased manifold. Norwegian couple Tom Omdal and Elise Skogheim paid $30 for what would normally be a $6 trip from the Kathmandu airport to their hotel.
"The situation is more serious than what I had expected. It is insane. I did not think it was so bad," said Skogheim, 26, from Oslo.
It's not just transport that has been affected. Many restaurants in Thamel have closed because they ran out of cooking gas.
"We did not even get eggs with our breakfast," Omdal said, sipping his coffee and eating a ham and cheese sandwich at the popular New Orleans Restaurant in Thamel.
The restaurant, one of Kathmandu's best-known, was serving only a small number of items, none of which required much cooking. And while the place would ordinarily be packed with customers, on this morning the crowd was as sparse as the menu.
Prajun Giri, who runs a trekking gear shop selling thick jackets, boots, lights and rucksacks, said his business is no better.
"Because of the political troubles, blockade and shortages, the number of tourists have really gone down this year. And those who have come here are not going trekking, so not many people are buying from our shop," he said.
Nepal's newly installed government says it is determined to resolve the problem. It's been negotiating with the Madhesi and other ethnic minorities whose demands include more autonomy and a redrawing of state boundaries.
"The first priority of the new government is to resolve the protests and then fully restore the fuel supply," said Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa.
Saturday, 29 August 2015
INDONESIA: Korowai, Cannibal Tribes Of Papua, Indonesia
In the dense tropical forests of Guinea, Indonesia, scattered across mountain ranges, there lives a jungle tribe known as the Korowai. Their first contact with the outside world was in 1970’s, when a group of missionaries discovered a group of people living in timber treehouses and using stone tools.
The primitive Korowai tribe of Papua, Indonesia was first contacted in the 1970s by archaeologists and missionaries, at which point they were still using stone tools and living in wooden treehouses. Since then, they pretty much still just do the stone tool and treehouse scene.
The Korowai believed that the entire world would be destroyed by an earthquake if they ever changed their customs. The indigenous Korowai tribe have been building their towering tree houses probably long before we ever had skyscrapers, on the isolated island of New Guinea, part of Papua in the Indonesian Rainforest.
Now that's either a batshit crazy level of commitment to tradition or a really killer excuse for when whitey comes around and asks you to stop living in your bitchin' treehouse. Regardless, it worked: The missionaries decided to take a hands-off approach and not risk the angry earthquake god of the Korowai.
More importantly, the Korowai's location is so densely forested and mountainous that most of its villages don't even have contact with each other, let alone with the outside world. When the tribe was surveyed by census officials in 2010, they first had to walk for two weeks -- after a long trip by boat from the nearest (still extremely friggin' remote) villages.
Plus, instead of discouraging tourism via a liberal application of murder, like the Sentinelese, the Korowai seem content to just prank society until it goes away. In addition to the totally-for-real earthquake that they "swear" will happen if they "ever put on pants," the Korowai also duped an Australian news team who trekked out to the area in 2006. The tribe put forward a young boy for the reporters to film, telling them a heart-rending story about how he was in danger of being eaten by cannibals. After the team somberly filmed the story and left, another news crew flew in to stage a dramatic on-screen rescue ... and was immediately arrested for not having visas, presumably to the tune of raucous Korowai laughter.
An expert on the tribe insists that this is exactly the kind of thing they do and assured reporters that the cannibalism story was embellished from the start, that the Korowai are likely just a tree-bound band of merry pranksters and that the only thing they want with the modern world is to see the looks on our faces.
The Korowai believed that the entire world would be destroyed by an earthquake if they ever changed their customs. The indigenous Korowai tribe have been building their towering tree houses probably long before we ever had skyscrapers, on the isolated island of New Guinea, part of Papua in the Indonesian Rainforest.
Now that's either a batshit crazy level of commitment to tradition or a really killer excuse for when whitey comes around and asks you to stop living in your bitchin' treehouse. Regardless, it worked: The missionaries decided to take a hands-off approach and not risk the angry earthquake god of the Korowai.
More importantly, the Korowai's location is so densely forested and mountainous that most of its villages don't even have contact with each other, let alone with the outside world. When the tribe was surveyed by census officials in 2010, they first had to walk for two weeks -- after a long trip by boat from the nearest (still extremely friggin' remote) villages.
Plus, instead of discouraging tourism via a liberal application of murder, like the Sentinelese, the Korowai seem content to just prank society until it goes away. In addition to the totally-for-real earthquake that they "swear" will happen if they "ever put on pants," the Korowai also duped an Australian news team who trekked out to the area in 2006. The tribe put forward a young boy for the reporters to film, telling them a heart-rending story about how he was in danger of being eaten by cannibals. After the team somberly filmed the story and left, another news crew flew in to stage a dramatic on-screen rescue ... and was immediately arrested for not having visas, presumably to the tune of raucous Korowai laughter.
An expert on the tribe insists that this is exactly the kind of thing they do and assured reporters that the cannibalism story was embellished from the start, that the Korowai are likely just a tree-bound band of merry pranksters and that the only thing they want with the modern world is to see the looks on our faces.
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