April,
2005
World Travel Site With A Mission
 LAS
CRUCES, NM, APRIL 4, 2005 -- Launched in January of this year, WorldCountries.info
plans to be a very different kind of world travel site. Although travel
reservations are offered, the emphasis is on feature articles about the
world's countries from articles compiled with the cooperation of the world's
governments and contributing webmasters. The publication standards for
both writing and photography are extremely high.
The site was founded by Ron Mears, an IT Director in Las
Cruces, NM, who maintains a second residence in nearby Juarez Mexico and
is the author of the Juarez Travel Guide. "Despite the availablity
of the Internet worldwide, we really know so little about each other's
cultures. WorldCountries.info is like a big house with a room for every
country and indigenous people on Earth to enlighten the rest of us about
their cultures and the attractions of their part of the world."
After spending six months on just the technical hurdles
of building the site, Mears began to have doubts as to whether the governments
and web sites of the world would cooperate. "Then came the first
ray of sunlight from Syria, of all places." Adeeb Rantawi of AtlasTours.net
emailed to offer use of the materials on his site for publication. "This
was National Geograpic quality material and photography of the great archeological
sites in Syria --- just what I had hoped for -- and from a part of the
world few people know much about and is very important at this juncture
in history."
"It was not long before Pablo Retamal, the Director
of Tourism, for Chile sent me a CD with some of the most stunning scenic
photos ever published and text for a 12 page article," Mears explains.
"At this point, I knew the concept would be a success. It was humbling
experience to publish this kind of material."
Feature articles on Mexico, Liechtenstein, and France
were soon to follow. "People around the world want to tell their
story, and people everywhere are curious about each other. I think there
is an awareness everywhere that we all live under the same moon and stars
and that they shine as brightly in Zimbabwe as they do over Paris or Juarez,
Mexico," said Mears.
This approach has also flushed out some great local talent.
While compiling the Taiwan article, Mears discovered a young photographer
in Tepei, Brian Lai. "His stuff is so good I gave him free web hosting.
There are young, incredibly talented people like Brian everywhere, and
we're going to publish them."
WorldCountries.info is definitely a site with a mission,
the story of the world's peoples, told in their own words. |
