FUNDING RAISED FOR RT PROJECTS At SUCCESSFUL AITO CONFERENCE (27 November, 2003)

At last weeks very successful overseas conference in Sri Lanka, AITO's Responsible Tourism (RT) "team" led by Jono Vernon Powell of Nomadic Thoughts, raised over £11,000 for several RT projects. Every delegate, members of the press and others invited contributed towards a raffle and charity auction as well as paying a fee to watch England's brilliant world cup victory. Projects to be supported include, establishing a building in the tourist area to allow women to sell locally made goods and handicrafts. Preference will be given to women who have young school aged children and are the main breadwinners in the family. Other projects include the digging of a borehole to provide drinking water to a village where currently it has to be collected from a long distance away.

In theme with the England cricket tour, we also raised money to provide new cricket equipment for a school of 400 and Ian Irvine of Campbell Irvine kindly underwrote the cost.

The theme of Responsible Tourism was high on the agenda with a workshop well attended by operators and Sri Lankans. In principle, an agreement was reached to develop a Responsible Tourism Partnership between Government, businesses, local groups and inbound operators.

For "those in the know" an extra raffle prize will be offered next year - a bottle of Sri Lanka number 20!

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