Expedia, Inc. is one of the world's leading travel
services companies. With its portfolio of leading
travel brands, Expedia, Inc. empowers business
and leisure travelers with the tools and information
they need to easily research, plan, book and experience
travel. The company also provides wholesale travel
to offline retail travel agents. Expedia, Inc.'s
main businesses and brands include: Expedia.com®,
Hotels.com™, Hotwire®, Expedia®
Corporate Travel, Trip Advisor™ and Classic
Vacations™. Expedia, Inc.’s companies
also operate internationally with sites in Canada,
the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands
and China, through its investment in eLong™.
http://www.expediainc.com
The UN Foundation is a public charity created
in 1998 with philanthropist Ted Turner’s
historic gift of $1 billion to support UN causes.
It is the world’s largest private supporter
of World Heritage. Since 1999, the UN Foundation
has contributed more than $40 million, and catalyzed
an additional $150 million, in support of World
Heritage conservation and sustainable development
in the developing world. http://www.unfoundation.org
World Heritage Centre at UNESCO
For more than 30 years, UNESCO and its partners
have worked through the World Heritage Centre
to identify, assess and protect places of outstanding
universal value. To date, 184 countries have adhered
to the Convention Concerning the Protection of
the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, making
it one of the most universal international legal
instruments for the protection of cultural and
natural heritage. Whilst fully respecting the
national sovereignty, the States Parties to the
World Heritage Convention recognize that the protection
of our World Heritage is the duty of the international
community as a whole. There
are currently 851 properties including 660 cultural, 166 natural and 25 mixed properties in 184 countries. http://whc.unesco.org