China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog has learnt that UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, opening the ITB Travel Trade Show (Berlin, Germany, 6 March 2012) said that one billion tourists are key to creating jobs and stimulating the economy.

Budapest

They expected to travel this year and are a vital force for economic growth and social welfare, he said.

“By the end of 2012, one seventh of the world’s population will have crossed international borders as tourists in a single year,” said Rifai in his keynote speech at the official opening of ITB.

Budapest

This “extraordinary number” will contribute to more jobs, higher income possibilities and countless opportunities for development, so critical at this time of economic uncertainty, he added.

“With growth comes responsibility,” continued Rifai. Tourism, if properly planned and managed, can be one of the most promising sectors for achieving a more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable future, he said.

“Imagine how business models would be transformed if one billion people demanded sustainable practices from hotels and tour operators. Imagine how many would benefit if one billion people bought local produce or hired a local guide. These are small actions, but given the size of our sector, their impact would be huge.”

Referring to the challenges facing international tourism as it reaches one billion, the Secretary-General spoke of the many people still facing barriers to travel.

“Complicated, lengthy and overpriced entry formalities are making it extremely difficult for tourists, especially from emerging economies which are leading growth in terms of outbound markets, to travel,” said Rifai, adding that obstacles such as burdensome visa processes are not just a barrier to travelers, but to “growth, job creation and free trade.”

The Secretary-General called on the tourism sector to unite around the issue of travel facilitation as a means to stimulate demand and, as a result, create jobs. “Travel facilitation must top our agenda and we must speak together on this if we are to be heard at the highest levels of decision-making,” he said.

“It is in this belief that UNWTO has joined the voices of the sector such as the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the World Economic Forum (WEF), to advance this important issue.”

China Watch Blog reports that as technology is changing expectations in the airline industry, passengers want to be in control, and they expect airlines to become solution providers and aggregators of value, to provide them with personalized services.

Airline employees expect to be given the tools to do their jobs and to meet passenger expectations. Airline executives expect to make returns that are reasonable and relatively stable through business cycles.

All of these expectations can be met by airlines through the effective and efficient leveraging of information and technology, to shift from begin operations- and product-centric to becoming customer-centric and dramatically improving the overall passenger travel experience throughout the travel cycle.

In his new book by world-renowned airline expert Nawal K. Taneja, the 7th in a series with Ashgate, the author explores and explains the game-changing opportunities presented to the industry by new generation information and technology.

He shows how information and technology can now drive, not just enable, an airline’s strategy to become truly customer-centric at a personalized level, while at the same time enabling the operator to reduce costs, enhance revenues, reduce risks and become much more flexible and agile by better managing complexity.

China Watch Blog normally will not report on this kind of controversial topics, but in this instance, your truly feels strongly over this report which the National Public Radio of the United States recently declared that a January broadcast featuring Mike Daisey’s monologue on working conditions in Apple factories in China contains fabrications.

In the monologue, Mike Daisey revealed with “his personal experience” that Shenzhen Foxconn Technology Group of China, which assembles Apple phones and tablet PCs, employed child labors, the People’s Daily reported.

The broadcast on Jan. 6 contained a large part of Mike Daisey’s performance in his program “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.” The two-hour monologue started performing in U.S. theaters in as early as 2010, and more than 50,000 audiences have watched it. Currently, it is still performed in public theaters of New York.

Yours truly strongly suggests that Beijing should step in and fight with the authorities to stop the monologue from being screening, until the monologue clearly carried sub-titles in show explaining that this is merely a fiction, and that in real life, Foxconn does not employ child labor from the minute the show screens tha fabricated parts till the end of the show, so that the audience who see it know that it is not true.

According to People’s Daily, after the reporter of the program “Market” of the National Public Radio, who is in charge of reporting Chinese news, was contacted and interviewed Daisey’s translator in China, People’s Daily found that the translator’s statement was quite different from Daisey’s words. The part of “seeing employees poisoned by ethane” is fabricated, and he also got the ages of the employees “by guessing.”

Regarding this scandal, Daisey defended himself in his blog that he felt regret for his mistake, the wrong point was that his performance in the program was regarded as news, but actually it was not news but a performance of theater.

Daisey’s words denying his mistake are widely questioned and criticized by U.S. media. An article on the New York Times said that, Daisey, who claims that he is not a reporter, did not claim that in his program that he was one, and what he called “things he personally saw” are actually things fabricated. At the end, the article says that Daisey was actually aimed at showing that Chinese factories are violating human rights, and therefore he did not care about facts.

China Watch Blog has learnt that Shanghai police, following the detention of 22 for theft of iPhones and iPads, issued an alert mobile phone users should take note of the following:

Tips to deter thieves

1. Do not listen to music using earphones in crowded places.

2. Do not keep your cell phone in the outside pocket of your coat or jacket.

3. Keep valuables close to you, such as in inside pockets.

4. Do not put valuables in bags. Carry a bag in front of you, where possible.