The Adventure Tourism Innovation Partnerships (AVIP) is transformative since it creates lasting impact for HEIs and their graduates, entrepreneurs and businesses, particularly SMEs and their employees; providing flexible learning pathways to enhance learners’ digital and entrepreneurial skills, helping companies respond to the fast-changing adventure tourism environment. Research demonstrates that the HE/VET systems fails to adequately meet learner’s skills needs and businesses are poorly equipped to respond to the transformational changes in tourism. AVIP responds directly to these concerns, offering flexible learning pathways and innovative collaborative delivery models – addressing low-skills through to higher levels skills provision – which address regional skills gaps and promote innovation. The tourism industry is one of the largest in the world, accounting for 9% of global GDP. Europe is the world-leading tourist destination and the third largest economic activity in the European Union (9.9% of GDP, rising to 11% by 2026), employing over 25 million people. Adventure tourism is one of its fastest growing segments growing exponentially year-on-year. ATTA estimated adventure tourism to be worth $263 Bn in 2013, growing at a rate of 195% in three years. Adventure tourism is widely recognised as a powerful tool that can promote sustainable growth, generating smart jobs, as well as providing strong incentives for conserving the natural environment. Indeed, Scotland’s ‘Tourism 2020’ strategy identifies activities and adventure as having real growth potential. The strategy identifies the need to develop skills in a range of areas to support the industry’s ambitions for growth, including: management and leadership; enabling high quality customer experiences; and ensuring the availability of appropriate training. Yet our HE and VET systems – often operating in silos - are known to often lack the tools to effectively respond to the challenge. As Professor West, Chair of University Alliance states, “to meet the increasing demand for higher-level skills we need multiple pathways through education, based on collaboration and partnership – we must not slip into the false divide between vocational and academic pathways”. AVIP tackles this challenge head on; developing innovative partnerships and new models of HE based around highly malleable learning pathways, tailored to meet digital and entrepreneurial skills needed, empowering businesses to respond to growth opportunities within the adventure tourism economy. AVIP addresses The EU’s 2020 Growth Strategy in three main ways. First, it promotes smart growth by fostering cooperation between H.E., VET institutions and employers; upskilling students and employees and generating quality jobs. Second, it promotes sustainable growth through promoting adoption of more efficient and innovative marketing measures and thirdly, it promotes inclusive growth, involving job creation in structurally disadvantaged locations as well as offering opportunities for low-skilled to develop new skills. AVIP also aligns with the European Tourism Manifesto for Growth and Jobs EU policy priorities, particularly in areas of skills development, which encourages relationships between training/education providers and industry, and making lifelong learning training available online. The aim is clear: Establish Innovation Partnerships to develop flexible learning pathways that enhance the capacity of businesses to capitalise on the opportunities within adventure tourism. To achieve this AVIP will pursue the following objectives: 1, Innovation Partnerships and Frameworks HE, VET Institutions and businesses; collaborating to identify skills gaps, develop flexible learning pathways and exchange best practices for results-based pedagogy. 2, Immersion in Digital Technologies. Partners introduce innovative training to transform graduate and SME capacity to digitise their business experience 3, Innovating New Products. Learners will unleash their creative capacity through acquisition of commercialisation skills and competencies. 4, Open Online Collaboration Platform. An mobile platform promotes ‘communities of learning’; fostering transnational cooperation to speed up learning to improve innovation through a virtual cluster. AVIP will have a range of impacts: 1, Innovation Partnerships enhance alignment of regional training systems to better meet the skills needs and exploit the opportunities of regional adventure tourism through innovative Flexible Learning Pathways. 2, Entrepreneurs commercialise new products and services to enhance their competitiveness. 3, Longer term benefits include wider adoption of our Innovation Partnerships and the HE sector better understanding how to implement our innovative applied learning tools, impacting policy and practice at local, regional, national and international levels.
Context The tourism industry is one of the largest in the world, accounting for 9% of global GDP. Europe is the world-leading tourist destination and the third largest economic activity in the European Union (9.9% of GDP, rising to 11% by 2026), employing over 25 million people. Adventure tourism is one of its fastest growing segments growing exponentially year-on-year. ATTA estimated adventure tourism to be worth $263 Bn in 2013, growing at a rate of 195% in three years. Adventure tourism is widely recognised as a powerful tool that can promote sustainable growth, generating smart jobs, as well as providing strong incentives for conserving the natural environment. Indeed, Scotland’s ‘Tourism 2020’ strategy identifies activities and adventure as having real growth potential. The strategy identifies the need to develop skills in a range of areas to support the industry’s ambitions for growth, including: management and leadership; enabling high quality customer experiences; and ensuring the availability of appropriate training. Objectives 1. Develop innovation partnerships between HE, VET Institutions and businesses to identify skills gaps, develop flexible learning pathways and exchange best practice.. 2. Develop flexible learning modules on digital technologies, to transform graduate and SME capacity to digitise their business experience. 3. Develop flexible learning modules on product development/innovation, to help learners acquire commercialisation skills and competencies. 4. Create an open online collaboration platform, to promote ‘communities of learning’ and foster regional and transnational cooperation. Participants IO1: 103 businesses were surveyed regarding their existing skill levels, desired new skills and the most desirable means of learning. 61 businesses were involved in stakeholder workshops in the four countries to launch AVIP and further discuss these learning issues. IO2 and IO3: the 14 modules were piloted with a total of 225 students, 72 businesses and six 'other' stakeholders. Multiplier events: four national MEs were held hosting a total of 184 participants. An international ME attracted 11 overseas and 43 national participants. Dissemination: “Trainers Guide IO2”- downloaded 254 times “Trainer Guide IO3”- downloaded 247 times “Guide for Interactive workshop”- downloaded 245 times “Partnership plans” – 415 downloads Adventure Tourism innovation partnership closed group on Facebook-33 members https://www.facebook.com/groups/219915611895156/ Website (https://adventuretourism.eu/) visits: 19,490 Activities The project activities were broken down in to: project management, intellectual outputs and multiplier vents: Project management: The project logo and brand manual were created at the beginning of the project, as well as a dissemination strategy. A dissemination diary has been completed by each partner as a way of logging all dissemination activities, including their dissemination activities on their own website and social media channels, project newsletters, presentations and meetings.Sustainability: A sustainability strategy has been developed to support the sustainability of project activities after the end of the project.Quality Management and Evaluation: An external evaluator was contracted to provide an interim and final evaluation report for the project. Internal evaluation involved five transnational partner meetings, monthly Skype meetings, as well as quarterly partner surveys and progress reports. Intellectual outputs: IO1: Four regional partnership plans were produced and made available on the project website (www.adventuretourism.eu). IO2 and IO3: Fourteen modules (eight digital marketing and six product development/innovation) have been developed, pilot tested and made available on the project website. IO4: The project knowledge exchange platform has been developed (www.adventuretourism.eu), allowing for international collaboration and to promote best practice. Multiplier Events: Five multiplier events were held by the partners, as per the application, to officially launch the project outputs: one in Estonia, one in Bulgaria, one in Ireland and two in Scotland (one national and one international). Impacts AVIP has had and will have a range of impacts: 1. Regionally-aligned training opportunities that better meet identified skills needs. 2. Upskilling of entrepreneurs, employees and students in a broad range of product development and digital tourism subject relevant to the fast-changing adventure tourism sector. 3. This creates enhanced ability to commercialise new products and services and more effectively promote new and existing services, increasing business competitiveness. 4. Longer term benefits include increase recognition of the benefits of flexible learning pathways for continuing professional development, as detailed in the regional partnership plans.