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Alpine College’s Advisory Board comprises leading figures representing local and international hotels, property developers, consultancy companies, events and conventions companies, associations and press related to the hospitality and tourism industry. The Advisory Board’s annual meeting took place on 27 April and was hosted by the Chair, Ms Irini Varda Capsis at the Capsis Cultural Exhibition & Conference Center. Sybil Hofmann, Alpine’s President welcomed the members and thanked them for their contributions in many ways, citing that their presence is a testimonial to Alpine’s untiring effort toward maintaining the highest quality in education and being responsive to ever-changing industry needs and priorities. Alpine’s Academic Dean, Dr Georgios Papageorgiou informed the members of the new courses that Alpine will be offering as of the new academic year and solicited their feedback. He thanked all those who had filled in the questionnaire with feedback on such issues as the relevance of Alpine’s curricula to industry needs. Alan Furlong, Alpine’s Hotel School Director presented the re-launch of a new unit at Alpine College which was formed to respond to industry demands in the areas of training, consulting and seminar services for the hotel, restaurant and tourism industry. He mentioned the projects that were awarded to the ACU thus far and added that ACU will custom design a complete package to meet companies’ objectives by following a proven consulting process that integrates personal contact with quantitative and qualitative analysis methods.
A guest speaker and a new member of Alpine’s Advisory Board, Dr Constantine Constantinides, CEO of healthCare cybernetics (hCc) made a vibrant presentation on Health Tourism, focusing on “What it is, and What it can be.” He mentioned that he had proposed to the Ministry of Tourism the idea of organizing the first Integration Congress on Health Tourism in Greece as well as to develop 9 destinations in Greece into Health Tourism areas. Dr Constantinidis explained that he considers this term as an inverted umbrella that gathers together all 8 segments of health tourism: Medical Tourism, Dental Tourism, Spa and Thalassotherapy, Wellness and Fitness, Sports Tourism, Culinary Tourism, Accessible Tourism, and Assisted Residential Tourism (ambient assisted living abroad). Dr Constantinides will be offering a course in Health Tourism at Alpine College, which will be hosting the Health Tourism Research Institute.
A discussion ensued in which all members of the Board answered a question raised by Alpine’s Hotel School Director concerning the challenges that the present global crisis is posing especially with regards to employment and education. General Managers of leading hotels advised that students become more versatile, and that they be taught to appreciate better the “behaviour of figures”, management reporting and how to interpret profit and loss statements at an early stage in their learning.
Alpine’s new courses include:
– BA(Hons) International Events & Conventions Management
– BA(Hons) International Food & Beverage Management
– 2-year Diploma in Spa Management
– Spa Management Certificate Course (online)
Members were very complimentary of the new programmes. “Wellness is the future and I can see the Spa Management course to be very successful” said Mrs Lydia Mastronikoli, Director of HAPCO. Irini Varda Capsis suggested that Medical Tourism be added as a module in the Spa Management programme of study.
Dr Constantine Constantinidis, believes that there is a demand for a Master’s degree in Health Tourism given that this is an emerging initiative with a great future.
Other members who contributed ideas and shared views during the meeting included Mr Chronis Griveas, deputy CEO of Astir Palace Resort; Ms Vicky Santikos, Marketing Director of Santikos Hotels & Resorts; Mr Stephanos Stefanou General Manager of AKS Hotels; Mr Farsin Wallizadeh, Costa Navarino (TEMES SA), Ms Afroditi Arvaniti, Director of Marketing of Starwood Hotels & Resorts; Ms Margarita Manousso, Managing Editor of Touristiki Agora; Mr Jean Marc Roucos, Marketing Director of Capsis Hotels & Resorts; Mr Themis Trakas, Senior Associate of HVS; and Mr Bart van de Winkel, Hilton’s General Manager.
Mr Panagiotis Podimatas of P.C. Podimatas Audiovisuals stressed the need to organize a congress in order to address all the issues affecting today’s tourism environment and to come up with alternative forms of tourism, such as Health Tourism. “I would like to see all the members set a common goal to help each other in this time of recession” said Margarita Manousou, Managing Editor of Touristiki Agora.
In closing, Ms Irini Varda Capsis stressed the importance of Advisory Board meetings that provide an invaluable opportunity for a genuine exchange of knowledge between practitioners and academics, and Ms Sybil Hofmann thanked all the members for their guidance, support and commitment and advised that Alpine will undertake to organize a conference to address the current issues.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
