Amadeus is offering its fans good news about good deeds. The Madrid-based Amadeus reports it has continued its corporate responsibility leadership in the first half of this year and has announced the development of a series of key projects to foster development through tourism and technology.
The projects follow cooperation agreements signed with government bodies and institutions, professional associations and tourism companies around the globe. Every project is aligned with Amadeus’ social commitment to foster development through tourism and technology.
“Our corporate responsibility mission is to enable economic, social and environmental advancement in sustainable tourism and travel, through the intelligent application of technology and innovation. With this in mind we believe that when it comes to helping people or improving the world around us, rather than purely making a financial contribution, actually it is more about having a certain mindset – a positive desire to lead and improve the world by applying the skills and resources which we use every day,” said Tomas Lopez Fernebrand, VP General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Amadeus IT Group.
In 2011, Amadeus reports it has been breaking new ground in supporting business development in the tourism industry by helping small, emerging entrepreneurs adopt professional processes in their businesses, expanding their commercial reach. In Brazil, an extraordinary 2,900 hoteliers will be reached as part of Amadeus’ initiative to provide technology and market access to small hotels that do not have the economic resources or expertise to distribute their products through professional sales channels. Following an agreement reached in May 2011 with Instituto Marca Brasil, a local management unit for the project has been set up and the first group of beneficiaries, 100 hoteliers in Rio Grande do Sul, are being engaged in the project already.
In the past six months, Amadeus has signed further agreements that will expand the ‘Technology Transfer’ project for small hotels across South America, Central America and Africa. These include agreements in Ecuador with Provincia del Chimborazo, in Central America with Fedecatur, the region’s Federation of Chambers of Tourism, and also in Gambia with the Ministry of Tourism, to grow commercial reach for the national Association of Small Enterprises in Tourism. Other countries where development of this flagship Amadeus initiative has started include South Africa, Costa Rica, Peru and Bolivia. A total of 4,000 hotels are expected to benefit from the program as a result of the agreements signed to date.
Through the ‘PC Bank’ initiative, Amadeus provides computers that are no older than three years to be re-used across the globe in the administration of community projects. In the first half of 2011 Amadeus committed to donate and has started to deliver 300 computers for use in travel and tourism training programs in Kenya, Nigeria, Cuba, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Nicaragua. Approximately 1,500 students a year are expected to benefit from training given on these computers.
Projects selected for the computer donations include:
· The establishment of a student computer room in the tourism department of the Universidad de La Habana, Cuba
· Basic education and skills training programs for the underprivileged in Saudi Arabia, run by charitable institutions such as the World Assembly of Muslim Youth
· Basic travel management skills training for youth in Ibadan, Nigeria, run by Frontier Academy, a training and tuition provider in the local travel and tourism industry
· An online training program at the Philippine Christian University, Philippines
· The establishment of two computer rooms at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma, Nicaragua
A key component of Amadeus’ social responsibility outreach is its education program, which is managed through local training agreements. Content offered ranges from professional skills courses in travel management through to basic computer literacy courses. Beneficiaries specifically include young people with no financial resources to access professional training. This year so far, Amadeus has extended its education program in seven countries, including:
· Kenya: Amadeus has signed an agreement with the Global Travel & Tourism Partnership – Kenya (GTTP-K). The deal means the donation of 100 computers plus board membership from Amadeus to support the rollout of the GTTP curriculum, which is designed to promote tourism education in public secondary schools and village polytechnics across the country
· Saudi Arabia: Amadeus has signed a new agreement with Taif Technology College whereby professional skills training in travel management will be provided to benefit 200-300 underprivileged students, averaging 60-75 students per quarter
· South Africa: Amadeus has kicked off a project to tackle computer literacy, with 55 beneficiaries already trained between January and June 2011, with 300 more targeted by the end of the year
· Croatia: Amadeus has concluded a pilot phase with the government agency for Adult & Vocational Training, ASOO, to introduce professional travel reservation skills into the national curriculum for 75 high schools across the country. To date, training infrastructure has already been implemented for 12 schools, reaching a total of over 1000 students
· Nicaragua: Amadeus has signed an agreement with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua, to offer training in global travel distribution processes and also seminars on the tourism industry
· Venezuela: Amadeus has signed an agreement with IETASA, the national travel agency association, to provide language e-learning for all travel agents across the country
· Colombia: 1,000 people have already started their e-learning courses in English and French and 1,000 more travel agents are joining this project throughout the year
Amadeus also reports it has also made significant steps to evolve and grow its environmental credentials. In June this year, Amadeus became a member of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), which aims to reach standard sustainability criteria for tourism stakeholders worldwide. On the other hand, and in line with its overall objective of reaching industry standard sustainability criteria, Amadeus has continued its cooperation with the International Civil Aviation Organization for inclusion of aircraft emissions in distribution platforms, particularly in the corporate booking tool, Amadeus e-Travel Manager.
Amadeus is also working on gaining a better understanding and measurement of the environmental impact of its global operations; both in its largest premises in Germany and France, as well as progressively including other Amadeus sites worldwide for resource consumption inventories.
In conjunction with Finnair, Amadeus this year presented its findings regarding the environmental improvements achieved by the airline in relation to its implementation of the Flight Management module of Amadeus’ Altéa Departure Control System. The improvements relate to improved accuracy in calculating key metrics for aircraft fuel efficiency, resulting in reductions of: unnecessary fuel burn, CO2 emissions released and fuel costs for the airline.
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