CAIRO: El Gouna, one of Egypt s biggest home-grown tourism success stories, recently played host to Cornell University School of Hotel Administration's (CU-SHA) Inaugural Senior Executives Program, the first in a series of programs aimed at furthering the growth and development of hospitality professionals in Egypt and the region. The Ministry of Tourism and the Egyptian Tourism Federation (ETF) recently signed a letter of agreement with CU-SHA to bring its program offerings to both the country and the region. As part of their vision to develop El Gouna, Orascom Hotels Development (OHD) provided the learning facility, equipment and accommodation for program participants and Cornell faculty members at various venues throughout El Gouna, and will continue do so for the next three years. In addition, OHD will grant the hospitality industry one scholarship per year to attend Cornell s General Manager s Program in Ithaca, New York or Brussels, as part of the Egyptian Hoteliers Award Program. "The Cornell programs offered in Egypt will provide high-level strategic seminars for the current leaders of the Egyptian hotel industry, and critical management skills development for the industry's future leaders, said Thomas Kline, director of executive education at Cornell. These courses will provide opportunities for Egyptian hotel professionals to learn leading-edge management theory, industry best practices, and strategic and tactical application of these elements. Cornell s Inaugural Senior Executives Program took place from December 9-12, 2007 as the first of two in-country programs to be held in El Gouna annually over the next three years. The program provided participants with novel ideas and strategies, prompting Ahmed El-Nahas, chairman of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, to participate in the program himself. "Despite my years of experience working within the tourism sector, the importance of continued education has proven essential, especially in an industry that is perpetually changing and evolving with the times, he said. "The Cornell program offers value-added, in-depth and comprehensive assessments of the issues that are integral to improving Egypt's hospitality industry both in the short-term and long-term. By strengthening the industry today, we'll be better able to meet the demands of tomorrow. Forty-four individuals from a select group of local and regional general managers of full-service three to five-star hotels attended the program. "The course was designed to help the people in the room to think like owners. We estimated in the beginning of the class that among the 44 participants we had there was almost a thousand years of hotel experience in the room. Most of that experience is spent managing the hotels from department level up to GM and leadership positions now, but they aren't taught during that whole time to think like the owners they work with, explained Professor Steve Carvell. The program finished off with a closing ceremony attended by Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garranah and Red Sea Governor Bakr El Rasheedy. Garranah emphasized the importance of human resource capacity building in the tourism industry and acknowledged the participants as being the "Cornell Egypt Program Pioneers of Excellence. Participants were awarded with certificates from Cornell University, marking their completion of the Senior Executives Program. The ceremony was sponsored by Palm Hills Development, part of the Mansour Group.
