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Meliá Hotels International Chair in Tourism Studies
This year, Spain’s leading hotel company has further strengthened its links with academia following the renewal of the Meliá Hotels International Chair in Tourism Studies, a joint initiative set up by President Gabriel Escarrer in 2002 in collaboration with the Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB) in Spain, with the aim of encouraging quality and consolidating education and research in Tourism.
Coinciding with World Tourism Day, the company has presented an overview of the activities funded by the Chair during the 2012-2013 academic year, centred mainly on entrepreneurship, integrating students into the corporate world, responsible tourism and the internationalisation of professionals working in the sector.
Key activities carried out during the year include the financing of the tourism sector’s first school of entrepreneurship, the first edition of the ‘Tourism Research Award’, the financing of training actions related to social responsibility, business ethics and sustainability, as well as the funding of the ‘Internationalisation Grants’ for internships in the company’s hotels located in the Dominican Republic, Malaysia and Mexico, thereby highlighting the importance of international experience as a competitive advantage for professionals working in the sector.
The company has also announced its major lines of action for the current academic year, designed to boost the integration of students in the corporate world as the final stage of their education. “It is essential to provide students with the knowledge and skills that guarantee professional excellence within the sector, thereby ensuring that sustainability and social responsibility will form a consolidated part of the tourism companies of tomorrow”, explained Lourdes Ripoll, Meliá Hotels International’s Vice President of CSR during the official presentation of the Chair held today at the UIB.
Meliá Hotels International (melia.com), a world leader in Social Responsibility in the tourism sector, has strengthened its ties with multilateral organisations and the public sector, focusing much of its attention on universities and academia as crucial actors in defining the mode for the sustainable and responsible tourism of the future.
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