JEDDAH, 23 February 2006 — The four-day seminar on sustainable tourism organized by the Supreme Commission for Tourism (SCT) ended yesterday on a high note. The conclusions and recommendations from the site visits by the delegates were presented in an energetic afternoon of discussion and suggestions.
“The seminar was designed to be a catalyst,” said Ted Manning, an analyst on sustainable tourism for the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), commenting on the final session. “It was certainly that.”
Manning said he felt that the reaction to the seminar by the local and international delegates was extremely positive.
“This has been one of the better workshops,” he said. “We have introduced some new ideas and techniques to the delegates and they have enthusiastically taken them up.”
That opinion was borne out by the long list of ideas that delegates contributed to the final recommendations soon to be issued as a report.
One of the most important outcomes was the realization that many different authorities have information that could contribute to structuring a business plan based on sound information. If the indicators — management tools that were the focus of the workshops — were put in place at the beginning of a business plan, they introduce targets and therefore accountability to the plan and act as measures of achievement.
“I think we saw the different organizations realizing they were actually on the same side,” said Manning.
Gabor Vereczi, who led the wrap-up session, said that identifying the indicators that fed back information to planners were the key to building a viable tourism strategy. He detailed the results of the several site visits by delegates and invited them to identify the indicators.
“The session has been very productive,” he said. “It is now a matter of putting the recommendations into action.” He said that the variety of attractions available in Jeddah need to be organized and managed by qualified tour operators in order to promote them both domestically and internationally.
