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World's Biggest
Enviro-Business Expo
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BACKSTAGE
WITH RICK ANTONSON
.
OPENING
CEREMONIES
Editor's
Candid Camera
/ Aboriginal
Fashion Show /
More
Photos
World
Culinary Travel Expo
/ Marketing
Africa to Canada
/ Africa
Shines in Vancouver
/
World
Airlines Routes Forum
/ CLIA
Cruise Expo
/ Globe
2010
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by
Muguette Vancouver, BC, Canada: Following an
outstanding Opening Ceremony , the Winter Olympics of 2010
got off to a rousing start. Among the sports celebrities who
took part were Steve Nash, Nancy Green, Rick Hansen and
Wayne Gretzsky, who lit the cauldron.
My eternally young mother Suzanne, who returned with us from
Morocco in December, was the star of the show at many
Olympic events, including the Russian reception where she
met the popular icon Father Frost. Click on photo (left) for
a blow up.
The Media Centre
Complex at Robson Square n
Vancouver is impressive, reminding me of the outstanding
services at ITB Berlin and Mode A Paris. We are making this
site our headquarters, as it is the focal point in the heart
of a great city. North America's West Coast - with gateways
of Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. is a
long haul from Africa, often requiring two or more airlines,
and stops in New York, Washington or Europe. In spite of the
time and distance, Africa is gaining recognition as a prime
business travel and tourism destination. With our office a
mere four blocks from the Vancouver Cruise and Convention
Complex, our editorial team has been showcasing travel to
Africa for 15 years and promoting Vancouver
as a Host City even longer. That is why Vancouver is being
profiled in our first edition of Global
Venues Magazine.
Vancouverites
welcome the world with smiles:
It's been named the world's most livable city every year
since 2005 (The Economist Intelligence Unit), the best city
in the Americas (Condé Nast Traveler) and the top
Canadian destination (Travel Weekly). Now, thanks to the
2010 Winter Games, Vancouver's next title may just be the
world's friendliest city. In fact, the hospitality and
high spirits of Vancouverites have been the real stars of
these Games. Tourism Vancouver reports that it has been
serving five times their normal volume of visitors, and most
of them are raving about the friendliness of local
residents. And why wouldn't Vancouverites want to show off
their hometown? Beautifully positioned between mountains and
ocean, this city of 600,000 with a metropolitan area of more
than two million has a creative, youthful vibe. Visitors
quickly discover the attractions of its many parks and
gardens, including the iconic Stanley Park, as well as
charming Granville Island with its sprawling food market,
the stunning Museum of Anthropology at the University of
British Columbia and funky neighbourhoods like Gastown,
Chinatown and Kitsilano, each with its unique history, great
shops and terrific restaurants. Now, having received such a
friendly welcome, the city's visitors have even more reason
to come back. For more information visit www.destination2010.ca.
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Current and Coming
Events on the Agenda
. We are proud to announce that
the
Watoto Children's
Choice from Uganda
(above ) will be here through the Olympics and that we will
be joining them for a special concert at the Vancouver
International Airport. Following the 2010 Winter Olympics,
several prime events are on the agenda, starting with Globe
2010 in March, the World Culinary Travel Expo in May, the
CLIA Cruise3Sixty Expo in June and the World Airlines Routes
Forum in September. More will be announced in our new
magazine and bulletin - Global Venues. At the same time,
Editor Jerry Bird and I visit Africa two or more times a
year - and have just returned from nine months in Morocco,
with a side trip to Egypt for the AT 34th Annual Congress.
So we will be here all month with live, first hand reports.
Our Window on Sports Tourism will appear soon on this
page and bring readers up to date on the FIFA World Cup in
South Africa and other such events
ATA Canada
Chapter in Vancouver
We like to
give visiting African Travel, Trade and Tourism
professionals a stage in the west - and Vancouver in
particular. We did it with APEC '97, the 2007 United Nations
World Urban Forum and a series events by the Africa Travel
Association
Canada Chapter, of which
Mr. Bird our Editor is President. We will be visiting
Whistler soon by the special train and will provide reports
from one of North America's leading winter resorts, where we
participated in the ATTA
Adventure Travel Trade Association Convention a few years
ago.
Place
de la Francophone 2010
On Thursday night I visited
Place
de la Francophone and
participated in the opening festivities, while meeting some
of the key players. The Secretary-General of La Francophonie
is Abdou
Douf, former
President of Senegal. Here is a brief item on the program.
Place de la Francophone, which is open until February
28 on Granville Island during the 2010 Winter Olympics in
Vancouver, offers visitors an unparalleled experience. The
entire program reflects the desire to make it an
unforgettable and must-see event. Big names in French music,
previously unseen performances, exhibition venues and a host
of special events await -- Place de la Francophone is an
entire program of festivities that will dazzle guests. The
launch, held at Performance Works on Granville Island, has
illustrated the excellence and diversity of the programming.
On our stages, more than 100 free shows will
spotlight artists from across Canada and the international
French-speaking world.
Africans
at the 2010 Winter Olympics
The games include representation from several African
countries; Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal
and South Africa. While we have enjoyed several visits to
Ethiopia since 2000 , joined the Minister of State Delacho
at a major two week event in Houston,
Texas and joined the Ethiopian exhibitors at ITB
Berlin last year, we had no idea there was a cross
country skier from Ethiopia competing in this
year's games. Watch for a first person report on Robel
Teklemariam soon, plus interesting background on all the
African participants and visitors we meet. Photo
from Panasonic
Host Home for the Snow
Leopard
Wh istler
and Pemberton embrace Kwame: Kwame
Nkrumah-Acheampong, known as the Snow Leopard from
Ghana, may have just started skiing six years ago and he may
be Ghana's first (and only) Winter Olympic athlete, but
locally, he has already made his mark on the communities of
Whistler and Pemberton. His growing fan base stems from his
2009 family vacation where he embraced the fresh-air
activities around the adventure-laden host destination -
riding the PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola between Whistler and
Blackcomb mountains, ziplining through lush forests,
canoeing on calm Alta Lake, visiting the Squamish Lil'wat
Cultural Centre - and the community embraced him back.
Staying in Pemberton during the Games, Kwame fits right in
with the year-round glaciers, forests, lakes and rivers of
these outdoor havens. Kwame represents Ghana in the men's
slalom event in Whistler on February 27th. No doubt his host
home communities will be cheering him on.. Read more about
adventures in Whistler and Pemberton: www.destination2010.ca/content/finishedarticles/quick-trips-whistler
. www.destination2010.ca/content/finishedarticles/quick-trips-pemberton
First Nations in the Olympic
Movement
If you see the video from the Official Opening, you
will be more than impressed with the color, philosophy and
pageantry of the First Nations section. We attended an
exciting Aboroginal Fashion Show at
the Pan Pacific, fearuring the designs of Dorothy Grant and
Pam Baker. I have several wardrobe items by Ms. Grant and
often wear them during events in Africa. In 1999, the IOC
adopted Agenda 21: Sport for Sustainable Development, which
includes the objective to "strengthen the inclusion of
women, youth and Indigenous peoples in the Games." "One of
our greatest challenges is that Indigenous participation is
relatively new to the Olympic Movement &endash; there is no
template we can follow - no clear indicators for how we
measure our success. Indigenous participation in past Games,
such as Calgary and Salt Lake City, has focused primarily on
ceremonies and cultural programs. We plan to go beyond that,
to set the bar higher, with the hope that future Organizing
Committees can be inspired and learn from our experience." -
Gary Youngman, Consulting Director, Aboriginal
Participation,
People
worth knowing
Among our close friends at the events this week are Rick
Antonson, CEO of Tourism Vancouver, whose wife Janice is
a key board member of PATA. In the video (left) he invites
the world to the CLIA
Cruise3Sixty Expo coming in June. Rick's book To
Timbuktu for a Haircut, is one of the best travel books
we have every,.
Much more to come - including the
read. Editor Jerry Bird is including excerpts from
Rick's book in our new Western Africa
World Edition - and in Global Venues, our international
events magazine. Jerry is also working with Agnes
Chung, organizer of the World
Culinary Travel Expo - and is encouraging all of our
Africa colleagues to exhibit and show the world the fine
dining available throughout Africa. Jerry has known Ms.
Chung for 20 years, when she was with Tourism Malaysia, one
of the first exhibitors in our Air and Marine Tourism Expo
in Vancouver.
Chinese New Years
celebrations were underway during the
openin g
days of the Winter Olympics It's highlight is the
Chinese New Year's Parade, as featured in the Vancouver
Sun Newspaper.
About the BC
Media Centre, Vancouver
A state-of-the-art International Media Centre (BCMC) at the
heart of downtown Vancouver in Robson Square Plaza. The BCMC
is a full service broadcasting facility, which includes
comfortable, secure, and fully wired networking and
operating space. The Centre provideS access to athletes,
dignitaries and government leaders, as well as contacts to
stories happening outside official Olympic venues. Programs
showcase B.C. through special events, displays and
celebrations. A prime hub for members of the working press,
the BCMC promotes British Columbia, its businesses,
communities and tourism opportunities to the world.
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