Enterprise and Investment department receives City Award for virtual Responsible Tourism Programme

STATEMENT BY THE CITY’S MAYORAL COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES AND ASSET MANAGEMENT, ALDERMAN JAMES VOS

Each year, the City Awards pay tribute to the hard work and exceptional achievements of City employees or departments. At the awards ceremony, held on Friday last week, the Enterprise and Investment (E&I) Department received an award for their Innovative Responsible Tourism Schools Programme, which the team rolled out amidst the Covid 19 pandemic.

Due to COVID-19, E&I embraced innovation and moved the Responsible Tourism schools programme online to exhibit responsible tourism practices to learners, showcasing various attractions with demonstrated success in responsible tourism, safely.

For me, the three pillars of responsible tourism are Responsible pricing; Responsible places and Responsible Practices. If we get these things right, we can diversify tourism products, boost cultural experiences and community involvement and therefore, drive demand which will lead to jobs and economic benefits for residents.

One of the City’s key focus areas is on promoting Responsible Tourism to ensure economic growth that will lead job creation and social upliftment of residents, through tourism.

I personally visited Crystal High School in Hanover Park to launch the 10-minute production which features all levels of sustainability from job creation, desalination, economic growth and sustainability.  The oceans economy is also a fresh edition to the program.

This online program gives schools offering Tourism as a subject a practical and inspirational tool that would enable them to experience the value of responsible tourism and also identify key job opportunities within the industry.

I would like to thank and congratulate my team in E&I for this achievement and look forward to many more innovative programmes going forward.