MINUTES OF THE 4^TH GENERAL MEETING OF THE
TOURISM4PEACE FORUM
June 24-26, 2007

Resolutions of Fourth T4P Conference  Click HERE

The conference, chaired by Michel Nazzal, took place at the Dead Sea Spa Hotel, Jordan, where the successful peace talks were held between Jordan and Israel, - and we find that symbolic.

The Peres Center for Peace: Ronen Leshem reported on funding: they were successful in obtaining $80,000 from the Carlson Family Foundation and NIS25,000 (about $5,800) from Dan Hotels. Both donations are mostly connected to the Forum's marketing aim. Additional proposals were sent and are being followed up.

Working Groups: The conference broke into groups to discuss our first working plan:

          Joint marketing

          Joint training

          Border crossing facilitation

The summary of the working groups is in the Annex 1.

Senator Akel Biltaji, Guest of honor and keynote speaker, former Jordan Minister of Tourism, told the conference his vision to never give up the notion that peace can exist.   It is very important to keep working towards the peace efforts in order to establish a strong peaceful relationship with neighboring countries, he stressed.

Abraham Path Initiative: Daniel Adamson, Director of Development, described this Initiative, sponsored by Harvard University. It aims to inspire the opening of a route of cultural and religious tourism, to match the probable route of the Patriarch Abraham from present day Turkey through Syria, Jordan, Israel and Palestine. At present, the Jordan part of the journey is planned, on foot or by vehicle, staying mostly in small lodges, yet to be developed. It is hoped to promote incoming tourism and the Initiative is trying to interest commercial organizations to advance the project.

Professor Omar Moufakkir, holding the Chair of Tourism4Peace at CHN University. After reporting on his research on image and perception taking Morocco as an example, Prof. Moufakkir accepted the Forum's request to hold a similar research on the image and external perception that the European tourists have on the four countries.

Sandy Dhuyvetter, of TravelTalkRADIO and TravelTalkMEDIA, will report on her online and TV programs about our conference, as she has been doing since our 3rd conference in Holland. She is also generously donating her know-how and services to create and maintain our Website.

The Conference approved the Tourism4Peace Forum's bylaws.

At the end of the conference, Michel Nazzal, Chairman of the Board of the Jordanian Hotel Association was elected the T4PF's fist Chairman for one year. Other elected Board Members, also for one year, are: Abdul Hakeem Al-Hindi,

Dr. (Mrs.) Laila Nabhan, Raed Sa'adeh, Richard Elias, Ronen Leshem (as a representative of the Peres Center), Ami Etgar.

ANNEX 1. THE WORKING GROUPS' REPORTS

 JOINT MARKETING

• Produce a regional brochure of 4-8 pages, on high quality paper stressing special interests: religion, biblical paths, Roman ruins, cities, nature/desert, spas/beaches, not the countries.

• Set up a computerized data base including names, addresses, list of brochures etc, of producing travel agents to the area.

• Develop the Internet site.

• Organize fam-trips for travel agents from the States and later from Europe: 8 nights in Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Palestinian areas.

• Organize workshops and seminars in North America of 4 persons each: one Egyptian, one Israeli, one Jordanian and one Palestinian. 20 seminars.

          Target cities:

• 5 seminars in the East Coast

• 5 seminars in the Mid-West

• 5 seminars in the West Coast

• 5 seminars in Canada.

Organize joint press conferences in New York, later at WTM and ITB.

JOINT TRAINING

• For travel agents, organize busload size fam-trips to visit Egyptian, Israeli, Jordanian, Palestinian tourist sites and cities. 10 such days should be planned, in each others' countries, so they get to know the area.

• Train the trainer, - coaching. Develop trainers for hotel staff in food and beverage, marketing, management-control-finance.

• Organize 2 day seminars for top hotel executives by world class experts in marketing and human resources.

• Each event to be introduced by a short lecture and to end with a short lecture on the mission and aim of the T4PF by one of our members.

• The events to take place at Aqaba, or Jerusalem, or Eilat or Taba.

• Coordinators for the training activities will be Dr. Muhsen Makhamreh and Janos Damon,

 BORDER CROSSING FACILITATION

The present problems can be divided as follows:

          (a) A lack of sufficient knowledge by tourism professionals and the general                        
              public about the existence of air and land border crossings

          (b) Negative image of the border crossings due to the geo-political situation

          (c) Ongoing problems in crossing the borders at the crossings.

Our vision for the future is for a borderless area in the Middle East.

• Produce a leaflet on border crossings to include the following information:

          A map of the region
          Airports
          Location of land border crossings
          Possibilities of air links in the region

• Invite an outside consultant to study the present situation at the air and land border crossings and give recommendations for improvements. The study should be made at two levels: incoming tourism from third countries and bilateral movement of tourists of the area's citizen.
   

• Build and keep updated a Website listing the possibilities for border crossings, opening times, facilities, documents needed, etc.
   

• Facilitate cross border movements for key tourism professionals, travel agents, hotel executives, etc. by utilizing the Peres Center's connections

ANNEX 2. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS, 4^th GENERAL
MEETING OF THE TOURSIM4PEACE FORUM

Guests
 1.      Senator Akel Biltaj
 2.      Daniel Adamson, Abraham Path Initiative
 3.      Mahmoud Twaissi, Abraham Path Initiative
 4.      Sandy Dhuyvetter, TravelTalkMEDIA/US
 5.      Professor Omar Moufakkir, Chair, CHN University

Egyptian delegation
 6.      Elhamy ElZayat, Emeco Trave
 7.      Dr. Laila Nabhan, 5 Continents Travel

Israeli delegation
  8.     Rafi Baeri, Dan Hotels  
  9.     Nathan Burstein, The Jerusalem Post
10.     Janos Damon, Israel Hotel Managers Association
11.     Ami Etgar, Israel Incoming Tour Operators Association
12.     Ronen Leshem, The Peres Center for Peace
13.     Racheli Levkovich, The Peres Center for Peace
14.     Irit Rosenblum, Haaretz Daily,
15.     Raphy Weiner, Israel Hotel Managers Association
16.     Ruth Weiss, TayaRuth, Consulting and Marketing

Jordanian delegation
17.     Abdul Hakeem Al-Hindi, Jordan Hotel Association
18.     Caroline Al-Hindi
19.     Saleh Aqrabawiy, Jordan Handicrafts Producers & Traders Association
20.     Hashim Beano, Jordan Hotel Association
21.     Zaid Goussous, Jordan Hotel Association
22.     Bashir Hinnawi, Jordan Tour Guides Association
23.     Muhsen Makhamreh, Jordan Applied University\
24.     Suhail T. Marar, Jordan Hotel Association
25.     Michel Nazzal, Chairman, Jordan Hotel Association
26.     Rola Rihani, Jordan Applied University
27.     Hisham Saudi, Jordan Hotel Association

Palestinian delegation
28.     Richard Elias, Holyland Incoming Tour Operators Association
29.     Fahmi Nashashibi, Arab Hotel Association
30.     Marlene Nashashibi
31.     Raed Saadeh, Arab Hotel Association