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Collected Department Releases: Tourism Promotion Through Culinary Exchange

Tourism Promotion Through Culinary Exchange

Media Note

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

June 26, 2014

As President Obama recently announced, the Department of State’s Diplomatic Culinary Partnership, in collaboration with Brand USA, supports the National Travel and Tourism Strategy goal of bringing 100 million international visitors to the United States by 2021. In July, five members of the American Chef Corps will travel to East-Asian markets to promote U.S. tourism and agricultural exports.

The Office of the Chief of Protocol’s Diplomatic Culinary Partnership, together with the James Beard Foundation, established the American Chefs Corp, a network of more than 100 of America’s most renowned chefs, to participate in various public diplomacy programs. These programs engage foreign audiences at home and abroad by fostering cross-cultural exchange through the shared experience of food. Five talented and successful American chefs will promote American agricultural food exports, highlight regional American cuisines and tourism destinations, and participate in other high-visibility activities including U.S. Independence Day celebrations in China, Taiwan, Australia, Japan, and South Korea. July 4th activities will serve as a launch for an expanded, year-long BrandUSA-led global culinary tourism campaign that will culminate just before the 2015 World Expo in Milan, Italy. The participating chefs are:

• Chef Rick Bayless, Chef and Owner of Frontera Grill and Host of “Mexico: One Plate at a Time”; hosted by U.S. Embassy Beijing

• Chef Barbara Lynch, Founder and CEO of Barbara Lynch Grupo and Grand Chef at Relais & Châteaux; hosted by U.S. Embassy Tokyo

• Chef Bryce Gilmore, Executive Chef and Co-Owner of Barley Swine and Odd Duck; hosted by the American Institute Taiwan in Taipei

• Chef Sam Kass, Executive Director of Let’s Move!, Senior Policy Advisor on Nutrition Policy, and Chef at the White House; hosted by U.S. Embassy Seoul

• Chef Tory McPhail, Executive Chef of Commander’s Palace; hosted by the U.S. Embassy Canberra

Brand USA will provide promotional materials including the Great American Food Stories culinary guide that showcases rich regional profiles, travel information and recipes from across the culinary landscape of the United States, and features the five traveling chefs among 31 members of the American Chef Corps. For more information, visit: DiscoverAmerica.com/foodstories.

Brand USA is the public-private partnership responsible for promoting the United States as a premier travel destination and communicating U.S. visa and entry policies and procedures. Established by the Travel Promotion Act in 2010, the organization’s mission is to increase international visitation to the United States while working in partnership with the travel industry and Federal government to maximize the economic and social benefits of travel.

For more information, please contact Jessica Andrews at andrewsjj@state.gov.

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Source: Dept. Of State – Releases

Collected Department Releases: Tourism Promotion Through Culinary Exchange

Collected Department Releases: Remarks With President Salvador Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador, President Otto Fernando Perez Molina of Guatemala, and Foreign Minister Mireya Aguero Trejo de Corrales of Honduras Before Their Meeting

Remarks With President Salvador Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador, President Otto Fernando Perez Molina of Guatemala, and Foreign Minister Mireya Aguero Trejo de Corrales of Honduras Before Their Meeting

Remarks

John Kerry
Secretary of State

Miramar Hotel

Panama City, Panama

July 1, 2014

We’re, all of us, meeting at a critical time. We’re honored to be here in Panama for the celebration of the inauguration of the new president, Mr. Varela, but we’re also here to meet on an issue which challenges all of our countries.

Tens of thousands of young children are at enormous risk for their lives. They’re being exploited and they’re being put in great danger. And it’s a challenge to each of us. The United States wants to work very, very closely with our Central American partners in order to try to address this issue. This is a very complicated issue, and it’s not a question of assigning blame. The only people to blame are the criminals who exploit young children.

Each country faces special challenges, particularly our friends in Central America. There are challenges of the economy, jobs, violence, of the social inequities. And we obviously understand people who want to be able to do better and to look for a better life.

But at the same time, there are rules of law and there is a process and there is false information that is being spread about benefits that might be available to these young people who are looking for that better life. And so we need to work together, to communicate to our people, to try to apply the law, and most importantly, to work with each of these countries to address the fundamental underlying causes of this particular challenge.

Yesterday, Ambassador Tom Shannon, a counselor of the State Department, and the Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson visited the southern border of the United States in order to first-hand work with authorities to address this issue. And President Obama announced that he will be making a request of Congress for $2 billion to immediately apply to addressing the various aspects of this problem that we confront.

So I’m very grateful to our friends from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras for coming today to sit and to talk through things that we can do together, to work in a cooperative way in order to try to do better in addressing this important challenge. The lives of children cannot be put at risk this way, and we all have a responsibility as leaders to do our part in order to solve this problem. And we will.

Source: Dept. Of State – Releases

Collected Department Releases: Remarks With President Salvador Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador, President Otto Fernando Perez Molina of Guatemala, and Foreign Minister Mireya Aguero Trejo de Corrales of Honduras Before Their Meeting

T Magazine: In Store | A.P.C. Sets Up Shop at the Wythe Hotel

By By ALEX TUDELA

Beginning today, the French retailer fills the Williamsburg hot spot’s boutique with its signature denim, home items designed in collaboration with Jessica Ogden and a slew of travel-friendly wares.

Source: New York Times

T Magazine: In Store | A.P.C. Sets Up Shop at the Wythe Hotel

Tax season off to a flying start

The South African Revenue Service received more than 50 000 returns in less than 12 hours as the 2014 tax season got under way on Tuesday. Sars will deploy 14 000 officials and nine mobile units, and set up temporary service points countrywide, to make it easier for people to submit their returns.

Source: South Africa.info – News

Tax season off to a flying start

LHR landing fees increase to cover runway cost

By info@businesstraveller.com (Business Traveller Magazine)

The airport said an increase in charges would be required to ensure Heathrow sees a return on the £17 billion it would cost to construct a third runway

Continues…

Source: Business Traveller

LHR landing fees increase to cover runway cost

First AC Hotels by Marriott opens in Paris

By info@businesstraveller.com (Business Traveller Magazine)

The 149-room AC Hotel Paris Porte Maillot is located close to the Palais des Congrès in the city’s 17th arrondissement