In view of the current situation, COVID-19 represents a break in the history of tourism that has never been seen before on this scale and whose consequences for the future can hardly be estimated. It is therefore to be feared that many tourism companies and suppliers will not survive this crisis economically or will take a long time to recover from it. This makes it all the more important to set the right course in the current situation, whereby development cooperation can play a key role in helping tourism companies to secure their existence and to assist in the recovery process.
An essential field of intervention for development cooperation is support for the development of COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures, which are a basic prerequisite for a successful recovery process and for building confidence among customers and tourism providers in the source markets. In this context, mascontour had the opportunity to develop appropriate standards for the tourism sector in the Palestinian Territories beyond airports, hotels and restaurants which included all relevant travel components along the tourism value chain. The result is a comprehensive COVID-19 Tourism Operation Manual for the tourism sector in the Palestinian Territories, which sets international standards and can also serve as a template and good example for other destinations.
The consulting company mascontour, based in Berlin, was founded in 2005. The aim of our work is to achieve an innovative and consistent combination of tourism and sustainability. This is what our interdisciplinary team stands for, with many years of international industry expertise in tourism as well as well-founded expertise in issues of sustainable development. Our clients include destinations and tourism companies as well as development cooperation organisations and tourism policy. mascontour offers practical solutions and ideas with a future from a single source, from analysis and planning to qualification, management and marketing to evaluation and monitoring. We work at the local, regional, national and international level. mascontour has already successfully implemented around 150 tourism projects in over 60 countries.
Matthias Beyer,
CEO, mascontour
About Jahzeen.ps (Jahzeen): Jahzeen.ps is Palestine’s tourism-readiness and resilience e-learning platform developed to fuse COVID prevention standards and protocols into everyday tourism business in Palestine. Its mission is to help enhance tourism sector employee’s skill sets by providing Jahzeen.ps users with learning tools and certification regarding the new standards and protocols necessary to implement a resilient tourism sector recovery. The Jahzeen e-Learning curriculum provides its users with access to information that includes a general introduction to COVID-19 as well as the new standards and protocols necessary to implement a successful recovery.