Less talk and more pictures from the UNWTO

I realize my blog posting from yesterday was longer than usual and didn’t even contain any pictures.  So I will take this opportunity to show you a few pictures from the UNWTO conference.

In my previous post about the Opening Ceremony I mentioned that President Mugabe of Zimbabwe was staying at my hotel.  And one of the comments I made was that each time he entered or exited the hotel the staff “rolled out the red carpet.”  Well, in case you thought I was exaggerating, here is his red carpet waiting for him to exit the hotel again:

In the same post I stated that his car was parked right out front and babysat, while the rest of us had to go through security.  As you can see here is his car with the Zimbabwean flag on the front, along with the security person responsible for the car in the white shirt on the right side, and if you look at the top of the stairs there was the metal detector and security personnel checking all guests entering the property:

Since it wasn’t clear in the previous picture, here you can see the license plate on President Mugabe’s car reads “Zim 1,” kind of like Air Force One, but a vehicle:

In yesterday’s post I mentioned the brand new BMW motorcycles for the police as seen here:

 And then you have to look closely inside the police car, but you can sort of see through the open window the plastic coverings still on the seats:

Here is a shot of the actual building where all the general session meetings were held.  It was easier to take this picture when no one was in the building because when it was full of several hundred people it was just incredibly hectic and difficult to get a good shot:

Finally, here are the dignitaries who attended and spoke during the Closing Ceremony.  The Minister of Tourism and the Arts from Zambia, Secretary General of the UNWTO Taleb Rafai, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, President Sata of Zambia and Vice President Guy Scott.  By the way, Vice President Scott  is white.  As he said in his speech, “You are probably surprised to see I’m white. In fact, I am the only white vice president to serve under a black president with the exception of Vice President Biden and President Obama.”  In this photo President Sata was giving his address: