Sustainable Palestinian Tourism? – Concepts of sustainability in tourism and their applicability to the Palestinian tourism sector

Sustainable tourism is about finding a balance between economic benefits and negative social and environmental impacts. Increasing demand for sustainable holidays is an important market trend. Travellers have become more and more aware of sustainability. This has led to an increase in demand for eco-friendly, climate-neutral tourism services and products. This offers interesting opportunities for communities and tourism & hospitality companies as it enhances business competitiveness.

Dr. Nicole Häusler, mascontour-Berlin/Germany, gives an introduction into the concept of sustainable tourism, followed by a presentation of Hiran Cooray, chairman of the family-owned luxury hotel group Jetwing (www.jetwinghotels.com) in Sri Lanka. Jetwing Hotels has been a pioneer of sustainability (e.g. zero plastic policy in their hotels, training programs for disadvantages people) by creating at the same time a successful business model. After these two inputs we will discuss the applicability of sustainable tourism for Palestinian tourism sector with a special focus on the current market trends.

As with all tourism talk sessions, this episode is open to all tourism practitioners from the public and private sides as well as anyone with an interest in Palestinian tourism.

We especially invite representatives of commissioning parties (locally and internationally), tourism consultants and researchers to join the discussion.

EJTDP’s Tourism Talks are hybrid events: Join us in person at: EJTDP’s Tourism Development Hub (Al-Yacoubi Street #6, Jerusalem) or online. A unique link to join virtually will be provided after registration.