University Lecturing Assignment

Sustainable Tourism
in the Middle East?

The past week saw the conclusion of this semester’s lecturing assignment at the Karl Scharfenberg Tourism Faculty of the University of Applied Sciences Braunschweig/Wolfenbüttel. The seminar "Dubai – The Tourism of the Future?", which was held entirely in English, comprised a total of 32 contact hours and enjoyed a very high acceptance by the students.

After having studied in detail the tourism development in Dubai in the light of a sustainable development, the students were finally able to show their learning experience. They were given the task of choosing a tourism destination in the Middle East / the Arab World and analyse the development model in terms of sustainability. This was done by contrasting it with the basic conditions of sustainable tourism (sustainable management, economic benefit for communities, sociocultural and environmental compatibility).

The results were excellent, with the students showing a deep understanding of tourism planning and development mechanisms as well as the requirements of sustainability. The following is a directory of the countries / regions portrayed by the students in their paper presentations:

• Abu Dhabi – Tourism with Arabian Soul
  

• Daulat Al-Kuwait
  

• Egypt – The Gift of the Sun
  

• Ethiopia – 13 Months of Sunshine
  

• Jordan – Kingdom of Treasures
  

• Sharjah – Cultural Capital of the Arab World
  

• The Kingdom of Bahrain
  

Each work group consisted of two, facilitating a team exercise in the process. The quality of the presentations was across the board very high both content wise and in terms of presentation skills. And, according to their own statements, they all seemed to have enjoyed the task and the work.

All in all, the lecturing assignment was highly successful, both from the points of view of the students and the lecturer. Received feedback showed a significant learning experience in the areas of tourism development, sustainability, intercultural competence and the Arab World in general.

Moreover, the interactive way of presenting the lecture along a clearly structured leitmotif resulted in remarkable acceptance and a consistently positive response.

And it would be my own pleasure to continue with this highly sympathetic and motivated group in a future semester – a possible new topic is readily available: “Latin America: Tourism Development in the Light of Responsible Action”.

Andreas Hauser