8 – EMBRACING SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN OMAN: CASE STUDY OF MIRBAT SETTLEMENT (PDF)

Alya Al-Hashim

Currently the tourism in Oman is at its initial formation stage, making it a great opportunity for researchers, planners and decision makers to propose tourism plans that would best fit with country’s nature and culture. The present paper explores the potential of converting existing settlements in Oman to touristic destination and as a case study an old settlement in the Southern region of Oman called “Mirbat Settlement” was chosen. Mirbat Settlement is one of the thousands of settlement in Oman, which started disappearing after the mass modernization that started in 1970.
The paper will focus on the three pillars of sustainable tourism: the first is developing the local economy of the region and involving the society both in heritage preservation and cultural tourism development in Oman. The second is minimum impact on the surrounding environment and finally providing unique quality experience for the visitors.

 17 – ASSESSMENT OF GREEN SUPPLIER CHOOSING IN TOURISM, A CASE STUDY OF 4* AND 5* TEHRAN HOTELS (PDF)

Ahmad Pourahmad, Raziyeh Ayashi, Ali Hosseini, Athareh Ayashi

Environmental management cause managers induce to make green supply chain management in business field which is a tool for forecasting, planning, performance and control process to do customer’s needs. In Tourism section, the staff tourism are attempting to find solutions to increase their competitive advantage in competitive environment. Tourism green supply chain management is one of the strategies that tourism firms can be used to increase their competitive advantage. Supplier choosing is one of the key decisions in green supply chain management, which reveal the importance of environmental protection. Due to Tehran is the first tourism destination in Iran and tourism activities lead to environmental pollution, this study has presented a comprehensive framework to examining green development in 4* and 5* hotels in Tehran. For this, the Delphi method is used to determine criteria and is evaluated the green development by four criteria: Green design, green procurement, reverse logistics, green management. Finally, it is used Fuzzy AHP method to weight the index and criteria of green supply chain management in 4-star and 5-star in hotel in Tehran. The results indicate that Green management and is the most important index to being green hotel.

 28 – SOCIAL MEDIA: A TOURISM CRISIS MANAGEMENT TOOL? INSIGHTS FROM THE LEBANESE HOSPITALITY SECTOR
(PDF)

Ghada Salem

Social Media has become a polyvalent tool for any business. From marketing to customer relationship management, business intelligence, branding, product development, market scanning, benchmarking, recruitment …, Social Media proves to be a strategic management tool. Even in crisis management, researches has shown its effectiveness at all stages of a crisis. Tourism crisis seems to be a particular issue because of its nature, its level and the diversity of stakeholders involved in the tourism industry. Hotels are one of these stakeholders. They are severely affected by a tourism crisis. Still, their involvement in managing a tourism crisis, that strikes the country, is limited. Or, hotels are among the pioneer users of Social Media. Could this push them to be active in tourism crisis management? This article relies on a survey conducted with Four and Five stars hotels located in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon – a country that is witnessing recurrent tourism crises. It aims at investigating the extent to which these hotels are using Social Media to participate in managing tourism crisis.

 40 – THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IN MINANGKABAU VILLAGE, TARUSAN KAMANG, WEST SUMATRA: ATTRACTING INTERNATIONAL TOURIST INTEREST WITH THE TRADITIONAL ART OF RANDAI (PDF)

Syukri Hidayat, Tri Septia Arkhi

Tarusan Kamang is one of the favorite tourist destination in West Sumatra. It is located between
Babukik and Halalang village, Kamang Magek, West Sumatra. This destination has the potential to be developed internationally because at this time at least 1000-2000 tourists come to Tarusan Kamang per week and 2% of them are international tourists. Randai, one of Minangkabau’s traditional folk art theater , is one of the most attractive performance for the tourist and could further work to attract more international tourism. This paper describes randai as traditional art of Minangkabau and formulates the model of tourism development in Tarusan Kamang with English version of randai to attract international tourist interest. This study is conducted in Babukik Village, Kamang Magek regency, Agam, West Sumatra. The method used in this research was descriptive with qualitative approach. Furthermore, the data were collected through the observation, interview and literature study. The implementation of the strategy are study the English language and performance of the randai. This would result in the creation of a cooperation between tour and travel agencies to schedule the randai performance in Tarusan Kamang for international tourist regularly. By implementing this strategy, international tourism can be improved and social revenue can increase.

 51 – THE WORLD OF NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE OF REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA (PDF)

Lorana Malović

Cultural tourism is important in order to preserve and appreciate the value of cultural heritage, familiarize people with it, as well as to establish and improve cooperation in the field of the protection and presentation of the cultural and natural beauty of an area. Heritage is an active memory, preservation of the process of “testimony” in a tangible and intangible aspect, that is, the process of remembering, as well as the possibility of reviving and repeating the cognitive processes, and cultural routes are a tool in the presentation of the heritage of various countries as part of the common European cultural heritage. Together, of course, they make a segment in the development of the tourism in the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It is by means of the method of deduction, that is, the analysis and specialization of what is general and already understood to an understanding of particular and individual, that the places and motives, cultural and historical landscapes/attractions, which we want to preserve and present to the visitors in the best possible manner through organized thematic cultural routes, will be presented.
One must fight for the authenticity of unquestionable values through a well-thought out and organized activity, and further on in this work the proposals, possibilities but also barriers will be presented with the aim of protecting and promoting the cultural and historical, as well as the natural heritage as touristic potential. The proposal: The National and World Heritage of the Republic of Srpska in the Tourism of Special Needs and Interest.