DTCM thrashes out best practice for Dubai hotels
Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), represented by the committee of Dubai Green Tourism Award, meet last week with representatives of Dubai's hotel sector to review best practices adopted by winning hotel facilities at the Dubai Green Tourism Award 2010.
Winners of the Award shared their experiences before a gathering of representatives from three-, four- and five-star hotels, hotel departments, award sponsors and local and private establishments.
The meeting was also attended by different departments responsible for the innovative use of environmental resources that help improve hotel conditions, reduce energy consumption and maintain high-level performance, while also helping guarantee hotel safety and security.
“The goal behind this meeting is to promote the ideals of the award, which has witnessed great interest from different hotel facilities. We also aimed to encourage these hotels to provide the best conditions and services for their guests. It was also a way to motivate non-winning hotels to work harder to make their facilities more environment-friendly, enabling them to improve their standings in the next edition of the award,” said Eyad Ali Abdul Rahman, executive director, media relation division and business development, DTCM and award supervisor.
“By honouring top-performing hotels, DTCM seeks to recognise the efforts they have exerted to improve their level of services and environmental systems. We are pleased that they have joined us in this meeting to share their experiences and to encourage others to do their best.”
Shaikha Ebrahim Al Mutawa, director of business development department, and chairperson of Dubai Green Tourism Award, explained that through the meeting they were able to define best practices as the method, idea or process that most affects the innovative use of resources to achieve best results with the least effort exerted compared to other technologies when used in a certain way.
Al Mutawa further stated that the meeting also featured different workshops wherein representatives from different hotels presented various ways to save energy and discussed the role of management and employees in transforming the hotel into a healthy working environment.
DTCM launched Dubai Green Tourism Award in 2009 to honour environment-friendly hotels that have achieved excellence in their services and systems in areas that include waste recycling, energy efficiency, and promoting environmental awareness within their respective hotels and in the community.
More than 250 key decision makers from the Tourism Industry and government departments officials attended the session; accounting the increase of the potential hotel establishments to the award by 114 establishments.
The award is one of the most important environmental initiatives in Dubai as it has been conceptualised in line with the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 announced by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, in 2007.
The Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 underlines the importance of keeping Dubai safe, clean and sustainable by aligning local environmental programs with international standards, developing mechanisms needed to implement these programs, integrating environmental initiatives within the Emirate's development programs and policies, and raising environmental awareness.