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Dubai Tourism has organised the first in a series of stakeholder focus groups and workshops, inviting hotels, tourism agencies and environmental organisations to review the progress of the Dubai Sustainable Tourism, DST, initiative.
The move seeks to explore ways to further enhance sustainability standards to support effective resource management across various hotel classifications and to contribute effectively to raising professional awareness towards the environment, the economy, and the use of natural resources.
These focus groups are a tangible demonstration of Dubai Tourism’s continuing commitment to working closely with its tourism and hospitality stakeholders to promote sustainable tourism and achieve the goals set out in the Tourism Vision 2020. They demonstrate Dubai Tourism’s underlying philosophy that the best results can only be achieved when both the private and public sectors work in unison in order to ensure the industry is operating at the highest standard.
Connecting 40 leading hotel operators, owners and representatives from hotel establishments, as well as environmental organisations, the event offered an interactive platform to discuss knowledge-sharing and the feasibility and implementation of timelines for 19 new industry sustainability standards developed by DST.
Yousuf Lootah, Executive Director of Dubai Tourism, said, "Working in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to transform Dubai into a sustainable environmental destination, the credible and feasible sustainability standards and certification schemes are key tools in the transformation of our tourism industry, working in line with the city’s overall clean energy and sustainable development targets. The standards and policies introduced to the industry through the DST initiative are not only aimed at supporting effective resource management but also providing guidance on what enhanced sustainability measures look like in a concrete and practical way.
"In the coming years, we expect these standards to pave the way forward for Dubai’s tourism and hospitality sectors to continue to implement innovative standards. These events and workshop sessions are, therefore, keys to harnessing the collective power of our stakeholders and industry partners to encourage collective sustainability aims, commitments, outcomes and impacts, and create a clear understanding of how powerful hospitality establishments can be in bringing about change."
Dubai Tourism is carrying out its sustainability initiative in collaboration with the following partners: Etihad ESCO, Dubai Carbon, Emirates Environmental Group, Emirates Wildlife Society – WWF and Emirates Green Building Council, as well as the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, DEWA and Dubai Municipality as strategic partners.
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