CONCURRENT SESSION 3B SPEAKERS
Innovations in sustainable tourism

Elhadji Abdoul Aziz Gueye, Director, Senegal Government Tourist Office

Elhadji Abdoul Aziz Gueye is the Director of the New York-based Senegal Government Tourist Office. At the Ministry of Tourism in his home country, he has also served as Director of the Department of Promotion and Investments Administration/Finance Auditor, Senior Technical Advisor, among other high-ranking positions.

Mr. Gueye was educated in Dakar, Senegal and in Southern France. He received a Master's of Arts degree from Cheikh Anta DIOP University and two post-graduate diplomas in tourism economics and zoning from the Academy of Aix-Marseilles.

PRESENTATION TITLE: “Sustainable tourism and local government in rural areas of Senegal”

Senegal has been experiencing some forms of sustainable tourism since the 1970s – basically in rural areas of the South, more vulnerable to tourist loading capacity. When we know that administratively speaking, as far as tourism is concerned, authority has not been transferred to local hands, contrarily to almost all other sectors that tourism is connected to because of its horizontal character, the experience known as integrated rural tourism can be seen as a double revolution, on both sustainability and administrative decentralization grounds. And local people in those areas, who have managed to have tourists share their daily activities, have not but gained a lot, not only in terms of money, from that experience.

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Nick Welman, Dutch IDUT Sustainable Tourism Network

Nick Welman was chairman of the Dutch NGO “Fair Tourism” (REISbeWIJS) from 1994 until 2004. As senior lecturer in sustainable development at Fontys University he is now member of the national Dutch platform for sustainable tourism development IDUT (since 2004). His publications include an article on tourism and corporate governance in the university textbook “Bedrijfsethiek voor HBO” (Damon Publishers, The Netherlands, 2006).

PRESENTATION TITLE: “Working towards good tourism: consensus and issues”

In The Netherlands, some 25 organisations, both profit and non-profit, work together on the development of sustainable tourism. As a member of this IDUT network Nick Welman discussed the successes and difficulties in reaching a common view on what good tourism should look like. Which types of tourism are viewed as preferable by (almost) everyone, which types are disputed and which type of tourism might be a wolf in sheepskin?

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Albert Postma, MSc degree in Social Geography (State University of Groningen, Netherlands)

Besides Albert Postma’s job as programme director of the MA International Leisure and Tourism Studies, he is senior lecturer at the School of Graduate Studies and in the BBA programme Leisure Management at Stenden University. He teaches primarily in the areas sustainable tourism development, socio-geographical aspects of leisure and tourism, and research methodology.

In the 1990s he has been working as a researcher/consultant at the Institute Service Management, the contract research centre of the Stenden University. During this period he has developed Toerdata Noord, a monitoring system for tourism in the North Netherlands. Besides he conducted numerous studies, mainly concerning regional destination marketing and tourism monitoring.

His current research interests focuses on the field of Tourism, Quality of Life, and Community Development. As a member of the research group Service Studies, he started a PhD study in 2005 in which the residents’ acceptance of tourism is explored on islands in the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. Besides, he participating in projects related to sustainable tourism and quality of life.

PRESENTATION TITLE: “Critical impacts of tourism: multiple case studies”

In this study, the development process of irritation about tourism is explored among residents of tourism destinations. The multiple case study focuses on two cold-water island communities in the Netherlands (Ameland and Terschelling) and two hot water island communities in the Caribbean (Aruba and Curacao). Contrary to most studies about residents' perceptions and attitudes of tourism, the study employed here has a qualitative design and makes use of a modification of the Critical Incident Technique.

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Mike McHugo, Discover Ltd and the Kasbah du Toubkal

Chris McHugo, Discover Ltd and the Kasbah du Toubkal

The McHugo Brothers, Chris and Mike, come to tourism from differing backgrounds. Both have degrees in business but Chris pursued a career as an international management consultant specializing in information technology and change while Mike started a niche travel company specializing in educational tours. Both have worked together to produce The Kasbah Du Toubkal – a haven of peace – 60 kilometers south of Marrakech.

PRESENTATION TITLE: “Heart and head – a sustainable development in the Moroccan High Atlas”

The background and challenges of developing a unique restoration project in a fragile physical environment. How a unique cross-cultural friendship has developed into a business partnership that benefits the host community as well as creating a sustainable business.

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