In December, we held field workshops for the Tourism and Hospitality School graduates as part of the Career for Green and Sustainable Tourism project. Together with our partner association Info Zona, we visited Dalmatia Green members for the students to become better acquainted with the application of sustainable tourism principles in practice, using the example of Camp Biokovo in Zagvozd and Hotel Slavija in Split.
The Tourism and Hospitality School students expand their perspectives on sustainable business topic.
– We give students the chance to expand their horizons on the topic of sustainable tourism, through getting to know examples in practice at different tourist destinations. These experiences allow them to understand a more complex picture of sustainable business and how they themselves can take a step towards a successful career in this field – said Tihana Arapović, project manager at Sunce.
The business examples of Camp Biokovo and Hotel Slavija
Through a light conversation with the Camp Biokovo owner and the Hotel Slavija manager, the students learned about different types of business, the necessary investments, opportunities and challenges that each of these types of business brings. With all the information that the students received in the field and with the digital marketing workshops that follow, the students will gain the necessary knowledge to write articles about Dalmatia Green members and create a communication plan for the Dalmatia Green program.
– I am very glad to see how camp and also hotel business looks like. Given that these are two completely different types of tourist facilities, I was very interested in the opportunities and challenges each of the facilities has and how they approach them in their daily work – said Lovre Prančić, the Tourism and Hospitality School student.
How to ensure a sustainable Dalmatia Green facility?
At these workshops, the students learned how to organize their business when it comes to an outdoor tourist facility such as a camp, how to provide electricity and water connections and provide all the necessary elements to meet the Dalmatia Green criteria. They got answers to the same questions using the example of a hotel, which must approach business in a completely different way to adhere to the principle of sustainability, while maintaining maximum efficiency given the challenge of the hotel’s location in the very center of Split.
– We tried to make learning fun and useful at the same time. The students received valuable advice on how to stay green and sustainable in tourism, that is, how to be cool and environmentally aware at the same time – said Arapović, project manager at Sunce.
Sustainability is important from the start.
The field workshops were also joined by Goran Biličić, president of the Info zona association, who in this way became familiar with Dalmatia Green facilities and gained a better picture of sustainable tourism and the importance of turning both tourist and other types of business towards sustainability.
– At these workshops, I realized how important it is to integrate the principles of sustainability from the very beginning of the construction of a tourist facility and how much it affects the business itself, reducing business costs, and most importantly, reducing the impact of tourism on nature and the environment – Biličić concluded.