UNIVERSITY
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, KASLIK
RESEARCH
PROJECT: DISCOVER
INTRODUCTION
Tourism is a worldwide phenomenon and also an important element of socioeconomic and political development in many countries. However, as an ambivalent phenomenon, since it has the potential to contribute positively to socioeconomic and cultural achievement, while at the same time it can contribute to the degradation of the environment and the loss of local identity, should be approached with a global methodology.
Tourism Development shall be based on criteria of sustainability, which means that it must be ecologically bearable in the long term, as well as economically viable, and ethically and socially equitable for local communities. Sustainable development is a guided process that envisages global management of resources so as to ensure their viability, thus enabling our natural and cultural capital, including protected areas, to be preserved. As a powerful instrument of development, tourism can and should participate actively in the sustainable development strategy. A requirement of sound management of tourism is that the sustainability of the resources on which it depends must be guaranteed.
The active contribution of tourism to sustainable development necessarily presupposes the solidarity, mutual respect, and participation of all the actors, both public and private, implicated in the process, and must be based on efficient cooperation mechanisms at all levels: local, national, regional and international.
The conservation, protection and appreciation of the worth of our natural and cultural heritage afford a privileged area for cooperation. This approach implies that all those responsible must take upon themselves a true challenge, that of cultural, technological and professional innovation, and must also undertake a major effort to create and implement integrated planning and management instruments.
VISION STATEMENT
To discover, survey and
capitalize on the natural and cultural wealth of
To mobilize students and teaching staff members from different departments (humanities, visual arts, architecture and technology) to interact in a research project with far reaching potential input in marketing Lebanon as a regional heaven for cultural tourism at the same time opening new real life horizons for the University and job opportunities for the participating students.
GOALS
- To survey and categorize the natural wealth and cultural heritage in decreasing order of their inherent value and attractiveness as tourism sites.
- To research existing resources and prepare historical and descriptive guides in Arabic, French, English, Spanish, German and Italian.
- Utilizing latest technologies in multimedia to prepare materials to be used in continuous wide scale local and international promotional campaigns.
- To create and develop an active website DiscoverLebanon.org to act as a bridge between the academic task force and professionals in hospitality service sectors (tour operators, airlines, hotels, etc.)
- To cooperate with the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Environment and municipalities by proposing specific development plans that meets economic expectations and environmental requirements.
- To select and encourage a certain number of team members to get specialized as executive guides with multi-disciplinary background.
ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION
The task force shall be composed of students and staff members from departments of history, hospitality management, architecture, interior design, photography, cinematography, graphic arts, publicity, computer science and any other discipline that may be required for the research project.
The research committee shall be composed of 7-9 members, headed by a research coordinator.
A multilingual secretarial team shall assist the research committee. They shall have the necessary tools and enough physical space for archiving purposes.
BUDGET & SOURCES OF FUNDING
The yearly budget is estimated according to the proportion of tasks achieved by non-remunerated voluntary participants (mostly students) and those undertaken by external professionals (publicity agencies, media, etc).
The University, Ministry of Tourism (?), local sponsors, NGO’s, and other international agencies may be considered as potential sources for fund raising.
CONCLUSION
Motivating students to appreciate and care for Lebanon’s natural and cultural heritage by participating in a long-term and on-going project aiming at the creation of multi-disciplinary promotional tools to DISCOVER LEBANON is more than an academic exercise, it is an essential real life mission to activate one of the underdeveloped sectors of the Lebanese economy and a constructive model objective that the University has the necessary potential to achieve.
Prepared by: Architect Meguerditch Bouldoukian
- Maps (historical, aerial, guidebooks, etc)
- Books (historical, archeological, natural science, landmarks, etc)
- Internet resources
- All available documents at the Ministry of Tourism
- Archeological
- Historical monuments related to the history of Lebanon
- Religious monuments
- Manuscripts
- Music
- Oral expressions
- Panoramic scenery
- Valleys
- Waterfalls
- Rocks
- Centennial trees
- Descriptive
- Historical
- Secretarial services
- Equipment
- Transportation
- Classrooms or meeting room
- Use of laboratories
- Coordination with different heads of faculties
- Teaching methodology: teamwork, learning by doing, motivation of getting tangible results, critical self-appraisal by the team and/or grading by multi-disciplinary jury
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- Municipalities
- Ministry of Tourism
- Ministry of Culture
- Ministry of Interior
- Department of archeology
- Media
- Sponsors
- Other organizations
- Letters of introduction
- Programming student productions on a weekly basis
- Photos and descriptive reports
- Team talk shows
- Publicity
- Authorization to use photos and descriptive literature