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The Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management hosted a delegation of sixteen academics and students from the Faculty of Management of the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University for a week of joint seminars with faculty and students of the Faculty of Management at the two Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Universities in Be'er Sheva and Eilat.
Prof. Yaniv Poria, Head of the GGFBM Department of Hotel and Tourism Management and Academic Director of BGU Eilat campus, hosted the grouping at the Eilat campus and nearby tourist sites. During the trip to Eilat, a lecture was given on the tourism and hotel industry in Israel. Dr. Yaniv Belhassen gave a lecture on human resources issues in Eilat hotels, and the delegation visited the Dolphin Reef in Eilat where they learned about the Management approach of this attraction, where the dolphins are free to leave the site. During the tour, the delegation was hosted by the Tourism Information Bureau of Eilat.
During the second day of the visit, a seminar was held in which the Tbilisi Head of the Department of Hotel Management and Tourism Prof. Joseb Khelashvili reviewed the characteristics of the tourism industry in Georgia and the challenges facing it. In his lecture, Khelashvili referred to the high growth rate of the tourism industry and to the marketing efforts of the Georgian Ministry of Tourism. At the end of the seminar, a meeting was held in which a number of possibilities for cooperation between faculty and students were discussed.
Prof. Miki Malul, Head of the
Department of Public Policy and Administration, held a round table discussion on regional economic development, in which faculty members and doctoral students from the GGFBM and the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management participated. Among the topics discussed were: economic development in rural areas, internal migration of the creative class - what are the reasons for immigration to the periphery ?, how can public policy increase innovation and peripheral areas, what is the role of the third sector in the development of peripheral areas?
The last day of the visit was devoted to regional development among the Bedouin population in the Negev, and the group was hosted in the Negev Bedouin town Hura.
The mission of the academic delegation from Tbilisi was to explore and find innovations and solutions for sustainable tourism in Georgia, and its faculty members are particularly interested in establishing academic ties with the GGFBM.
