On 7 September 2023, Mr. Wattanawit Gajaseni, Deputy Director-General of Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), together with Ms. Kitagawa Yuki, Senior Representative, Japan International Cooperation Agency (Thailand Office), presided over the closing ceremony for the Training Programme in Hospitality Management at SD Avenue Hotel, Bangkok.

The training programme is a collaborative effort between TICA and JICA under the TICA - JICA Triangular Cooperation for Palestine (Phase II) for the Development of Tourism Sector, with the Tourism and Hospitality Management Division, Mahidol University International College (MUIC) serving as the implementing agency.

It aims at the sharing of knowledge, expertise, and best practices in hospitality (hotel) management of Thailand, and capacity-building for the Palestinian workforce in the tourism and hospitality industry. In this respect, a total of 10 participants from the public and private sectors of Palestine, notably the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Arab Hotel Association, attended the training programme in Thailand from 28 August - 8 September 2023.

In addition to intensive training and practical training activities, they had the opportunity to explore four hotels in Bangkok, including (1) The Sukosol Hotel Bangkok (2) W1@Bangkoknoi Hotel (3) Amari Watergate Bangkok and (4) SD Avenue Hotel, which enabled them to draw many lessons learnt from their site visits and build on those exemplary hotel management strategies in the context of Palestine.

Given that Ayutthaya Province of Thailand shares some similarities with Palestinian cities in terms of cultural, religious, and historical values, the participants were also encouraged to learn from the experience of Thailand to promote Palestine as a unique tourism destination during their field trip to Ayutthaya. Thereby, the Deputy Director-General of TICA commended the group of Thai experts from MUIC for their contribution to the formulation of a well-integrated training programme with a balanced emphasis on both tourism and hospitality aspects, which would be conducive to the comprehensive development of the Palestinian Tourism Sector.

On this occasion, DDG Wattanawit reaffirmed TICA's commitment to strengthening partnership with JICA for the development of Palestine. He also took this opportunity, in tandem with Ms. Kitagawa, to present a certificate of achievement to each of the participants on the completion of their training, and wish them all a very good luck for their future endeavours. Upon their return to Palestine, they are highly expected to be a driving force, and to improve the overall standard of hospitality services through the implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) and human resource development across Palestine.