Berlin Travel Massive’s Thoughts on Supporting Refugees

Today we touch base with our wonderful chapter leader Lydia Band of Travel Massive Berlin to get the inside scoop on their most recent event Tourism Supporting Refugees.

The tourism industry can be supportive in a lot of different ways, especially due to its various characteristics. The tourism industry creates a huge connection between people, countries and cultures. It supports cooperation and an exchange of knowledge and information.

At the last Travel Massive in Berlin we gathered to figure out in which ways the tourism industry can be supportive in helping refugees and how the travel business can help to create a positive development.

Our speakers line up included:

Claudia Brözel, a professor at HNE Eberswalde teaching Sustainable Tourism Management talked about the cooperation HNE Eberswalde recently started with Kiron University in order to provide refugees the proper education. During the discussion it was noticeable that education and an integration in the labor market are two of the most important next steps.

Katrin Elsemann is one of the founders of Hotel Utopia. The creative idea of her team is to develop a hotel, which will be lead by refugees in order to provide them with jobs, make them hosts and to stand up against discrimination. They are breaking the barriers to enter the job market and are closing the gap of missing new young staff members (especially in the hospitality and service sector). They see different characteristics that refugees bring with them as an opportunity and not as a challenge – as language for example is not a barrier, but an asset. 

Anna Alboth, a blogger from Poland shared her really impressive campaign with the audience. As a travel blogger she uses her range of reaching people and started an appeal within Poland. She started a campaign on her blog to collect sleeping bags for the refugees. She created this highly effective campaign and collected countless sleeping bags from her readers. The most powerful part of this campaign was the notes she asked the donators to include in every bag. The little text gave a lot of hope and created a connection between the people.

This personal touch and getting in contact with the refugees was also very important to the fourth speaker Cheryl Howard. She is working closely together with the newcomers and is focusing on their individual stories and personalities. In this context she is creating a book project titled Berlin Refugees. This book will document ten real personal portraits of refugees, who’ve come to live in Berlin. Told from their point of view, the aim of the book is to humanize refugees as more than just a statistic and raise awareness of their overall plight. All profits will be donated to a local aid organization dedicated to helping refugees.

During a discussion with the participants of the panel, as well as with the audience members, a lot of interesting visions, ideas and initiatives were presented.

However, there are also challenges and risks that are involved with the future development.

Volunteering has to be organized, structured and affective

There are a lot of volunteers in Berlin, but the division of work and activities is sometimes quite unorganized and ineffective.

Companies trying to make benefit out of the situation

This concerns mainly hotels and hostels who have tried to accommodate as many refugees as possible, but under horrible circumstances and conditions, because they wanted a better reputation.

There are too many initiatives and young companies with the same idea and goal

Every group of people coming up with an idea that supports refugees in a positive way is a good thing. In Berlin there are so many different organizations and companies appearing, some of them with the same idea/content, which makes it difficult for the user to identify the difference or to make a decision.

Exploitation

Refugees are offered low (or un-) paid jobs and dubious contracts.

“Big players vs. local initiatives”

What can established companies of the tourism industry implement? What is the outcome or impact of small local ideas compared to the range of the “big players”?

People and companies are afraid to help

Some companies and people don’t see how they can support and they don’t want to take the risk as they are unsure of what is going to happen. A lot of companies fear loosing their regular customers by using their ressources to help the newcomers.

However, opportunities and next steps have also been discussed:

Communication

The most important and supportive action which everyone can take is communication. Talking to the newcomers and listening to their stories is really important – especially the constant contact and building trust (especially concerning woman). It is not only about supporting them with work, but to actually get to know each other and understand the person instead of a number.

Cooperating and sharing of experiences

Connecting and combining initiatives with the same ideas and of the same kind makes it easier for the user. Young organizations and companies should work together to combine similar content and approaches.

Structure and efficiency

Providing a way to help is good, but it should be done in an efficient and organized way.

Thinking international and not only focus on the local situation

As the tourism industry is highly connected and enables people from different countries and cultures to reach each other and to work together, this should be also done within regards to supporting the refugees. At ITB or other big tourism events speakers should discuss this topic. Awareness should be made on a global level to enhance our means of support.

Lydia Band is a Master’s Student of Sustainable Tourism Management currently living in Berlin, Germany. You can follow Lydia on Travel Massive. For upcoming event notifications, join the Berlin chapter page.