On 27 November 2009, Ben Sherman, member of the Oglala Lakota Indian Nation and a national leader in the development of American Indian tourism efforts in the United States gave a guest presentation on “Universal Tourism Values from a Native Perspective” at MODUL University within the guest lecture series Latest Trends and Innovations in Tourism.

MODUL University Vienna (MU) has recently become a new member of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES).

TIES promotes ecotourism, which is defined as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people,"

Ms. Wei Shi, student of the MU Vienna MBA in Tourism Management program, was selected as the winner of the Scholarship of Hope 2009. She has been selected at the discretion by the Committee for the Scholarship of Hope which acts as a reviewing body of students' project proposals.

Welcome to the new issue of our newsletter. As usual, each of the four points of the issue introduces an aspect of the sustainability concept. The first point covers the upcoming conference to be held in Vienna on methods of food production, environment and health. The second point shows how the economic crisis is lived by ordinary Canadian citizens and finally, points three and four consist of tips and links to websites of interest. Any comments or suggestions can be e-mailed to Xavier Matteucci (newsletter.contact@modul.ac.at).

Prof. Dagmar Lund-Durlacher and Anja Hergesell participated in this year’s BEST EN Think Tank on „The Importance of Values in Sustainable Tourism“. The four day conference (June 15-18) took place on the Singapore campus of James Cook University and featured keynote speeches, research presentations and break-out sessions devoted to the development of an online wiki on the conference theme. Dagmar and Anja presented the research findings of a study on the female workforce in the Austrian hospitality market.

From June 30 until July 1, 2009, Anja Hergesell represented MU Vienna at the first conference on European Universities for a sustainable and competitive tourism.

MODUL University Vienna has just recently launched three fanpages on the social networking platform Facebook. Besides a general representation of the University on Facebook, there is a page for the Bachelor of Business Administration in Tourism and Hospitality Management and the Master of Business Administration in New Media Technology and Management programs.

Following the principles of integrating sustainability across the program at MODUL University Vienna, a group of students from the BBA program in Tourism and Hospitality Management embarked on an excursion to the Kamptal, 80km north-west of Vienna. At the first stop, the “Arche Noah Schaugarten” in Schiltern, students learned about the importance of biodiversity and the need to protect and cultivate rare plants, fruits and vegetables.

Sabine Fleischmann
Date: Tuesday, 2 June 2009, 1pm
Venue: MODUL University Vienna, Auditorium Maximum
Am Kahlenberg 1, 1190 Vienna (www.modul.ac.at/map)

In today’s interconnected world, ecology and economy are linked like never before. Volatile oil prices, energy supply insecurities and concerns about climate change are focusing attention on energy efficiency.

Dear all,
Welcome to the new issue of our newsletter. This issue introduces the new members of the Sustainability Committee (SC) at MU as well as the committee’s agenda for the forthcoming months. This issue also covers the three following topics: First Movie Night within the SC film series, Travelers’ Philanthropy tips towards responsible travel and the Slow Food movement.