Maximising Tourism Benefits
Tourism can contribute to more jobs, higher revenues, the preservation of cultural heritage, better infrastructure and more intact environment, leading to higher quality of life for the local population. From a public sector perspective, tourism generates both direct and indirect tax income, improves foreign exchange rate figures and direct foreign investment.
H&A help destinations maximise the benefits of tourism for the public and private sectors as well as for the population.
H&A support destinations in developing, implementing and operating sustainable tourism products, policies and tools on the basis of profound trend analysis. Project teams are put together to best suit the needs of the destination using experts from both the destination and abroad.
Times change and so do markets and market conditions. H&A helps destinations reorganise tourism institutions and strategies, shows ways of better using given resources, adopting new tools or adapting to new market conditions. H&A has undertaken many consulting projects helping in the set-up or restructuring of tourist boards, associations, umbrella organisations and national tourist strategies in many different countries, always making use of expertise from inside the region.
Turkmenistan
This ongoing project involves developing and introducing a tourism master plan for the country Turkmenistan and the development of concepts and strategies for selected tourist regions in the country. In particular, the team is consulting and managing the development of a touristic zone in the Avaza region on the Black Sea. The resort area is situated near Turkmenbashi, a port city on the Caspian Sea coast and will feature six five-star hotels, up to 7-kilometers of canals across a 750 hectare development area, and a new airport. Holiday makers are expected to begin arriving at the Avaza tourism zone in Turkmenistan this summer. A report distributed by the official news agency on January 29 characterized the Avaza resort as „the embodiment of Turkmenistan’s policies of peace and good neighborliness, the symbol of movement on the path of renewal and progress.“ Several prominent international entities, including the Russian energy concern Itera and Bouygues, a French construction, media and telecom conglomerate, are either building leisure complexes, or have secured plots in the development area.
H&A's responsibilities include
- project management of the construction
- organisation and accompanyment of visits by international decisionmakers from the tourism industry, eg. tour operators and hotel chains
- development of a master plan for the tourism zone Avaza
- development of infrastructure and financial planning for the zone
- establishment of professional management of the newly built hotels
- calculation of human resource demand for the zone
- development of training concepts
- management of bidding processes for construction projects
- development of regional touristic products and offers
- procurement of equipment for the zone
- development of marketing measures, eg. preparation for trade fair participation of Turkmenistan at ITB Berlin, etc.
Stakeholders include Government, public institutions and the local tourism industry
The H&A project partners are:
- Goetzpartners Management Consultants
- Koch + Partner Architekten GmbH, Munich
- Treugast GmbH, Munich and Berlin
The H&A expert team includes:
- Gerd Hesselmann, Chairman
- Hendrik Treiter, Consultant
Regions of Activity
H&A adheres to the Global Code for Ethics in Tourism as proposed by the UNWTO and as endorsed by the UN General Assembly in 2001.