Hospitality’s next generation envisions a more ethical and sustainable hotel industry

Green spaces have also been shown to improve health and wellbeing, including reducing stress, anxiety and depression, improving attention and focus, better physical health and managing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (AFP)
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Updated 16 October 2021
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Hospitality’s next generation envisions a more ethical and sustainable hotel industry

  • Hotelschool the Hague created Sustainable Hospitality Challenge to provide a platform for hospitality professionals
  • Students are seen as future drivers of taste by their willingness to challenge the hospitality industry status quo

DUBAI: What attracts guests to a hotel? Fine dining, Egyptian cotton sheets and 24-hour room service, certainly. But that model of hospitality may be changing — at least if a new generation of hoteliers, bar owners and restaurateurs has its way.

Rather than reviewing the contents of the minibar or revising the coffee shop menu, this new breed of hotel operator is intent on combating loneliness, sourcing from local farmers, fighting climate change and building a sense of community.

In 2014, Hotelschool the Hague, a training institute, created the Sustainable Hospitality Challenge to provide a platform for the next generation of hospitality professionals who want to reinvent what hotels and restaurants have to offer.

These students are seen as future drivers of taste by their willingness to challenge the industry’s status quo. NEOM, the futuristic smart city in northwest Saudi Arabia, sponsored this year’s competition.




Saudi Arabia's natural beauty is matched by the opulent interiors of Riyadh's premium hotels (Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton, Riyadh/ Expedia.com)

“The NEOM giga-project, which we all call ‘the city of the future,’ aims to incorporate smart-city technologies and innovation with a focus on sustainability,” Marloes Knippenberg, CEO of Kerten Hospitality and chair of the jury, told Arab News.

“It comes as no surprise that NEOM has sponsored the challenge this year, bringing all finalists to the event in the UAE.”

The event invited 30 universities from across the globe to submit ideas that would help the industry play its part in reaching the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Last month, six finalists presented their concepts to a jury of hospitality industry investors in Dubai.

Eve Mignot, a member of the winning team from Switzerland’s Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, said hospitality is at a crossroads. The sector has historically lagged behind other industries when it comes to embracing change, she said.

“It is time to reverse this stereotype and stigma and become leaders in sustainable innovations. With our concept, we anticipate the hospitality industry of 2050 to be a community builder, innovator and a responsible and ethical member of society.”




Marloes Knippenberg CEO Kerten Hospitality. (Supplied)

The winning team proposed a concept dubbed “Shared Economic Value through Co-living Cooperative Opportunities,” or SEVCCO, which aims to incorporate sustainability through communal living operated by hospitality companies, for which they see immense potential in growing cities.

This will require a reimagining of lifestyles, business models and strategies. “There has never been a more pressing time to reinvent the industry,” Mignot said.

The team hopes this concept of “neo-hospitality” will transform societies and become a driving force that inspires communities and other industries to engage in the transformation of the world by 2050.

Lukas Lauber, another team member, said that while oil has accelerated growth and development in the Middle East, secondary consumption of oil has had negative consequences in terms of climate change and its effects on the environment.




This photograph taken on July 23, 2021 shows a view of the Park Royal Collection Hotel at Pickering Street in Singapore. (AFP)

However, in recent years, many countries in the region have adopted diversification strategies to their national economies as well as introduced policies to reduce their dependence on oil reserves and promote renewable energy. This is where SEVCCO comes in.

“Countries in the Middle East are hoping to attract foreign investment. A large part of this strategy involves tourism and hospitality, as seen by the re-branding of Dubai as a tourism hub and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy whereby it seeks to develop cities and destinations,” Lauber told Arab News.

As countries in the region develop, he said sustainable communities and cities must be built to promote a more cyclical and regenerative society. “This is where we promote SEVCCO, the creation of co-living environments for tomorrow,” said Stefano Abedum de Lima Hanzawa, a third team member.

“It is imperative that the Middle East incorporates sustainability and regenerative growth into their strategy for economic diversification and development.”

FASTFACTS

* NEOM, the futuristic smart city in northwest Saudi Arabia, sponsored this year’s Sustainable Hospitality Challenge competition.

* Some 30 universities were invited to submit ideas that would help the hospitality industry play its part in achieving the UN’s SDGs.

These concerns are made more pressing as the 2030 deadline for the UN Sustainable Development Goals draws nearer. By then, national economies must mobilize to prevent a 1.5 Celsius increase in global temperatures and implement strategies to shift away from fossil-fueled economies.

The team developed the SEVCCO concept to empower individuals and communities to come together and co-create a city of the future that complies with these goals.

“The concept of cognitive cities is gaining traction, as seen by the NEOM development in Saudi Arabia, and this acceleration and momentum will continue to grow,” Hanzawa said.

“We believe cyclical and sustainable co-living has incredible potential to change the way we behave and live for a better tomorrow. We wish to tackle the most pressing issues such as urban loneliness — exacerbated by the pandemic.”




Muslim pilgrims add food to their plates from the buffet of a restaurant at a luxury hotel overlooking the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest shrine, and its encompassing Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Makkah ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. (AFP/File Photo)

Other ills listed by the competitors include unsustainable production and consumption of scarce resources, resource inefficiencies, housing shortages experienced by generations Y and Z, growing elderly care home demand, the difficulties of waste management and the challenges of reducing carbon footprints by 2030.

“SHC brings forth innovative ideas about sustainable, implementable projects. The corporate world launches and brings them to life only if and when they are presented to them,” said Knippenberg. “The challenge (has) become a platform that reaches decision-makers today and is not just a school engagement.”

This year, the initiative brought together the student community, the corporate world, and investors. As 70 percent of the Middle East’s population are younger than 35, the competition is relevant to the region, the organizers said, as governments invest heavily in shifting toward knowledge-based economies.

“Especially in the Middle East, there is a great opportunity to implement ‘out of the box’ ideas,” said Paul Griep, director of industry and alumni relations at Hotelschool The Hague and founder of the challenge.

“As the region grows exponentially, it is of utmost importance for the region to become the showroom of the world when it comes to implementing sustainable solutions. Sustainability projects are the core of the multiple giga-projects in Saudi Arabia, (such as) NEOM.”




Picture from thestage from the award ceremony on stage at AHIC, in September 2021, with members of the jury and the winners. (Supplied)

Aside from EHL, the Hotel Institute Montreux in Switzerland, the Hotel Management School Maastricht Zuyd and the Hotelschool The Hague, Ryerson University from Canada, and CY Cergy Paris University in France took part, as did students from the Middle East.

The judges said the SEVCCO concept developed by EHL won out because it looked long term.

“Their concept was unique, well thought of and very 2050,” Knippenberg said. “Their idea seems like a natural evolution — community build, supporting the locality and the local supply chain and doing things with a truly sustainable mindset.”

Griep said that the younger generation coming into management is especially passionate about sustainability. “In fact, they no longer wish for it but actually require it,” he said.

“It has been proven that, thanks to this mindset, innovative solutions have already been developed. The challenge provides an opportunity for these students to work with industry partners, universities and companies alike, which help them make their concepts become real hospitality projects.”

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Twitter: @CalineMalek

 


UN, US warn of increasing Daesh activity in Syria

Updated 21 sec ago
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UN, US warn of increasing Daesh activity in Syria

  • Terror group could try to free fighters from prison camps: Experts
  • American troop numbers in the country have increased

LONDON: The UN and US have warned that Daesh is increasing its activities in Syria, raising fears that it could try to free thousands of fighters currently held in prison camps run by Syrian-Kurdish forces.

The US has sent troops to Syria in a bid to help stabilize the situation, nearly doubling the size of its presence in the country.

Up to 10,000 Daesh fighters, as well as 40,000 of their relatives, are incarcerated in the camps in northeast Syria.

“The crown jewel for the Islamic State (Daesh) is still the prisons and camps,” Colin Clarke, head of research for the Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security firm, told the New York Times.

“That’s where the experienced, battle-hardened fighters are,” he said. “In addition to whatever muscle they add to the group, if those prisons are open, the pure propaganda value” would serve Daesh’s recruitment efforts for months, Clarke added.

It is thought that the recent upheaval caused by the collapse of the Assad regime has provided Daesh with an opportunity to expand its operations in Syria.

US intelligence experts fear that the group could now use this as a springboard to sow instability across the Middle East.

President Donald Trump, however, has voiced doubts about America’s need for a permanent military presence in Syria.

It was hoped that the successor government to the Assad regime would provide a dependable partner to the US, but the outbreak of sectarian violence in parts of Syria last month has raised concerns about how much control it has over the country.

Despite its defeat by 2020, Daesh, which at one point controlled a vast swathe of territory across Syria and Iraq, has continued to spread its propaganda, having shot to prominence for its violence and repression, as well as a series of terror attacks in Europe.

Last year, the group orchestrated high-profile attacks in Iran, Pakistan and Russia. A US Defense Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the NYT that Daesh claimed 294 attacks in 2024, up from 121 the year before.

The committee established by the UN to monitor Daesh said it believed around 400 attacks were committed by the group last year.

Prison breaks are not unprecedented. In 2022, nearly 400 people escaped after Daesh attacked a facility in Hasaka, which required US intervention to repel.

A recent UN report revealed that Daesh fighters had escaped from Syria’s largest prison camp, Al-Hol, during the fall of the Assad regime.


Iraq, US sign deal on projects including power plants

Updated 09 April 2025
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Iraq, US sign deal on projects including power plants

  • Another MOU between Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity and US company UGT Renewables will establish solar energy project

DUBAI: Iraq and the United States signed on Wednesday a memorandum of understanding for projects in the Gulf country, including 24,000 megawatts of power plants, the Iraqi prime minister’s media office said.
Another MOU has been inked between Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity and US company UGT Renewables to establish an integrated solar energy project with a capacity of 3,000 MW, the media office said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump’s administration last month rescinded a sanctions waiver that since 2018 has allowed Iraq to pay Iran for electricity as Washington presses on with its “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.
Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia, uses Iranian power imports to generate electricity and has been under pressure from the US to reduce its reliance on power and gas imports from Iran.


Sudan FM expresses disapproval at exclusion from UK conference for resolving country’s civil war

Updated 09 April 2025
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Sudan FM expresses disapproval at exclusion from UK conference for resolving country’s civil war

  • Rapid Support Forces, who are locked in a deadly struggle with the Sudanese Armed Forces, have also been excluded from the conference
  • UK, along with conference co-hosts Germany and France, is bringing together foreign ministers from nearly 20 countries

LONDON: Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Youssef has expressed his disapproval, via a letter to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, at his exclusion from a UK-hosted conference aimed at resolving the African country’s prolonged civil war.

The Rapid Support Forces, who are locked in a deadly struggle with the Sudanese Armed Forces, have also been excluded from the conference.

Instead, the UK, along with conference co-hosts Germany and France, is bringing together foreign ministers from nearly 20 countries, and organizations, in an attempt to establish a group that can drive the warring factions in Sudan closer towards peace.

The conference at Lancaster House in London on April 15 comes on the second anniversary of the start of a civil war that has led to the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, but has been persistently left at the bottom of the global list of diplomatic priorities. Half of Sudan’s population are judged to be desperately short of food, with 11 million people internally displaced.

The initiative holds risks for Lammy, since it may require him to place pressure on some of the UK’s Middle Eastern allies to make good on their promises to no longer arm the warring parties.

A harsh spotlight is also very likely to fall in London on the impact of USAID cuts on the provision of humanitarian aid in Sudan as well as the withdrawal of funding by the US from academic groups that have been monitoring war crimes and the build-up of famine.

NGOs such as Human Rights Watch are also urging the ministerial conference to emphasize the importance of civilian protection, independent of a ceasefire.

At an event previewing the conference, Kate Ferguson, the co-director of the NGO Protection Approaches, said: “The conference comes at a critical moment for civilians in Sudan as areas of control under various armed forces rapidly evolve and civilians face an increasing spectrum of varied attack.”

She added: “A new vehicle is needed to take forward civilian protection. This is a moment here to create something new that is desperately needed — whether that is a coalition of conscience or a contact group.”

Ferguson added that “citizens were facing an unimaginable triple threat of armed conflict, identity-based atrocity crimes and humanitarian catastrophe.”


Lebanese PM says there is no threat of a return to war if no timetable is set for ‘limiting weapons’

Updated 09 April 2025
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Lebanese PM says there is no threat of a return to war if no timetable is set for ‘limiting weapons’

  • Comment follows reports from Western security agencies that Hezbollah is transporting weapons from Iran by sea, and a recent visit from US envoy Morgan Ortagus
  • The prime minister’s office says ‘Lebanon is committed to all security measures to protect the Port of Beirut’ and the city’s airport

BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Wednesday he has not received “any threat, neither from the Deputy US Special Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus nor from anyone else, regarding the possibility of a return to war if the government does not set a timetable for limiting weapons.”

A source in the prime minister’s office told Arab News: “Lebanon is committed to all security measures to protect the Port of Beirut, as well as the airport, and we have not received any information indicating complaints in this regard.” The government has “a clear security plan to protect its vital facilities,” the source added.

On Tuesday, news channel Al-Hadath said reports by Western security agencies suggested “Hezbollah has begun using the sea to transport weapons from Iran, following air restrictions and the collapse of Syrian regime control. The Port of Beirut is considered the focal point for this activity, with Hezbollah operating freely through collaborators in customs and oversight mechanisms.”

Salam said: “The constitution, which is based on the Taif Agreement, stipulates the extension of state authority over all its territory through its own forces. All ministers are committed to this matter.

“A ministerial statement also affirmed the exclusivity of weapons in the hands of the state, and all ministers are committed to that. The matter of war and peace lies solely in the hands of the state.”

Salam was speaking after a meeting on Wednesday with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi at the latter’s office in Bkerke, during which he briefed the religious leader on the outcomes of his meeting with Ortagus last week.

In his comments following the meeting, the prime minister also emphasized the “urgent need for Israel to withdraw from the five occupied points” in Lebanon “as they hold no military, security or strategic value.

“We are currently in an era dominated by technology, satellites and surveillance, and military aircraft. Unfortunately, there are also networks of spies on the ground, which we have reiterated, particularly to Ortagus. This is a matter we are actively pursuing.”

Also on Wednesday, Lebanon’s public works and transportation minister, Fayez Rassamni, toured the Port of Beirut and met representatives of the security agencies operating there. In response to the reports of weapons passing through the port, he said: “Operations at the port are proceeding with the same intensity as those at the airport, and security here is firmly under control. We will not allow anyone to cast doubt, and if there is any information please provide us with evidence.”

Omar Itani, chairperson of the board and general manager of the port, said: “The port management does not have the authority to inspect the nature or content of the goods arriving at the port. Their role is limited to facilitating and overseeing logistics.

“Inspections and audits are conducted in coordination with the customs administration, the Lebanese army, and other security agencies present within the port, as part of a unified regulatory system aimed at preventing any potential violations. In recent years, these procedures have been significantly strengthened, particularly by the Lebanese army, to ensure that no infractions or smuggling occur.

“An agreement has been reached to enhance oversight and update equipment, including the introduction of modern scanning devices similar to those used in international ports. This initiative aims not only to bolster security but also to facilitate export activities, especially towards Gulf and European countries, thereby benefiting farmers and production sectors while increasing state revenues.”

Iranian airlines continue to be denied landing permits at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut following Israeli allegations that Tehran was using them to deliver funds and weapons to Hezbollah.

Ortagus, the US envoy, visited Lebanon last weekend and held meetings with a wide range of politicians and economists in what was described as a constructive atmosphere. She also toured the National Museum in Beirut.

After leaving the capital, however, she raised her tone and in a series of statements since the start of the week has stressed that Hezbollah must be fully disarmed. She said the group “is like a cancer and Lebanon must eradicate it if it is to recover.”

During an interview with Sky News, she accused Iran of “dragging the Middle East into a perilous new phase of instability.” She said that “the Lebanese army, with its current capabilities, is able to disarm Hezbollah” and “disarming Hezbollah is part of President Donald Trump’s maximum-pressure policy on Iran.”

Ortagus added: “The only way for Lebanon to emerge from its crisis is to reject any role for Iran and its allies, and the US has optimistic expectations regarding Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s role in the next phase.

“We expect reforms in Lebanon but the Trump administration’s patience has limits. We want the Lebanese to feel safe when depositing their money in banks. I informed Lebanese officials not to count on the World Bank meeting without the approval of reforms by parliament. Lebanese officials must show the World Bank that they are serious, not just talking.”

Meanwhile, a new Israeli violation of Lebanese sovereignty was reported when Israeli warplanes carried out an airstrike deep inside the country. The target was a residential building between the towns of Aadous and Hosh Tal Safiya in the Baalbek region of the eastern Bekaa. The strike was preceded by a warning raid that gave the Syrian residents time to evacuate the building.


Queen Rania of Jordan addresses Gaza’s humanitarian crisis with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni

Updated 19 min 23 sec ago
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Queen Rania of Jordan addresses Gaza’s humanitarian crisis with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni

  • Queen Rania emphasized the severe shortage of food, medical supplies and shelter in Gaza
  • Jordanian queen and Giorgia Meloni reaffirmed the strong ties between Rome and Amman

LONDON: Queen Rania of Jordan addressed the humanitarian crisis in Gaza during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday, during her brief visit to the country.

Meloni hosted Queen Rania at Villa Doria Pamphili in Rome, where they discussed the humanitarian crisis caused by Israeli military actions in Gaza, the official Petra agency reported.

Queen Rania emphasized the severe shortage of food, medical supplies and shelter following the Israeli suspension of aid relief deliveries to Gaza. She highlighted the increasing orphan crisis in Gaza, where more than 39,000 Palestinian children have lost one or both parents since October 2023.

Queen Rania and Meloni reaffirmed the strong ties between Rome and Amman. They highlighted the significance of educational projects and family protection initiatives in Jordan, which the Italian Development Cooperation supports.