ISO- PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR TOURISM SERVICES

• Battled International organization for Standardization –ISO for 3 years to have accommodation and catering removed from the scope of their activity.
• Achieved formal recognition of Industry Opposition to the inclusion of accommodation & catering Food and Beverage from ISO leadership in 2007 and a full commitment to work ONLY in local or regional issues.
• Now monitoring how this commitment will be implemented in practice during 2008.

INTERNATIONAL HOTEL CLASSIFICATION ISSUE

• Battled for several years to convince leadership of the UN World Tourism Organization [UNWTO] that the International Hotels Classification is unwanted by our industry and even it’s not useful to it and secure a formal statement from UNWTO that will not work neither interfere in this area.
• Talked several times on personal basis between the President of IH&RA and the Secretary General of ISO and convinced him that the International Hotel Classification is not wanted by our industry and neither that we will support it and that International standards for tourism services should not be developed to a mean toward International Hotel Classification.
• IH&RA continues to resist and fight moves at the international level to link standardization and International Hotel Classification.
• The Secretary General of ISO following the pressure done by IH&RA and his various talks with the President of IH&RA did postpone this idea till 2010.
• The Secretary General of ISO did attend one Board Meeting and General Assembly of IH&RA and he made a presentation.

Environmental Teaching Pack for the Hospitality Industry, Sowing the Seeds of Change UNEP

• Revised and updated edition that will be disseminated by IH&RA together with UNEP to members of the Hospitality Industry ( February 2008).
• Co-operating with UN Environment Program [UNEP] in running an EU-funded pilot project on Crisis and Risk management & prevention in Tourism destinations in 3 south Asian destinations ( Kanniyakumari, India and Patong &Phi Phi Island in Thailand).
• Working directly with corporate hotels chain members of IH&RA and local hospitality operators.
• Running Shelter Assessment of Hotels in these destinations with the participation of International Hotels chain member of IH&RA (Radisson).
• Developing Hospitality Guidelines for Crisis & Risk Management on the basis of cooperative consultation and information sharing between major Hotels Chains ( will be available later).

GREEN PASSPORT - UNEP

• UNEP launched a new web based campaign entitled “GREEN PASSPORT-Holidays for living planet” aiming to raise tourist awareness of their potential to contribute to sustainable development by making responsible holidays choice and would like that IH&RA to include a link for this campaign in IH&RA Web site with more support actively as networking, distribution, development of new materials and events, etc…

EMPLOYMENT IN THE GLOBAL FOOD CHAIN-ILO

• ILO is a specialized agency on UN focusing on labor issues and related social matters bringing together governments, employees and trade unions.
• Their membership is over 170 countries worldwide with mission to set international standards to cope with the problem of Labor conditions involving “injustice, hardship and privation” with 2 other aspects technical cooperation and research. IH&RA did succeed to have an observer and consultant status with ILO.
• We discussed and battled with International Labor Organization [ILO] to have food service and catering removed completely from the scope of this formal report and tri-parties meeting that was held in Geneva in September 2007.
• Ensured dissemination of information on the report contents and meeting to all IH&RA members.
• Ensured our presence as International foodservice representative as an observer at this meeting.
• Please read at the end of this report more details about the IH&RA activities with ILO.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT WITH UNWTO.

• IH&RA President was invited by UNWTO at Davos Meeting where UNWTO issues a statement about the “Davos Declaration”.
• Since last year, IH&RA President appears in several occasions and was a speaker on this issue at London during WTM for London Ministerial Tourism conference, Cartagena during WTO General Assembly, Pacific Asian Travel Writes Association and in Agadir during the Arab Union for Hotels and Tourism, etc..
• UNWTO did invite IH&RA to work on a European Union tender to expand the uptake of energy efficiency measures in the accommodation sector in EU member states. Project is under initiation before June 2008.
• Manuals and Training Packages developed for this project will be shared with hotels chains around the world.
• IH&RA did participate with UNWTO Avian Influenza Emergency Response Network
• Defining the mechanism, incentives and policies for governments and other related agencies to support these initiatives.
• We will focus on a plan, that the tourism and Hospitality Industry including hotels and restaurants worldwide have for investing in new approaches to reduce CO2 gas emissions, and to manage better the environment system and to create a creative adaptation and mitigations measures.

UNWTO – Task Force for the protection of Children in Hospitality

• IH&RA President is an active member of the Board of this Task Force, and they are working for better protection and prevention of all kind of abuses of the children in hotels and restaurants worldwide.

RELATIONS WITH UNWTO

• Since last year, IH&RA established a very strong relation with UNWTO as the UNWTO represents the public sectors, as governments, and IH&RA represents and defends the private sector in Hospitality. Both need to work together and since the mid 2007 till today the cooperation is very strong. In addition that IH&RA is a member of the Board of the Task force for the protection of children in Tourism, The President has been chosen by the Secretary General of UNWTO to be an active member of the advisory Committee for Tourism.

UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION (March 2008)

• IH&RA was invited by major International organizations to join the Steering Committee of the Global baseline Criteria for Sustainable Tourism initiative together with UNEP, UNWTO, UNF, RA/RAINFOREST ALLIANCE, and IUCN/World CONSERVATION UNION. Based in Washington, DC. The President will be at the Steering Committee among the major decision makers in UN.

IOM –International Organization of Migration

• IH&RA is a member of BAB (Business Advisory Board) that works on various issues, during the major conference in ABU Dhabi about the dialogue regarding the contractual Labor Mobility in Asia for hotels and restaurants. Adopting a forward-looking declaration for a better management of temporary contractual labor mobility.
• IH&RA is making a proposal to IOM for mobility of labor considering temporary Labor permit to be granted by the country sending the labor and still having an issue with security check and control.
• Preparing a survey for skills shortages and skills availability around the Globe in order to improve collection and dissemination of information on recruitment and qualifications. Survey to be completed during the second half of 2008.

MIPIM – SPEED MATCHING (March 2008)

• IH&RA was a member of the Jury that chooses the most promising projects in the Hospitality Industry between more than 100 projects. MIPIM is one of the largest Hospitality and Real Estate exhibitions with 35’000 participants worldwide; it was held in Cannes, France.

ISO – TC228 3rd annual meeting 25-26 February 2008 – Marbella, Spain.

• By request from various members, ISO council agreed to distribute all ISO standards as from 2004.

HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

• Working closely with WHO fight against obesity while promoting consumer responsibility and defending work undertaken by the Hospitality Industry to promote healthy eating and lifestyle.
• Battled CODEX ALIMENTARIUS and WHO for several years to secure a reasonable definition of advertising in relation to health claims.
• The idea of obesity is not anymore in the agenda of WHO for 2008.

Advocacy and Representation - By the President

1. January 2008: The First Orchid (Macedonia) Tourism Festival.
2. January 2008: The Assembly of the Arab Union for Hotels in Agadir, Morocco. Dr. AIDI was elected as the Vice President of the Union.
3. February 2008: Hotels and Tourism Show in Madrid, Spain. Dr. Aidi had been awarded by the Trade Leader’s Club for the New Millennium Award in Madrid.
4. February 2008: Dr. Aidi attends the Annual Meeting of the Turkish Hotels Association.
5. March 2008: Attend the ITB show in Berlin.
6. March 2008: attend the Star Alliance joint meeting with Global Hotel Alliance .
7. Guest Speaker at PACIFIC AREA TRAVEL WRITERS ASSOCIATION, he was talking about new trends in tourism and hospitality-Berlin .
8. March 2008: Attend the MIPIM Event in Cannes where he was member of the Jury Committee.

Future Event

1. April 2008: Opening the Gastronomic French Week in Damascus, Syria of “La Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, Bailliage de Syrie”.
2. April 2008: Attending the First Meeting of the Mediterranean Restaurants Association in Cairo-Egypt.
3. April 2008: Attending in New Delhi the Meeting of BAB for IOM.
4. April 2008: trip to Hong Kong, Manila and Kuala Lumpur to meet ASIANA Associations that has 13 Asian Hotels Association to offer them to Join IH&RA.
5. May 2008: Guest Speaker at Arabian Investment Conference in Dubai, UAE.
6. May 2008: Attending the General Assembly of the “Chaîne des Rôtisseurs “ in Switzerland.
7. May 2008: Attending the NRA show in Chicago with all related events make a presentation to the International Members.

IH&RA meetings

1. June 2008: IH&RA Board and NACE (National Association Chief Executive) will meet in Geneva on 26 and 27 June 2008 to discuss industry matters and IH&RA organizational subjects. Same day meeting of the Task Force and Finances Committee.
2. Annual Congress, 20- 22 October 2008 in Monterrey Mexico. The General Assembly of the IH&RA in its latest meeting in Amman decided to hold the 46 Annual Congress in Monterrey Mexico on 20-22nd October 2008. This will be the First Congress in Latin America in recent years. Link to “come and join us to this meeting…., subscription etc….”

Industry Event

1. HFTP, Member and Worldwide Partner of IH&RA, held its European Hospitality Technology Educational Conference (EHTEC), a service of Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals on February 2008 at the Hilton Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2. ARIABIAN HOTEL INVESTMENT CONFERENCE, under the “Patronage” of his Excellency HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman of Emirates Airlines announces his fourth Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) from 3-5TH May 2008 at the Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE. If you are at the forefront of the burgeoning hospitality investment sector in the Middle East, or want to meet those who are, register now! More than 1,000 industry leaders are expected to be present.
   Website: www.arabianconference.com
    

• Global Hotel Alliance: To be known as the most innovative hotel alliance organization that groups the following 10 Hotels Chains in the Luxury products: Cham Palaces and Hotels, Dusit International, Kempinski, Landis The Leela, Omni hotels, Marco Polo, Pan Pacific , Anatera. The Alliance is based in Geneva.
  Website: www.gha.net
• Clarks Group of Hotels in India, this exclusive chain has 658 rooms in 7 hotels.
  Website: www.hotelclarks.com

Dr. Ghassan Aïdi, IH&RA President, with Mr. Timur Bayindir, President of the Touristic Hotels & Investors Association (TUROB) Turkey, and Mr. Yannick Rouvrais, IH&RA Vice-President.

 
The Members of the IH&RA Board gathered by the President, Dr. Ghassan Aïdi.
 

Geneva Board Members on February 4, during lunch at the Restaurant Vieux-Bois,
managed and operated by Gastro Suisse, an IH&RA member.