< Back to previous page

Project

STTfT : Sustainable Tourism : Training for Tomorrow (R-9272)

European protected area's (PA's) have an important role in European tourism, both as places of visitation and recreation, and as net contributors of regional and national economies. However, it is widely recognised that one of the biggest challenges for tourism is the sustainable conservation and management of the natural resources that support it. In 1995 EUROPARC set up the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas (henceforth referred to as the Charter), a practical management tool that enables PAs to develop tourism sustainably in partnership with local stakeholders. Since then the Charter network has grown significantly, and now counts 162 Sustainable Destinations from 19 countries involving a growing number of local partners including tourism businesses, local and regional government authorities, NGOs and more. Several EU reports have highlighted the existing skills gap in sustainable tourism, both at destination and business level. The EC's (2016) "Blueprint for sectoral cooperation on skills" recognised that new skills are needed for sustainable tourism and green tourism. Also, the need for training for PA staff and local tourism enterprises was recognised. However, no common training programme exists to date bringing together the lessons from its 160+ destinations and making them available to the network itself and more widely. The aim of this project is to jointly develop a European standard for Sustainable Tourism Training for PAs, drawing from the experiences of the Charter, itself a European tool. The partnership has the following objectives: -to significantly increase the quality, supply and accessibility of training in sustainable tourism for PA stakeholders across Europe -to develop an innovative, open access, online training platform which will enable access to sustainable tourism training for PA staff, businesses, local/regional authorities and others -to provide high quality e-learning and 'blended learning' opportunities, through the creation of a new, up-to-date curriculum, and supported by a training toolkit, based on end users' needs -to disseminate the training curriculum across European and national networks through a comprehensive programme of multiplier events and dissemination initiatives
Date:1 Sep 2018 →  31 Aug 2021
Keywords:European protected areas, Sustainable tourism, Sustainable tourismtraining, traffic safety
Disciplines:Applied economics, Economic history, Macroeconomics and monetary economics, Microeconomics, Tourism