The Year of the Ox                           

We are 10 days into the new lunar year of the Ox and every thing is quiet on the surface. Winter in Jiuzhaigou is when most of the staff take their annual leave and coupled with the new year holidays you could hear a pin drop in the offices. The plans for 2009 are big. From a personal point of view assisting in the establishment of eco-tourism in the park will be a big part of the next couple of months. Eco-tourism has not been facilitated within the park before and this presents an incredible opportunity for tourists to get to know the Jiuzhaigou behind the beautiful lakes and waterfalls. There is a wealth of local culture, history, wildlife and some out of this world hiking awaiting our 2009 visitors. Sustainable tourism and community development will, as always, be high on the agenda.

Spring appears to have arrived with the Spring Festival (new year)....although we seem to have missed winter! Temperatures have been low over the last month or two but instead of being under snow at the moment we have beautiful sunshine and warm breezes to keep us thinking. Long may it last!

It is thought and hoped that tourism will recover in 2009. With everything 2008 threw at us it is hard to know how people will react this year....except for those who had all their savings in stocks and shares that is - we know what their travel plans will be like! We will continue to spread the word of the good work that is being done on the ground here. We will continue to work with our Chinese and international partners to bring standards across the board up to, and surpass, current international levels. Visits are already planned for many of our US and European partners, Jiuzhaigou will be represented at the ITB tourism conference in Berlin, Germany in March and tourists from western countries will continue to increase.

Jiuzhaigou will feature in the March edition of the National Geographic Magazine and this exposure should further to help the return of tourists and help the Aba region recover from the financial effects of 2008.


                                        Kieran

Kieran Fitzgerald
Sustainable Tourism and Marketing Advisor,
Jiuzhaigou National Park, Sichuan, China