BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 8
By Ilkin Seyfaddini – Trend:
The Association of Private Tourism Agencies of Uzbekistan (APTA) is launching a new A Model for Sustainable Tourism in Central Asia project, Trend reports with reference to the press service of Uzbek State Committee for the Development of Tourism.
"Project is implemented within the framework of the EU's Switch Asia initiative. The strategic goal of the project is to raise environmental awareness and introduce relevant practices and technologies in hotel business of Central Asian countries. Within the framework of the project objectives it is planned to provide methodological and technical support to the accommodation facilities through provision of relevant knowledge and ICT tools," said the statement.
In addition, the project will provide 40 tourism organizations in Uzbekistan with appropriate equipment, such as electricity/water meters, as well as sensors for recording and monitoring indoor conditions. The project, funded by the European Union, will be implemented in the following regions: Samarkand, Bukhara, Khorezm and Tashkent city.
Some 300 tourism enterprises in Uzbekistan will be selected to benefit from the following opportunities: to participate in a 4-day training course (one person from the organization) on selected environmental management topics at tourism enterprises; to install and use software technologies for data management for environmental certification purposes; to obtain and install hardware and software for monitoring. Training will be based on GSTC (Global Sustainable Tourism Council) criteria for sustainable tourism and green procurement to enhance competitiveness.
The awareness of the importance of introducing eco-programs in the hospitality industry enables tourism organizations not only to take care of the environment and manage the resources available, but is also a powerful economic management tool to stimulate profitability and profitability growth and increase competitiveness.
SWITCH-Asia is the largest Program funded by the European Union (EU) to promote sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in Asia: since 2007 it has been supporting more than 90 demonstration projects and policy support actions across 18 Asian countries, with an overall funding of more than 300 million euros for 2007-2020.
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