Towards a Roadmap for Human Resources Development in Accessible Tourism in the Middle East - North Africa Region

Doha, 22 April 2009. At the Qatar Summit on Tourism Development organised by the UN World Tourism Organisation, Jordanian ENAT Member, Ibrahim Abu-Helil presented the case for boosting Human Resources training in Accessible Tourism throughout the Arab region.

Abu-Helil made his “call” to the gathering which included the Secretary General of the UNWTO, the Arab Tourism Organisation (ATO) and Ministers of Tourism from more than 10 Arab countries, asking them to join in the effort to move forward on implementing accessible tourism measures in their respective domains.

He further proposed that a joint committee, comprising Arab states' tourism representatives and experts from ENAT should begin with a series of practical 'pilot projects', focussing on making one major tourist attraction per year accessible for all. "Let us start with Jordan and a project: “Petra for All”; next year in Egypt: “Pyramids for All” and then in Saudi Arabia “Makkah for All” and so on...", he said.

The UNWTO had called the Qatar Summit to provide an informed diagnosis of the region’s tourism human resources challenge and to deliver a range of solutions to form a common agenda for tourism human resources in the region to move the sector forward.

A full report of the Qatar Summit will be published by the UNWTO in due course.

Download the speech of Ibrahim Abu-Helil in PDF format from the right-hand panel.