Building Digitalisation Readiness in the Tourism SME sector-DIGITOUR

<< Background >>The tourism sector had grown steadily over the past decade. In 2019, prior to COVID, Europe confirmed its position as the world’s main tourist destination, with 710 million international arrivals (UNWTOA). As outlined in our application, despite this growth, prior to COVID, the European Commission was already pushing the need for digital skills training in the tourism sector stating, ‘The most prominent difficulty for tourism is the need for training following the introduction of new digital technologies…and the skills needed to digitalise, as well as resources required for training.' (EC DIGITALISATION IN TOURISM). Through the DIGITOUR project we supported SMEs in this sector by investigating the status regarding digital readiness in each of our regions and based on this research, developed a digital skills training programme for business owners, their staff and those seeking employment in the sector. The project main target groups, and direct beneficiaries were:• SMEs in the tourism sector •tourism employees seeking to improve their skills• the unemployed who pre COVID worked in tourism and were considering reemployment in tourism• Trainers from EU VET institutions active in the field of tourism.<< Implementation >>The overall results of the project were achieved through the project activities, through the development of two project results (in 4 languages), an eLearning tool (12 units) complimented with 8 animated videos, the organisation of six multiplier events, the dissemination, exploitation, impact and sustainability activities, project quality and risk management and proper implementation and feedback. In all steps the coordinator communicated the objectives to the partners to liaise with all the project goals. From the project beginning, partners understood the role they played in the implementation effort and how they would contribute to the project success.Furthermore, each PR leader built on a detailed project timeline. As part of the ongoing monitoring effort, partners met regularly to go over the progress. This ensured that all understood how the project was developing and what needed to be done to fulfil project goals. DIGITOUR kicked off with in-depth assessment activity to analyse the existing situation, training needs, as well as the potential effectiveness of e-learning and online tools for the training path. Once the content was finalised, partners ensured that these were effectively translated for pilot testing which was organised at a later project stage, i.e., after the development of the training contents. They tested the developed outcomes, assessing through evaluation questionnaires to earmark potential problems detected, and outlined positive points of the material created. The project undertook dissemination and exploitation actions to answer tourism sector training needs. At project end, each partner was responsible for communicating results and creating momentum for DIGITOUR thus ensuring the target sector benefitted from a recognised and open training content with the objective of:- An improvement of VET offer, benefiting from a recognised curriculum needed in the tourism sector- public and private VET systems that can integrate/expand their offer, train their employees to improve their services.The community has benefitted from people who are more integrated in the labour market and are more active and empowered. We reached the target groups through professionally planned dissemination activities, multiplier events addressed at institutional organisations in this sector, VET promoting organisations and incubators. Several additional activities were implemented during the lifespan of the project to enhance project progress, secure quality, and other purposes.A1- Developed Management PlanA2 - Defined Bilateral Collaboration Agreements with PartnersA3 - Organised Virtual Partners' Meetings, meeting minutes, minutes of the transnational meetings including agreements, to-do-lists and deadlines and minutes from the on-line meetings.A4 - Conducted operational, administrative, and financial management.A5- Designed the Dissemination material (dissemination plan, project logo, brochure, website, press releases, newsletter)A6 – Developed and delivered on an Exploitation and Impact Strategy PlanA7- Developed and delivered on a Sustainability Strategy Plan & developed an IPR AgreementA8 – Developed a Quality Plan and quality controls.A9 – Carried out daily management, financial reporting, collection and provision of documents, contractual report for interim and final report to the NA.A10- Created & managed the consortium workspace and repository.A11 – Created the multiplier event evaluation template which includes the agenda, short report on the event, signature lists and participant satisfaction questionnaire.A12- Completed an Impact evaluation report, analysing the impact on the target group, stakeholders, and partner organisations.A13- Completed Dissemination reports.A14 -Completed an Exploitation report.