What happens when tourism reaches the limits to its growth?If you walk round Muswell Hill, the part of North London where I have lived for nearly 20 years, you’ll occasionally see a man lying on the pavement, fine paintbrush in hand, a full palette of colours by his side. Known locally as ‘Chewing Gum Man’, artist Ben Wilson creates miniature paintings on discarded splodges of gum. The discovery of a new ‘piece’ on the
ground or a wall brings a smile to my day. Yet unsurprisingly he is hardly known outside the area we live. He’s not got the caché of Banksy. Tourists don’t swap a day at the National Gallery for a walking tour of Muswell Hill Broadway. When you’ve lived for somewhere as long as I have, however, it is often these sort of intimate details that typify your love of and sense of belonging to a place. Seeing him at work makes me feel at home. Read more here.
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The New Zealand Travel, Holiday & Adventure Expo, Auckland, August 2015DM Events & Promotions are proud to announce The New Zealand Travel, Holiday & Adventure Expo, New Zealand's largest holiday expo. What better way to find and book your next travel, holiday or adventure requirements than visit The New Zealand Travel, Holiday & Adventure Expo. The Cloud located on Auckland's Viaduct is the chosen venue for this inaugural event in the heart of Auckland's CBD. Read more and register here.
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Māori, Aboriginal businesses look to team upAustralia's Māori Business Network is looking at the idea of partnering up with different Aboriginal enterprises. It was discussed at the group's forum last week in Sydney, which was attended by the Minister of Māori Development, Te Ururoa Flavell. Australian non-profit
organisation Supply Nation is certifying indigenous businesses that are at least 51 percent owned, managed, and controlled by indigenous people. Māori Business Network co-ordinator Brent Reihana said Māori organisations were keen to work with indigenous enterprises because there were a lot of cultural similarities. Read more here.
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Why business suddenly cares about happy staffClothing retailer Cotton On hit the headlines this year after reportedly instructing staff that failing to have "fun" and "keep it real" are sackable offences. Has Cotton On suddenly - and unexpectedly - gotten in touch with its sensitive side? Unlikely. A more likely reason for businesses' current interest in happiness and wellbeing has to do with cold hard economics and shifts in the
labour force. Happiness, in short, is good for business. Read more here.
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Info Site takes English ads to Chinese consumersInfo Site's founders didn't realise they were onto a potential winner. In fact, all three men simply wanted to help out a community struggling to find its way around a foreign country, in a foreign language. The idea was simple. Luke Lee, the face of the company, and the head of marketing and sales, had struggled to negotiate English-language websites in New Zealand, and knew plenty of "really
good" Chinese friends going through the same thing. They couldn't find business information, or understand business deals and offers. They launched Info Site - a platform on which New Zealand businesses could run ads and information in both English and Chinese, in February, hoping to reach 300,000 hits by June. They exceeded that target five times over, and were flabbergasted to find many of the 1.5 million hits had come from China. Read more here.
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Taonga of Māori cinemaEvery year for the past 10 years, Leo Koziol and his family, who have Polish and Kahungunu roots, have put together the Māori Film Festival. Leo had been living in America for a few years and came home in 2001 to his hometown of Nuhaka and wanted to start up a Māori Film Festival after seeing how a Māori film festival had been done in France. So he did his research and realised "no one had started one that was happening every year for Māori films," Koziol says. Read more here.
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