The annual UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting can be an exciting time for anyone who loves this planet's animals, plants and precious places.This year's meeting, which starts on Monday in Doha, Qatar, is shaping up to be very different story and it could actually prove quite an embarrassing affair for Australia. Firstly, the Australian Government is requesting that the World Heritage Committee remove World Heritage protection from ancient forests in Tasmania so that they can be logged.

A worldwide advertising campaign calling for a boycott of tourism to Botswana, launched by Survival International - the global movement for tribal peoples' rights - has reached hundreds of thousands of travelers. The ad has been published in international travel and lifestyle magazines including Wired, Escapism, Departures and Centurion magazines in France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. 

Birmingham has emerged as an unlikely tourism hotspot, boosted by the area's rich industrial heritage and strong air links.  “We have retail, shopping, arts and culture. Birmingham is at the edge of the Shakespeare country and has a rich industrial heritage,” said Mr Rami.

Stéphanie Balmir Villedrouin, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Industries (MTIC) at the head of a delegation composed of members of the Promotion Department of the Ministry and Maryse Noel, her Director General, participates this week at Caribbean Week taking place in New York from 2 to 8 June 2014 under the auspices of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO).

Turkey and the Central Asia's Turkic countries should boost cooperation to revive the "Silk Road," which was once the most influential trading route in the world, Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said Tuesday. "Rebuilding the Silk Road which was used by our ancestors would be significant not only for Turkmenistan and Turkey, but also for the whole world," Berdimuhamedov told a joint press conference with Turkey's Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek in Ankara. Stressing the importance of natural gas which flows through all Turkic republics, the Turkmen president said the transpo

We learned first-hand from Promote Iceland that travel surpassed their fishing industry only four short years after the disruptive actions of eruptions of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2009. In response, 2010 was the first time that Iceland’s government, businesses, and citizens collaborated on a joint digital promotion effort. According toInga Hlín Pálsdóttir, Director, Tourism and Creative Industries at Promote Iceland, the message was “Iceland is not for everybody, but are for people who have the spirit of adventure, exploration and creativity.”

Dubai retained its position as the second most important international retail destination globally for the third consecutive year – according to a report.  The emirate came closely behind London, which also retained its number one position, according to the 2014 edition of the annual How Global is the Business of Retail report released by real estate consultancy firm CBRE.

A week into the coup, army troops continue to be a highly visible presence on Chiang Mai's streets with bases set up at two of the main gates that ring the old city.  On Monday, security forces used the area to carry out highly visible anti-riot drills while tourists watched and took photos.  Chiang Mai's newest arrivals continue with their holidays much as before, haggling with tuk-tuk drivers and sauntering about the city in various states of undress though, according to locals, in increasingly smaller numbers.