Anna Visvizi

Over the past 30 years, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has recorded rapid economic growth and development rates matched by corresponding levels of consumption. This has led to an exponential increase in the volume of municipal solid waste. Even if the bulk share of this waste is recyclable, the propensity of households to engage in the recycling of waste has so far produced a negligible effect. Arguably, in the context of the pervasive digitalization of public and private spaces, accompanied by the developments in information and communication technology (ICT), best conceptualized by reference to the concepts of smart cities and circular economy, it is natural to expect ICT and policy objectives to converge in order to encourage and enable greater engagement with waste segregation and recycling amongst households. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the feasibility and ways of increasing households’ participation in recyclable waste collection, segregation, and disposal in a context devoid of a top-down city-level waste management policy. To this end, the design thinking approach was employed to identify factors inhibiting/facilitating households’ engaging in recycling. A variety of ideation techniques were adopted in subsequent stages of the design thinking process, including interviews with stakeholders from the government and industry sectors, surveys with Jeddah households (N = 446), an eight week-long recyclable waste collection experiment, and feedback surveys (N = 46). The results suggest that applying relatively simple and resource-savvy tools aimed at promoting household recyclable waste collection has substantial potential. This, in turn, not only feeds into the debate on smart cities but also into the research of public policy.

In the interdisciplinary co-operation of experts in the fields of technology, hospitality, and pedagogy, a 3D training module was created, which simulates the environment of a hotel reception. Key elements of communication between hotel staff and various types of guests were identified, and variant scenarios of communication situations were prepared. Scenarios are based on the principles of effective simulation. The methodology of training communication skills of hotel employees using virtual reality tools was compiled on the basis of foreign research in the field of using virtual reality in training processes. The tool is a pilot test in teaching tourism workers, specifically for the development of their communication skills in dealing with clients. The paper presents, in detail, a model of virtual reception and methodology of communication skills training, which was verified on students who are preparing to work in tourism, as well as on hotel staff with experience.