Professional SMEs in tourism – transnational development of skills acquisition

Project “Professional SMEs in tourism – transnational development of skills acquisition” has focus on motivating tourist SME’s to upgrade their skills - in particular, digital marketing skills. It is a common observation in the three participating countries, England, Portugal and Denmark that small tourist SME’s has little motivation to acquire further skills. The consequence is that a poor levels of technology adoption among small tourism businesses is a barrier to growth - not only for the individual business but also for the wider tourism destinations of which small businesses comprise the main product. To address this need, tourism SME's require a clear road map for ‘Digital Transformation’ which will provide them with a framework for improving their adoption and usage of technology. The project will develop a “digital competence ladder” by which the SME’s can measure their own skills level and compare it with both local competition as well as transnationally, by answering a questionnaire that is coupled to the “Ladder”. The ladder will be developed and tested by the universities in cooperation with the local partner Destination Management Organisations (DMO) in the three countries. Upon final development of the ladder and questionnaire it will be utilised on a national level. Results will be analysed and barriers and needs for the target group will be identified. Test courses will be developed and tested, and the skill level improvement documented. The project will be disseminated by several media's using the competences of the participating DMO’s. Universities will public academic papers and also participate in meetings, where SME’s meet. The project will sustain by embedding the results in local VET-schools curriculum as well as in a portal we will develop with case studies and links to relevant educational offers. However, the main sustainability impact - we believe - will be a continuous movement of increasing awareness of the benefits of lifelong learning by the SME’s.