UNWTO Doha Workshop Boosts Tourism Professionals from GCC-MENA Region

Doha, March 22 (QNA) - Capacities of public and private sector professionals working in the GCC and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region's tourism industry received a big boost through a workshop held here under the aegis of the United Nations World Tourism Organistaion (UNWTO). The five-day workshop which concluded today was on the theme 'Regional Capacity Building on Tourism Policy and Strategy'. Sixty participants, including 16 women, from 11 countries from the GCC and MENA region advanced their knowledge on tourism policies, strategies, development plans and regulatory mechanisms at the training workshop led by UNWTO in association with Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) at the Rennaisance Hotel in Doha. Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA) after the concluding session on Thursday, QTA Director of Tourism Abdullah Malalla Al Bader said, "The focus of this workshop was to expand the capacities of industry professionals in three areas - cultural, commercial and sports. "To this objective, besides the workshops held indoors, field tours were organised for the participants to Katara Cultural Village, The Pearl and Aspire Zone and Qatar Olympic Committee to gain first hand knowledge of developing tourism marketing strategies." Adviser to Egypt's Minister of Tourism Ahmed El Khadem and Dr Edith Szivas, Director Research and Consultancy at Jumeriah Group, Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management in Dubai were the UNWTO's two external collaborators at the Doha Workshop who trained the participants which included a group of 40 from Qatar. Elaborating on the topics of workshop, UNWTO's Academic Co-ordinator for the Programme Sonia Figueras told QNA, "The three modules of workshop were on Principles of Sustainable Tourism Policy Strategy; Competitiveness in Supply and Demand of Tourism Destinations; and Impact of Tourism. "Regarding the impact, we discussed social, economic, cultural and environmental impact, green economy and alternative energy solutions for hotels." Adding her view on going green, Dr Szivas said, "Qatar is at the forefront of looking at green technology and using renewable energy in new projects. Tourism has to play its part in sustainable development since it has an increasingly important role in diversifying the GCC economies." Over five days the workshop explored questions like - What are the ideal tools for the competitive positioning of the destination? What policies and strategies can be implemented for the sustainable development of the tourism sector? How can the impacts of tourism development be efficiently measured and, consequently, how what corrective policies can be introduced? and what elements form competitive tourism supply? On the benefit of the workshop to the participants, Figueras said, "Besides the sessions, the delegates did field work on day three of the workshop and came up with their guidelines on sustainability, competitiveness and public, private partnership suggestions." Our methodology is very hands-on and practical; she said and added, "We have presented the participants with a whole new spectrum. They will now be empowered how to put it in practice what they have learnt over the last five days." The universally accepted international concepts of sustainable tourism, the principles of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism and the UN Millennium Development Goals were embedded throughout the workshop. (QNA)