EHL/UNWTO Silk Road Strategy Challenge 2012

All Regions
31 Mar 12
31 May 12

A Strategic Approach to Tourism in 10 destinations: Maximising the Potential of the Silk Road is a joint report compiled by UNWTO and the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL). It highlights the findings of 170 final year EHL students who worked together with 10 destinations to devise strategies and ideas on how sustainable tourism could be developed under the Silk Road brand. The report is a product of the EHL/UNWTO Silk Road Strategy Challenge, a very successful initiative that gave students an opportunity to devise solutions to real -life global challenges and provide destinations with innovative ideas from the hospitality leaders of tomorrow.

The participating countries included Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Greece, Iran, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

On 4 June 2012, the EHL students presented, at the Silk Road Strategy Think Tank, their strategies to a judging panel consisting of Member State representatives, UNWTO officials and EHL staff. The winning teams were, 1^st place, group 15 (Azerbaijan), 2^nd place group, 22 (Russian Federation, Altai Krai) and, 3^rd place, group 24(Iran).

The initiative was the first formal collaboration between the UNWTO and EHL, one of the world’s leading institutions in the field of hospitality management education. It has been carried out within UNWTO global “Silk Road Action Plan” for tourism, focusing on three key focus areas: i) marketing and promotion, ii) capacity building and destination management; and iii) travel facilitation. The EHL/UNWTO Silk Road Strategy Initiative proved to be an excellent way of bringing the UNWTO, its Member States and the students of EHL together to share ideas and devise practical strategies on how to manage tourism development along the Silk Road.

Additional Information:

Download the EHL/UNWTO Report - Maximising the Potential of the Silk Road

Click here for more information on the detailed strategies developed by the EHL students for each of the ten participating countries

The EHL/UNWTO Silk Road Strategy Challenge's online video!

All images displayed are courtesy of the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL)