In this day and age of globalization, travelling for pleasure has become a popular activity, if not the norm. Many people have been sightseeing in their own country or have visited a number of foreign countries. Tourism is a type of industry, as are agriculture, mining, or manufacturing. Only less polluting, or is it ? There is a carbon footprint attached to it, that of the fuel burnt by the different transport types we use. So how can the excitement of discovering places and respect for the natural environment go hand in hand ? By developing and promoting sustainable tourism, we believe. And why not begin at home ? … but not end there! Here we are, students and teachers from five small European towns languishing in the corners of our countries, ready to think, experiment and pull together to make our places more interesting and pleasant to visit by proposing alternative ways of enjoying the beauty and diversity of our local heritage to tourists. From Châteaudun (France) to Biedenkopf (Germany), San Miniato (Italy), Manisa (Turkey), or Cesky Krumlov (Czech Republic), our concerns, and objectives, are the same. We are intent on creating new incentives for tourists to visit our towns and enjoy their historical and cultural assets in a relaxed, responsible, and environmentally-friendly way. Hence our Erasmus+ project : Sustainable Tourism belongs in the future. Ours will be a pragmatic, empirical approach. First an assessment of tourism in our town will be carried out. Second, innovative suggestions will be made to develop and promote sustainable tourism, and objects will be created such as leaflets showing green itineraries in our towns, audio guides, exhibitions, and videos, and all will be made available to the general public. Third their efficiency and popularity will be measured, and improvements will be made if necessary. The actions will be conducted by all the partners, and local authorities and members of civil society will be consulted throughout the project. In order to increase effectiveness, the local media and existing public events relating to tourism and sustainability will be used to make our project known and supported by as many people as possible. ICT will be used for communicating at both local and transnational levels. The teachers will combine academic and field work to motivate the students and prompt them to achieve their full potential both as members of a team, individuals, and responsible young citizens. Active learning will be the norm in the partnership : students will be active participants of the learning process. To make sure that our project will stand the test of time and continue to be useful, we will have all the data, activities and creations in digital format, and a video will be posted on You Tube. On the occasion of the mobilities, five of which will be organized, the partners will be able to test out their ideas about developing sustainable tourism, ensure the success and durability of the project, and be proud of all the effort put into it for a better future for Europe.
The time having come to do an Erasmus+ project, I chose sustainable tourism as a subject because it was a topical issue much in the news due to people's changing travelling habits, and the debate over climate change and globalization. The main objective was to raise awareness of sustainable tourism and make students think about realistic solutions. I was given the go-ahead, and used the eTwinning platform where Italian, German, and Turkish partners were soon found. A Czech partner later joined the project thanks to Mr. Votava, at the Alliance Française in Prague. In September 2017, we started preparing for TNM 1 due to be held in Châteaudun in October. The students of each Erasmus+ group were made to prepare presentations or videos about their schools and towns, which they sent to their partners. We knew that our three towns had many things in common (size, rural environment, medieval castle, river, historical town centre), but there were huge differences as far as tourism was concerned: hardly any tourism in Biedenkopf, moderate tourism in Châteaudun, and overtourism in Cesky Krumlov. In October, our Italian and Turkish partners informed me that they could no longer be part of the Eramus+ Project. So only the German and Czech teachers attended TNM 1, which enabled us to get acquainted, share our views on the project, and plan in detail the activities to be carried out until Mobility 1 in Biedenkopf, in April 2018. Subsequently, meetings with parents were held in each school, and the students started working on the differences between mass tourism and sustainable tourism, and then on the creating of questionnaires about people’s habits as tourists, and tourism in our towns. They interviewed people and carried out a survey. The mobility in Biedenkopf focused on the question of how young people could spend a short holiday there (a town where there are virtually no tourists) in an interesting and sustainable way. The students visited different private and public organizations, wrote articles in groups about their experiences, and created leaflets. The teachers-only meeting that was held enabled us to share information and agree on what would have to be done by 15 October 2018, when Mobility 2 in Cesky Krumlov was due to take place. We then focused on the problem of overtourism. Students went on day trips to tourist hotspots (Montmartre, Ruedesheim, Cesky Krumlov itself), and prepared slideshows about their findings. During the mobility in Cesky Krumlov, overtourism took centre stage. Students had to find out what problems arose from mass tourism. They created a leaflet on slow tourism urging people to spend at least six days in Cesky Krumlov. In the teachers-only meeting, the orientation of the project was discussed. We wanted to avoid a repeat performance and introduce new activities as the Czech and German students would be the same, unlike the French students. Thus, during Year 2 of the project, we carried out research on ecolabels in tourism, and highlighted the importance of our rivers in local sustainable tourism. For Mobility 3 in Châteaudun in May 2019, a schedule was prepared with alternating periods of presentations, outings, attending classes, and creating a comprehensive slideshow of the various visits in multinational teams. The onus was on the French team to show partners that sustainable tourism was possible in Châteaudun. During TNM 2 held in Châteaudun in June 2019, we evaluated the project as a whole, wrote the Final Report summary. Material was assembled for a slideshow, or possibly a videoclip to be created with the help of a professional. Although we did not always see eye to eye with one another, due to the different situations and working conditions in our respective schools, we managed to achieve a happy medium and conduct the project to mutual satisfaction, thanks to regular cooperation and communication throughout those two years. The main difficulty was aligning the activities to be carried out as our school years are organized differently, and we did not have the same Erasmus+ group structure: a club with a score of voluntary students in Lahntalschule, approximately sixty selected students of four groups in the Cesky Krumlov Gymnazium, and fifty-six students working on the project as part of the 2nde curriculum, at Lycée Zola, the challenge being to make them adhere to the project and volunteer to participate in a mobility. Those circumstances induced various degrees of motivation and involvement. Their degree of fluency in English also varied. However, all the students got on well and communicated actively during the mobilities. Our common evaluation showed that an overwhelming majority of the participants are better aware of the benefits of developing sustain sustainable tourism now, more sensitive to environmental issues in general, and more interested in the E.U. than they were before the project.