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Middle East Conference
on Sustainable Eco-Tourism Development
Radisson SAS Hotel, Amman
April 17-19, 2008
 

1.  Introduction

 

Sustainable Tourism describes the planning and management process of tourism development within today’s delicate ecology of the world we live in. sustainable tourism and hospitality management involves long-term strategic planning and includes the interests of all the stakeholders.

 

Sustainable hospitality management specifically has emerged as a focused, mission-driven alternative to mainstream tourism practices. Properly executed, sustainable hospitality management presents an opportunity for social, environmental, and economic benefits for local populations.

 

The interface between tourists and the communities they visit creates an opportunity for mutually beneficial nature and culture conservation, using the world’s most powerful economic development engine, as well as learning for the stakeholders via cultural immersion.

 

Having developed the seminar with the challenges and financial objectives of the hotelier in mind, our team will demonstrate why and how to implement Sustainable Hospitality Management programs while ensuring such programs lead to an increase of profitability. This seminar will provide participants the tools, and highlight the challenges associated with, the planning and operation of financially successful sustainable hospitality projects. The seminar co-leaders will utilize methodologies to ensure that participants will:

 

•  Work in teams to analyze the cases of model properties

•  Examine the operational, marketing and cash flow structures of model sustainable hospitality business

• Define measures of performance for sustainable hospitality management; and

• Create strategies to improve the sustainability of their own hospitality operations

 

Our seminar format will ensure that at the end of the three-day seminar the participants will return to their property with the tools and action plans that will permit them to implement their Sustainable Hospitality Management programs.

 

To do so, we will offer 3 tracks to the participants:

 

1. Planning, Management & Monitoring for cleaner production

2. Leveraging Sustainability Practices for Service Quality

3. Sustainable Marketing

2. Review of the three tracks and their objectives:
    Thinking Strategically for competitive Advantage and Service Quality

 

 A - planning Management & Monitoring for Cleaner Production

 

Attendees will increase their knowledge about the processes of initiating, managing and monitoring a hotel based Cleaner Production System (CPS).

 

Opportunity will be provided to develop and take away Preliminary hotel environmental policy statements, developing a step-by-step action plan to initiate and integrate a CPS and developing a job Description for the required “Green Champion”.

 

Specific topics to be addresses include: 

 

1. Being aware of different components of a Hotel CPS

2. Understanding environmental policy & drafting a hotel Environmental Charter

3. Preparing a job Description for the required “Green Champion”

4. Recognizing importance of Step-by-Step Plan for integrating new procedures into established hotel production processes, from greening supply chains to waste management

5. Learning about continuous cycle of data collection, reporting, evaluating & adjusting

6. Recognizing added value of destination stakeholder involvement and identify possible points of partnership/collaboration

7. Gaining knowledge on existing CPS based certification and labeling schemes

8. Reviewing availability of supportive information on management for CPS

 

B - leveraging Sustainability Practices for Service Quality

 

This track is designed for hoteliers responsible for training the frontline service personnel who interact with guests. The increasing complexity of front line hospitality service work in such settings is a function of recently changing guest expectations, the need for higher levels of productivity and responsiveness, and the predominance of traditional bottom line accounting. We will demonstrate the relevance of the factors of Agenda 21 to the new class of hoteliers in emerging destinations.

 

Specific topics to be addressed include:

 

• The sustainability vision framework emanating from Agenda 21 and its role in motivating service personnel for service quality

• The relationship between sustainability – motivated service personnel and loyalty, productivity and value creation

• How the particular form of service quality created by sustainability – motivated service personnel drives guests satisfaction and loyalty

• Sustainability-oriented guests analyzed according to their position within the service-profit value chain

• Integrating the sustainability-driven hospitality operation into the destination

C - Sustainable Marketing

 

The Sustainable Marketing track to permit participants

1. To identify products and program development opportunities that will find resonance among their target audiences, and

2. To develop a sustainable marketing and communication strategy

Specific topics to be addressed include:

• The responsible Traveler

•  Product and program Development Opportunities

•  Marketing Sustainable Tourism Products and Programs

•  Internal Marketing Communications

•  External Marketing Communications

3. Conference Schedule
 

DATE	TIME	TOPIC
April 17	09:00 – 12:00	Welcome Speeches & Introductions followed by 3 Presentations from “What is tourism sustainability” to the “Role of Hoteliers in contributing to Sustainable, Quality Destinations”
	12:00 - 13:30	Lunch
	13:30 – 18:00	Initiation of tracks/ reading assignments
April 18	09:00 – 12:00	Continuation of Tracks
	12:00 – 13:30	Lunch
	13:30 – 16:00	Continuation of Tracks
	16:00 – 18:00	Preparation of Track Summary Presentations
April 19	09:00 – 12:00	Track Presentations/ 1 hour each (30’ for presentation and 30’ for discussion)
	12:00 – 13:30	Lunch
	13:30 – 15:30	Panel Discussion / Group Interaction on future Tourism Sustainability Challenges facing Jordan
	15:30 – 17:00	Conference Wrap-up & Next Steps