Sustainable Tourism - An experts trip to Germany The Embassy sent Jad Abou Arrage, University Lecturer and Development Practitioner on a one week trip to Germany on sustainable tourism. Together with a group of experts from around the globe he got a deep insight in the topic. Read his impressions and take a look at the sites visited. Thanks to the German Embassy in Beirut, I had the honor to represent Lebanon as a tourism and environmental sustainability expert in the Sustainable Tourism Information Tour organized by the German Federal Foreign Office and GIZ in August in Berlin and the Baltic Sea area in north-east Germany. The program of this professional tour was very useful for me since it covered a wide variety of tourism sustainability topics. During one week, I had the opportunity to observe, learn, and share experiences about issues related to: (1) sustainable accommodation in urban and rural areas, (2) the use of renewable energy in the tourism industry, (3) responsible recreational activities in natural parks, (4) linkages between farming and tourism, and (5) good governance and preservation of the cultural resources. All these issues converge to reduce the negative socio-economic and environmental impacts of the tourism industry. The 18 participants coming from 16 countries in Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East had the chance to explore and understand how the German society and the tourism stakeholders develop and manage their innovative and sustainable tourism initiatives. As a development practitioner, researcher, and field expert in tourism and environmental sustainability, I will definitely benefit from what I saw and learned in Germany, and I will try to apply and transfer the knowledge I gained to Lebanon in the form of pilot projects. Finally I would like to thank the amazing staff of GIZ who accompanied us during the tour, Mr. Andreas Fischer and Mrs. Lina Nientimp. Jad Abou Arrage, University Lecturer and Development Practitioner
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 15:13:14 +0000