CROSSDEV en Palestine : journées de formation en gestion hôtelière destinées aux prestataires de services locaux
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Within the framework of the CROSSDEV project, partner Palestinian Heritage Trail has recently conducted a two-days training in “Hospitality Management” targeting new local service providers of the 16 villages located along the new trail segment, from Beit Mirsim to Battir.
The training was led by Elias Juha, a professional consultant in tourism and hospitality management. The training was divided to two days: January 24 and 26, 2021. Mr. Juha expressed his admiration to the participants by saying:
The participants were active, they got involved in discussions, sharing their knowledge and personal experiences, as well as actively participating in training activities.
Some elements made the training more interesting. One of them was the location chosen to conduct the training at: “Al-Matal”, a partner guesthouse overlooking the Palestinian coastline and surrounding villages. Another was the massive participation of women, 21 out of 24 total participants.
“We learnt about this new place! Even if we live nearby, I have never heard of Al-Matal before… I would like to bring my family and kids here to hangout, and I can’t wait to tell the women in my town about this place”.
In the (hopefully) near future, the participants will provide various tourism services to expected travelers and guests. They are all from local restaurants, homestays and women centers that focus on providing and sharing different aspects of Palestinian cultural heritage, such as coocking Maftoul (known as Couscous in other countries), an old traditional dish from Palestine, or preparing other traditional Palestinian meals or handmaking embroidery.
The aim of the training was to improve service providers’ capacity in hospitality, provide quality services, highlight cultural uniqueness and reflect such richness with their hosting practices. Both theoretical and practical techniques were used in the training.
We have hosted many local and international visitors before. What I mean is that we have experience in hosting people. But we didn’t pay attention to many things in regard to serving food for example, or how to preserve food properly. Todays’ training was very, very useful, that we can even apply it in our own homes as well.
The training had an indirect benefit as well in building network between the service providers. They got to learn more about each other’s services, and seek ways to collaborate.
In the two days training in Al-Matal, Dura, we got to connect with women centers and learn about their services, and we will collaborate in working together. We learnt in those two days training how to develop our restaurant to its full capacity… We are happy with this training, and we hope there will be more chances to meet, learn and develop our work.
Amal Sweity a member of Beit Awwa Association for Rural Development commented in affirmation to what Fuad said. She also added that she (as well as many others) would like to keep on receiving capacity building trainings in the future:
This training helped us to familiarize with local organizations and helped us network with them, and now we are seeking ways to collaborate. They will visit us and we will visit them, and exchange products, which is very beneficial, not only because we’re promoting our products, but also that through the Trail we were able to know more about our own country, associations and the women who run them…We are happy to receive such training and hopefully in the future there will be more similar trainings.
Click here to watch a short video of the training
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