Mexico

Expedia and the United Nations Foundation have teamed up as part of the World Heritage Alliance to promote sustainable travel to Mexico among its tours of UNESCO World Heritage sites.  As part of the collaborative effort, Expedia announced that its employees are joining forces with local community-based tourism companies to create cultural and natural tours in Mexico.  Expedia has sent employees to the Yucatan Peninsula town of Senor, a small Mayan community, to partner with a local tourism cooperative, Xyaat, to develop two ecological and cultural tours that conserve and celebrate local cultures and ecosystems while providing economic benefit to the community.

In March, Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism and the Mexican Tourism Board signed a letter of intent with the World Heritage Alliance, Expedia, and the UN Foundation to jointly preserve and promote World Heritage sites throughout Mexico.  Sustainable tourism, like eco-tourism, attempts to have a low impact on the environment and local culture while helping to generate income, employment, and the conservation of local ecosystems.  It seeks to be ecologically and culturally sensitive by supporting the integrity of place, benefitting residents, and respecting local culture and traditions.  Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism is the first such official worldwide to sign a letter of intent with the World Heritage Alliance.

Links for more information:
Sustainable travel to World Heritage Sites through Expedia.com
Friends of World Heritage

Mexican journalist and women’s rights activist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro is the recipient of Amnesty International USA’s 2007 Ginetta Sagan Award for Women’s and Children’s Rights.  Cacho is the Founder and Director of the Refuge Center for Abused Women of Cancun and also serves as President of the Center for Women’s Assistance.  A specialist on gender-based violence, Cacho has risked her own life and faces persecution, death threats, arrests, and intimidation as a result of her work to hold accountable those who victimize women and children.  Cacho received the Sagan award in late March and is embarking on a speaking tour in several American cities in coordination with Amnesty International USA.

A March 28th KQED radio interview of Lydia Cacho can be downloaded here.