BEST Education Network (BESTEN) - Sustainable Tourism Planning Module

This module is intended as a supplement to be used in existing courses and training programs in hospitality and tourism management. The purpose of this supplement is to generate an awareness of sustainable tourism principles and practices that may be applied to the management of festivals, meetings and events (FM & E). It is the assumption of this module that participants will be in the process of attaining knowledge and skills in the general aspects of FM & E under the tutelage of a learned instructor using a generic textbook or training manual. With this in mind, the module is constructed in a manner that focuses solely on those activities that would pertain to a FM & E practitioner positioned within a Sustainable-based Tourism Organization (STO). Careful steps have been taken to avoid potential overlap with general principles associated with hospitality FM & E throughout the construction of this module.

Instructors who would like to infuse sustainable practices into a management course or training program may use the module in a variety of ways. One approach would be to allocate a small portion of class time for the coverage of each of the modules that are consistent with the topic of instruction. The independent micro-module topics are formatted to be congruent with the layout of most FM & E management textbooks. Another option would be to use the entire module as a case study to provide learners with exposure to the unique FM & E challenges associated with the establishment and maintenance of a sustainable hospitality/tourism activity.

Regardless of the manner of use adopted by an instructor, the micro-modules are designed to require no more than fifteen minutes of class time and may be delivered in any sequence deemed appropriate by the instructor. The first micro-module addresses organizational and structural FM & E.

Each micro-module concludes with open-ended questions for discussion and some have a glossary of terms that are specific to the FM & E management within sustainable hospitality organizations. The entire package is less than forty pages in length (approximately 12,000 words) and is written in a crisp and easy-to-understand style that is suitable for most learning audiences.