The Traveller's Magazine
After two years of collecting votes worldwide and tourism campaigns to attract attention, the votes have been counted and the results have been announced. The New 7 Wonders of Nature are… (drum roll please)…
Millions have voted in this last contest which ran for an exhausting two years to compile a new list of seven wondrous sites. The contest, appropriately named New7Wonders of Nature, closed on November 11, 2011 at 11:11am GMT.
There were 28 sites total in the running, from just about every corner of the world. Which ones made the cut? Here they are (and in no particular order).
The NEW 7 Wonders of Nature
- The Amazon, South America
- Halong Bay, Vietnam
- Iguazu Falls, Argentina/Brazil
- Jeju Island, South Korea
- Komodo, Indonesia
- Puerto Princesa Underground River, Philippines
- Table Mountain, South Africa
These results are based on the provisional first counting of the votes and will be confirmed and verified by early 2012 which means this list here is in no way final. Remember what travellers on twitter had to say about the “NEW” 7 Natural Wonders?
The cost of the contest
Just think. No doubt these seven sites will reap the benefits of this worldwide contest in the future but you can bet it wasn’t earned for free. Each country’s tourism board had to pay an initial fee, then licensing fees, create huge advertising campaigns taking the form of billboards, social media, print and digital ads, etc. This was big budget business for the countries drafted for the initial list of 28.
The Swiss-based company behind the contest, NewOpenWorld Organization, admitted to making a huge profit off of the contest after administration costs were covered and a share went into the corporation’s own foundation for promoting so-called “global memory.”
Did you know that both the Maldives and Indonesia (initially) pulled out of the campaign after being required to pay licensing fees of US$10 million to the New Open World Corporation… sorry, Organization?
Does that change the way you look at the New7Wonders of Nature? What do you think about the finalists?
