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 April 18 is World Heritage Day and we are launching the 2nd edition of our World Heritage Tours brochure. Many countries promote sites within their countries that have been designated as “World Heritage Sites.” Today, these sites are located in 165 countries across our globe. There is however an interesting story as to how these came to be: In 1954, the government of Egypt decided to build the new Aswan High Dam, whose resulting future reservoir would eventually inundate a large stretch of the Nile valley containing cultural treasures of ancient Egypt and ancient Nubia. In 1960, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) launched an appeal to save the Monuments of Nubia. This appeal resulted in the excavation and recording of hundreds of sites, the recovery of thousands of objects, as well as the salvage and relocation to higher ground of several important temples, the most famous of which are the temple complexes of Abu Simbel and Philae. Above all, this brought together international awareness, human expertise as well as financial commitment from different parts of the world and more importantly an awareness of heritage sites, their upkeep and a sense of belonging irrespective of where the sites are located. Hence other safeguarding campaigns were undertaken: saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobudur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. These efforts led to the "Convention Concerning the Protection of the World’s Cultural and Natural Heritage", which was officially adopted by UNESCO in 1972.
At Bestway Tours & Safaris we have seen a growing demand by our intrepid travellers who are keen on visiting numerous World Heritage Sites. They are keen to continue adding more to the experiences of the local culture, meeting people and fulfilling their bucket list in seeing as many of the World Heritage Sites. Keeping them in mind, our specialized division, World Heritage Tours designed special journeys in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas that focus on visiting as many UNESCO World Heritage Sites as possible. These itineraries have been specifically tailored to also include the beautiful scenery and offer genuine interaction with the local people to appreciate the cultural diversity of the places we visit. Since the publication of our first World Heritage Tours brochure much has changed in the world. The increasing demand for more copies and update with new tours led us to publish a Second Edition. As our goal is to constantly innovate and provide you with new “journeys sans frontiers” we have created a host of new and exciting journeys. New to the 2nd edition are two World Heritage tours to China: one in Northern and the other in Southern China, Indonesia, the Arab Sheikhdoms, the Caucasus region and Southern Africa. As always, the focus of our tours is the pursuit of knowledge and a better understanding of the world we live in. Simultaneously, we have also launched our new specialized website: www.worldheritagetours.com. Here you will find a complete listing of the tours with detailed itineraries, dates and prices, in addition to other useful information. We are constantly updating our website adding new journeys, information and specials. So we do encourage you to visit our web sites regularly. With nearly 40 years of corporate and over a 150 years in personnel expertise in putting together small group in depth cultural and heritage journeys, we offer scheduled tour departures and specialise in tailoring custom tour programs to suit your own areas of interest and dates, be it for yourself, family and a small private group of friends. Planning a tour is much more than just coordinating the logistics. In each journey we plan, we fulfill our passion to create connections between the traveller and the welcoming hosts at all our destinations. On the occasion of the launch of the 2nd edition of the World Heritage Brochure, we are offering limited time price specials, which we hope will be of interest to you. Your Bestway Tours & Safaris team is keen to be of service to you, as you venture in joining us in exploring our shared heritage. Happy Journeys! Online printer-friendly copies of both editions of our brochures is available here. If you do want to a brochure mailed to you please email us with your postal address to: bestway@bestway.com
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Posted by Mahmood Poonja, Chief Explorer