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IIPT
PARTNERS BUILDING A
CULTURE OF
PEACE THROUGH TOURISM
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IIPT began promoting the
concept of Peace through Tourism
since its founding in 1986 – but the idea of “Peace
through Tourism” likely had
its beginning nearly 100 years ago in 1909. It was in that
year Richard Schirrmann,
a German
school teacher
set out to introduce his
students to the country side, the wonders of nature, and the culture of
cities. "Each
forest, each plain, each flower, each mountain, each village and each
town,” he
taught his students “is a separate page of your homeland. It
is necessary to
familiarize yourself with these pages through experiences rather than
reading
about them.” |
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“But also travel beyond the borders of
your country,” he
encouraged - “seek out people of other lands and appreciate
those who have
different languages and backgrounds. For doing this, neighbors and
friends, build
hence the youth hostels and open them for all the youth of the world as
the
home of peace and for the good of humanity.” |
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Mr. Schirmann’s
philosophy was to provide young people of all countries with suitable
meeting
places throughout the world where they could meet, exchange ideas, and
get to
know each other - thereby building bridges of peace from nation to
nation.
The
more than 90 youth
hostel associations – in over 80 countries –
operating more than 4,000 hostels
– exist today as a result of this vision – each
providing opportunities to
encounter people of different cultures, and serving society as a vital
resource
in building mutual understanding, respect, trust, and a more peaceful
world.
With this issue, IIPT
showcases 12 of its 40 “Partners for
Peace through Tourism” – each of whom is
contributing in their own way to
“Building a Culture of Peace through Tourism”
– Peace within ourselves – Peace
with others – and Peace with Nature.
Additional
IIPT Partners will be featured in future
newsletters.
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In
1984, Global Volunteers
laid the foundation for what became known a decade later as volunteer
vacations: short-term service opportunities or community development
programs
in host communities abroad. Today, as a nongovernmental organization in
special
consultative status with the United Nations, Global Volunteers
mobilizes some
150 service-learning teams year-round to work in twenty countries on
six
continents, and is the internationally recognized leader in this field.
Volunteers are able to live and work with local people on
life-affirming
community development projects for one, two, or three weeks or to
choose
extended stay options for up to forty weeks in “waging
peace” to make a lasting
difference. Volunteers teach conversational English, provide health
care
services, care for
vulnerable children, and paint,
build,
and repair community buildings. http://www.globalvolunteers.org |
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| Airline
Ambassadors International |
| Airline Ambassadors
International (AAI) provides humanitarian aid to children and families
in need,
as well as relief and development to underprivileged communities
worldwide. It
escorts children in transit, involves youth in humanitarian efforts
around the
world, and hand-delivers humanitarian aid to orphanages, clinics, and
remote
communities. AAI’s 6,000 members include airline personnel,
health
professionals, business executives, housewives, teachers, and students.
In
sharing their unique skills and talents to care for others, they bring
compassion into action through their fundamental selflessness,
generosity, and
compassion.
http://www.airlineamb.org/
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Ambassadors
for Children
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Ambassadors for Children
(AFC) is another inspired example of volunteer travel, dedicated to
serving
children around the world through short-term humanitarian service trips
and
community projects. AFC makes a significant impact on world peace and
understanding
through face-to-face cultural exchanges and hands-on interaction with
children
in need, balanced by opportunities for immersion in the native cultures
of the
communities served. AFC’s initiatives include developing
small businesses to
aid poor families in Belize and El Salvador; building a school in
Uganda;
supporting orphanages and street kids in Mexico and Kenya; implementing
conflict resolution modules in Jamaican and South African schools;
building and
supporting an orphanage in India; providing books and financial support
for
children’s libraries in Nepal, Native American reservations,
Guatemala, and
Jordan; and supplying medical equipment to Serbia, El Salvador, Malawi,
and
Jordan. http://www.ambassadorsforchildren.org/www2/
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Educational Travel Community  |
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The Educational Travel Community is a community of
leaders worldwide, dedicated to advancing experiential learning through travel.
ETC serves the travel community, its members and their institutions and
organizations, in education, training and networking priorities. Educational
travel facilitates deeper, more enduring connections between travelers and the
communities they visit through strong interpretation, experiential programming,
and meaningful engagement. http://www.travelearning.com/ |
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| Global
Sport Partners |
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Sports Partners is dedicated to development of sports in 40 nations, including
North Africa, Middle East, and North
Korea. Global Sports Partners strive to
develop sports to the highest level, enhancing both personal experience and
promoting community development. The organization is specifically engaged in
helping women to obtain their objectives in the realm of sports. Activities cover
a broad range of sport disciplines, including sports medicine, massage therapy,
and sports psychology. |
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| Hostelling International USA |
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Hostelling International USA (registered as
American Youth Hostels, Inc.) was founded in 1934 to promote international
understanding of the world and its people through hostelling. HI-USA operates a
network of nearly 80 quality hostel accommodations throughout the United States
that are inexpensive, safe and clean. HI-USA, in cooperation with other
national associations worldwide known as Hostelling International offers more
than 4,000 hostels in over 80 countries. http://www.hiusa.org/ |
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International Association of
Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) |
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Founded in 1918,
IAAPA is the largest international trade association for permanently situated
amusement facilities worldwide. The organization represents more than 4,500
facility, supplier, and individual members from more than 90 countries. IAAPA
members seek to conduct their business on the highest plane of integrity so
that all individual establishments will occupy places of honor in their
communities and their industry may be respected in the world at large. In
addition to the many charitable contributions made annually by member parks to
the local communities they serve, IAAPA’s support of the Give Kids The World Village
in Kissimmee, Florida, USA,
is very important to the children with life-threatening illnesses who visit
this special place. When a child and family arrive at the Village, they have
already faced the many challenges of a world filled with hospitals, doctors,
and medical treatment. For six magical days, those worries are forgotten, as
they visit the Central Florida attractions and
stay at the Village, all for free.
http://www.iaapa.org/
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Reed
Travel Exhibitions
Reed
Travel Exhibitions organizes the world's leading travel industry events for
travel industry professionals. Its premier travel trade event is World Travel
Market staged annually in London
is the world’s most prestigious travel trade event providing a unique
opportunity for all sectors of the global travel industry to meet, network,
negotiate and conduct business.
World
Responsible Tourism Day, a yearly feature at WTM, is a powerful and unifying
forceto helpsave the planet and to help local people throughout the world by
providing them with shelter, jobs, clean water, food and education; protect
them from exploitation, corruption and deceit; and offer them the right to a
decent and dignified standard of living where the next generation can
flourish.
Just a
Drop is a global charity founded by members of the international travel
industry that aims to provide clean water and sanitation where they are most
badly needed. Whether you work in the industry or simply enjoy its benefits as
a traveller or holidaymaker, please take a few minutes to find out what we do
and how you can get involved. Help us bring hope. Sometimes Just a Drop is all
it takes. http://www.wtmlondon.com/
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Without clean water, life is an endless
struggle.
With it, almost anything is possible
   
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| San Francisco Convention &
Visitors Bureau |
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The mission of the San Francisco
Convention & Visitors Bureau is to strengthen the San Francisco and Bay
Area economy by marketing the city as a
destination for meetings, conventions, trade shows and leisure travelers. In
2006, San Francisco
hosted
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| 15.8 million visitors who spent $7.8 billion during their stay - more
than $21 million a day. Visitor dollars supported some 70,000 jobs in the hospitality
and tourism industries or $1.8 billion
in local payroll (excluding tips). As well, visitors generated more than $473
million in taxes and fees that support the City's general budget, health and
safety, arts and cultural organizations, recreational facilities and low-income
housing. http://www.onlyinsanfrancisco.com/ |
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| Skål
International |
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2007 was the 75th
Anniversary of Skål
International. It was in 1932 that a
group of travel professionals from Paris
received a warm welcome from their hosts in Stockholm and the idea of international
goodwill and friendship that results from travel was |
born. It was in 1932 that a
group of travel professionals from Paris
received a warm welcome from their hosts in Stockholm and the idea of international
goodwill and friendship that results from travel was born. Skål
International has since grown to become the world’s largest organization of travel professionals embracing
all sectors of the travel and tourism industry with 22,000 members in 90
developed, developing and least developed countries with 500 clubs world-wide.
Skål International was an ideal
platform for their 2007 theme:
“Sustainable Development through Tourism” which in the words of Skal's
President Madam Litsa Papathanasi “Can be a powerful tool for economic growth,
poverty reduction, and the conservation of natural and cultural resources” and
that “we owe it to our industry, to our children and grandchildren – and to
planet earth on which we are all travelers passing through.” http://www.skal.org/
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| Society for Accessible Travel
& Hospitality (SATH) |
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The
Society for Accessible Travel & Hospitality (SATH) has actively represented
travelers with disabilities since 1976. SATH's mission is to promote awareness,
respect and accessibility for mature travelers and travelers with disabilities
and to educate the travel, tourism and hospitality industry on becoming more
accessible for persons with disabilities. SATH works vigorously for the
creation of a barrier-free environment (architectural and attitudinal)
throughout all segments of the travel and tourism industry, in the United States
and abroad. The Society's efforts bore fruit in the access section of the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and in the Air Carriers Access Act.
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Society
of American
Travel Writers
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Now in its
50th year,
the Society of American Travel
Writers (SATW) promotes
responsible journalism,
encourages
the conservation and
preservation of
travel resources
worldwide, and provides professional support and development for its
more than
1300 members. Believing that travel is a bridge between peoples, SATW
works to
guard the right of freedom to travel, and to make and keep travel a
quality
experience for everyone. Its Peace Through Tourism
Committee (Team
Peace) believes tourism can be a powerful force for peace. It has been
studying
Peace through Tourism issues while sharing resources and information
and
working to educate--and enlist the support of the entire SATW
membership.
Various Team Peace members are currently developing Peace Through
Tourism
guidelines for writers; contacting academics who might speak or lead
workshops
at SATW meetings; contributing material through it website, researching
other prospective
organizational partnerships, and encouraging travelers everywhere to
become “Ambassadors
for Peace.”
http://www.satw.org/
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World Association of Airline
Clubs (WACA)
The
objective of the World Airlines Club Association is to promote and encourage
friendship, good fellowship and mutual understanding among people of the world,
no matter what social standing, race or religion. WACA members support UNICEF
by collecting coins on flights, acting as volunteers for the Special Olympics
and contributing towards
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expenses of airfares, collecting and distributing toys
and educational material for orphanages, and through their “Wraps with Love”
program have provided blankets to people in need. More than 50 000 have been sent so far to
needy countries after floods, fires or natural disasters. http://www.waca.org/ |
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Show Your Support with One Earth
One Family
IIPT Plaques and Gift Cards
Created exclusively for
IIPT, both items display the IIPT Credo
of the Peaceful Traveler and Art Piece by R. Padre
Johnson.
The Credo of the Peaceful Traveler puts forth an ethical travel
philosophy for travelers to abide by. The IIPT Credo of the
Peaceful Traveler was the inspiration of a very special person at the
IIPT First Global Conference: Tourism - A Vital Force for Peace,
Vancouver 1988. We have respected the author's request to remain
annonymous. The IIPT Credo has since spread across the travel and
tourism industry worldwide. |
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The One Earth One Family art piece by
R. Padre Johnson provides a view of our incredible earth from outer
space, surrounded by the open faces of 25 children and adults from
different cultures. Each portrait represents an important visual
statement about the unique and interesting facial difference in each
individual, the culture and ethnicity each represents, and the
limitless threads of common humanity that draws all citizens of our
planet more closely together as one inter-dependent family.
These
items will remind all who see or receive them of what a privilege it is
to travel freely throughout the world and the opportunity they have as
they travel to be ambassadors of international understanding, good will
and peace. These items will be admired and appreciated by everyone who
sees them in your office, place of business or home.
Costs are
$200 (US) plus shipping for an Acrylic Plaque, and $15 (US) plus
shipping for a Gift Card pack of 10 Cards and Envelopes. To
order online or by fax/mail, please visit our website.
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About
IIPT
The
International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) is a not for
profit organization dedicated to fostering travel and tourism
initiatives that contribute to international understanding and
cooperation, an improved quality of environment, the preservation of
heritage, and poverty reduction; and through these initiatives, helping
to bring about a peaceful and sustainable world. It is
founded on a vision of the world’s largest industry, travel
and tourism – becoming the world’s first global
peace industry; and the belief that every traveler is potentially an
“Ambassador for Peace.”
For more information:
IIPT Website:
www.iipt.org
Tel: (802) 253-2658
Fax: (802) 253-2645
Email: info@iipt.org
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