Magazine: Between East and West

On 26 and 27 November Prague was the host of the Leaders in Horeca CEE & CIS 2015 conference. Matthias Koch, president of the Austrian Professional Hotel Association told in his presentation that this part of Europe belongs neither to the East nor to the West. We shouldn’t copy what they are doing in the West, because then we will always be lagging behind. We have to build on our own traditions and profit from the special opportunities we have, at the same time avoiding to define ourselves along the lines of stereotypes. James Lomax, an officer of the UN’s Environment Programme talked about waste management issues. He revealed that 7 percent of greenhouse gases is produced by the degradation of food waste. In his view the Horeca sector can play a leading role in reducing food waste. Christian de Barrin, the president of HOTREC analysed the role of the ‘sharing economy’ in the sector. HOTREC doesn’t intend to fight this types of service, they want regulation and transparency.