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Haiti to be at ITB: Alive and Exhibiting
Sunday, 03 Mar, 2010
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Dancing at the Carnival as it was and will be in Haiti
Haiti is alive and will be exhibiting at ITB Berlin! With the support of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation CTO, ITB Berlin and Rhino Design there will be a booth in hall 3.1, stand no. 123 where Haiti, represented by the Haitian Embassy in Berlin, will be presenting itself with its strong will to survive.
In addition there will be a workshop in the middle of hall 4.1 on Thursday March, 11th from 12:15a.m. – 1a.m. focussing on "Development perspectives through sustainable tourism for Haiti" with the contribution of H.E. Jean-Robert Saget, Ambassador of Haiti to Germany and the GTZ (German Technical Cooperation).
This year’s ITB-Charity-Campaign, will be dedicated to support the victims of the disastrous earthquake and reconstruction of Haiti instead of collecting money for an aid project of the ITB Berlin Partner Country: Turkey, ITB Berlin Partner Country 2010, has waived its privilege in favour of Haiti.
Over 200,000 people are dead: 3 million inhabitants are affected of which at least 300,000 have been made homeless, at least 40 tent cities have sprung up in Port au Prince, the capital: The country’s entire administration is in ruins, practically and metaphorically: At least a million people desperately need shelter and non-food assistance.
The World Food Program launched an appeal for $279 million to feed two million people for the next six months. WFP is providing one-week rations of ready-to-eat meals for two million people and The UN humanitarian department has appealed for $560 millions from the world community to assist Haiti quake victims.lights for shuttling passengers three times a day.
But Tourism will help in bringing assistance and eventually prosperity.
The Dominican Republic which shares the eastern third of the Island of Hispaniola with Haiti is completely unaffected and is operating quite normally as a high end tourism destination – offering its ports, services and assistance to the massive relief effort.
“Just a Drop”, the UK travel trade charity is uniting the industry and its support into a key area of tremendous need – the provision of ongoing and sustainable clean safe water and sanitation for the people of Haiti” www.justadrop.org
Leilei LeLaulu, co-chairman of the Innovation for Sustainable Development Center told Vision recently that tourism was "uniquely positioned to play an enormously productive role in ensuring Haiti’s recovery is not only rapid but also sustainable” He added “Haiti has a golden opportunity to develop community-benefit tourism now that so many people had moved back to their rural homelands. No other industry can get up and running and providing livelihoods as quickly as tourism. While the larger hotels with more complex construction and financing needs are being built, Haiti could immediately start small with voluntourism. First with basic accomodation for use by relief workers, their friends and families, then move to bed and breakfasts, and small hotels.
The Haitian Embassy has set up a special donation account (Deutsche Bank Berlin, Botschaft von Haiti, Nothilfe Haiti, Account Number: 7220742, Bank code: 100 700 00) to help without indirections: The donations will go straight to an organisation which helps Haitian women who have lost their small businesses and livelihood to reconstruct it to be able once again to support their families as well as to a Nurse School which was recently set up self-dependently by nurses in Saint-Marc (80km north of Port-au-Prince).
Valere Tjolle
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