One of the 14 ICC policy dimensions is the cities’ welcoming policy that assures due welcome of newly arrived. Newly arrived include not only migrants and refugees, IDPs or foreigners, but also students, business travelers, tourists and requires a variety of approaches depending on the target audience and available resources in the city. The welcoming policy can have a form of multilingual information set, service package or relevant ceremony.
Building on tourism know-how of the city of Odessa - a member of ICC-Ukraine and one of the leaders of tourism industry in Ukraine, - and social enterprise experience of international ICC experts, a two-day Intercultural Hospitality workshop was held in Odessa on 28-29 September 2017, where the development of an applied innovative concept of Intercultural Hospitality Enterprise was launched.
Intercultural Hospitality Enterprise was broadly defined as a responsible, economically sustainable entrepreneurial initiative with a sizable social impact on the city newcomers or minorities. The workshop started with a detailed exploration of the social enterprise notion in the context of diversity advantage. Best international practices were presented by Dr. Noha Nasser in an interactive session. Local entrepreneurs described their responsible tourism initiatives, such as OdessaCart, Ethno-Cultural Tours, and Info Group.
The Workshop gathered participants from all ICC-UA cities-members, who agreed on an Intercultural Hospitality Enterprise Road Map for the Ukrainian Intercultural Cities Network committing to launch new intercultural hospitality enterprise projects in their cities within the next 12 to 18 months. The ICC-UA Intercultural Hospitality Enterprise goals are well aligned with the mission and objectives of the Diversity Connectors project of the Council of Europe that focuses on the development of diverse startups and incubators that create synergies across cultures, genders, religions, and age groups.