Joint e-Course on the Sustainable Management of Tourism Destinations

"<< Background >>According to the EU agenda for the Higher Education, many parts of the EU are experiencing shortages in certain high-skill professions, both in terms of qualifications and the quality of the associated skills. Moreover, businesses in the sector, particularly SMEs, are not always in a position to adapt rapidly, given their limited financial resources and their employees' lack of qualifications.The modernisation of tourism activity should be accompanied by a stepping-up of efforts to improve the professional skills of workers in the sector to provide high quality tourism services, with a particular view to facilitating their adaptation to new technologies and new market expectations, such as the sustainable design and management of tourism destinations.More specific, more people need to be attracted to the fields of study that prepare students for jobs on the tourism sector where shortages of digital and green skills exist or are emerging, as described in GreenComp and DigComp, on the following learning units:- Ecology and nature conservation- Sustainable tourism development & environment,- Risk and crisis management,- Social/Green/Digital entrepreneurship- Tourist behavior,- Digitalization in tourism- Destination marketing<< Objectives >>The main scope of this project was to develop a joint trans-disciplinary HE e-Course among HE faculties relative tosustainable tourism to improve the knowledge and skills of their students on issues concerning the sustainable design and management of sustainable tourism destinations.Therefore, the specific aims of the project was:• Strengthen the strategic and structured cooperation between Higher Education Institutes by implementing a joint transdisciplinary e-Course, and accompanied by an automatic mutual recognition system of the acquired qualifications and learning outcomes in accordance with the Bologna Principles.• Support Higher Education Institutes to implement the Bologna principles and tools to enhance mobility for all and to develop a successful multilingual European Education Area by 2025.• Support the development of learning-outcomes-oriented curricula that better meet the learning needs of students, while also being relevant for the tourism sector.• Implement trans-disciplinary approaches and innovative pedagogies such as student-centered learning.• Strengthen the project-based transnational collaboration between SMEs & HE Institutes related to tourism sector. Use ICT materials and tools (e-classroom).<< Implementation >>In the project, several strategic activities were implemented to achieve the set objectives. Among the main actions carried out was the development of a common qualification framework for the ""Sustainable Tourism Destination Manager,"" aimed at defining key competencies in the sector. Additionally, an e-learning course for higher education was designed and tested, focusing on the sustainable management of tourism destinations, using innovative teaching methodologies and advanced digital tools. In parallel, a training seminar for university lecturers was organized to optimize the use of the developed teaching techniques and digital content. The course was piloted with a group of university students, assessing its effectiveness through a structured quality control system and evaluation of acquired competencies. Furthermore, the project included the development of Exploitation Guidelines, ensuring the sustainability and transferability of the project results beyond its duration. Finally, transnational dissemination events were organized to promote the project outcomes and collect valuable feedback for further improvements to the e-learning course​.<< Results >>The results of the projects were: A joint qualification profile framework of the Sustainable Tourism Destination Manager, based on EQF, Europass, & ESCOinstitutional framework.• A joint e-learning course (curriculum) included e-classroom and e-mobility phases for HE students (postgraduate,graduate and undergraduate) focused on the design and management of sustainable tourism destinations,• Appropriate quality assurance criteria/procedures,• Mutual Assessment/recognition scheme/procedures of the acquired skills,• Innovative digital e-learning tools and content in a proper e-learning platform.• Exploitation Guidelines for the further sustainability and transferability of the of the above mentioned project’s results."