War: US President Trump against Climate Protection and Tourism joining Syria and Nicaragua

A war against tourism, a war against the Paris Climate Agreement, this is the status tonight in the United States of America.

The USA is joining Syria and Nicaragua and decided it was  unnecessary to stand behind the rest of the world in joining hands to be good custodian and support the human right of travel.

The world tonight in our Aloha State of Hawaii is not the same beautiful world it was when the sun came up over our blue Pacific Ocean this morning. The world is not the same for the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s today, and certainly the world is not the same for the global travel and tourism industry tonight.

A study by the Hawaii Tourism Authority in 2014 confirmed the biggest threat our islands, the Islands of Hawaii face because of climate change:

• Higher average temperatures, stressing native animals and plants and causing an uptick in heat-related illnesses in people (think dengue fever or cholera), as well as a higher concentration of invasive species;
• A decrease in trade winds, which would disrupt the rainfall patterns across each of the islands and create periods of drought and heavy rain and flooding;
• Warmer oceans and higher ocean acidity, which could trigger massive coral bleaching, marine migration, and affect the ocean’s circulation and the way it distributes nutrients.

Perhaps the most obvious change around the state will be the rise in sea levels, which have risen about 0.5-1.3 inches per decade throughout the last 100 years. The study projects this rate to accelerate, resulting in a 1-foot to 3-foot rise (or possibly more) by 2100.That would mean most of Waikiki and its famous beach would either be underwater or highly eroded by it.

Today it’s one man against climate, tourism and the world. His name is Donald Trump,  and he was helped to be elected president of the United States of America.

International Pow Wow, a yearly promotional event with thousands of international tourism buyers invited to the U.S. to discuss inbound tourism is about to start in Washington DC next week. It may be the last POW WOW.  Marketing US Tourism abroad may be an activity of the past soon. Brand USA is fighting to stay in operation and may be eliminated altogether. President Trump recently proposed a budget that would shift funding Brand USA to the  US  Customs and Border Protection. Instead of welcoming international tourists, Trump wants the wall.

A poll conducted for the 2017 U.S. News Best Countries Rankings found that more than 70 percent of a  survey respondents lost respect for U.S. leadership.

The world today is stunned by this man. News from Moscow however is indicating some sympathy and perhaps  President Putin sees an opportunity for Russia with the US decision to leave the Paris Climate Agreement.

Fijian Prime Minister and incoming COP23 president Frank Bainimarama has expressed his disappointment in President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change. This disappointment was echoed by heads of States from almost every country in the world.

Fiji is one out of many leaders today from every continent on the globe condemning the decision of the United States to abandoning the requirement for every decent human citizen to be a responsible custodian of this earth.

Small island nations like those in the South Pacific are on the frontline of climate change, susceptible to more frequent extreme weather events like cyclones, and in danger of being swamped by rising sea levels as polar ice caps melt.

“The decision by the Trump Administration to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change is deeply disappointing, especially for the citizens of vulnerable nations throughout the world,” the Fiji president said.

There has been widespread international condemnation of President Trump’s announcement that the US is withdrawing from the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman called it “a major disappointment” while the European Union said it was “a sad day for the world”.

Under attack by Trumps Republican government is also the travel and tourism industry, even though tourism is one of the largest export for the US.

Some numbers speak for itself. The United States dropped to number 7 from number in the most favorite destinations for foreign tourists to visit. It’s a blow to this large export industry.

America’s share of international tourism saw a 16 percent decline in March when compared to the same month last year, according to a data analysis released by Foursquare, a technology company with a focus on location intelligence.

After months of fruitless discussion between the city and the U.S. State Department over a planned U.S.-China Climate Leaders Summit in Boston,  Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh has finally said publicly that’s it’s likely not going to happen this year, and possibly not ever.

Boston was announced last year as the location of the third annual summit, to be sponsored by the U.S. State Department under Secretary John Kerry. The event was expected to attract more than 1,000 attendees to the city and, more importantly, put Boston on the global stage when it comes to climate talks.

President Trump’s temporary travel ban and an inhospitable political climate could punch an $18 billion hole in U.S. tourism by international visitors over the next two years, projections by travel analysts show.

Foreign tourism is a $250 billion-a-year business in the United States, and Trump’s original and revised executive orders temporarily banning travel from six majority-Muslim countries — put on hold by federal courts — have dampened interest worldwide in visiting the U.S., travel and tourism – and Trump is not giving up. After repeat losses in US Appeals court, the Trump Administration today said, it want to take the case of the travel ban to the US Supreme Court.

Some countries are in a panic mode today. The Maldives government is in the final stages of negotiation with Saudi Arabia to lease Faafu Atoll, consisting of 23 islands, for development for 99 years. The Maldives may be gone soon if climate change is not treated as a common international enemy.

We should stand behind French President Macron’s, behind German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a  clear call to stay the course on the Paris Climate Agreement, said Juergen Steinmetz, chairman of the Hawaii, Brussels, Seychelles and Bali based organization, the International Coalition of Tourism Partners, an organization with one purpose: GREEN GROWTH + QUALITY = BUSINESS.

Steinmetz, who is also the publisher of this publication eTurboNews invites everyone to join ICTP free of charge. More information: http://ictp.travel