CONTEXT As the EU's "Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism" (2007) recognised, one of the biggest challenges for tourism is the sustainable conservation and management of the natural and cultural resources that support it. EUROPARC (the representative body of Europe’s Protected Areas) has long recognised such tensions, understanding that not only are parks themselves facing challenges and pressure from visitation, but they also provide the potential to act as inspiration for more sustainable tourism management models. In 1995, EUROPARC set up the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas. The Charter network now counts 164 protected areas from 20 countries involving a growing number of local tourism businesses as Charter partners, plus local and regional government authorities, NGOs etc. NEED Over the past 20 years the Charter has been one of the most successful tools contributing to the EU policy aim “to promote the development of sustainable, responsible, and high-quality tourism" (EC 2010). However, an integrated training on the key topics addressed in the Charter is lacking. Furthermore, the Vilm Declaration on "Professionalising Protected Area Management in Europe" (2013) stressed the need for jointly developed training activities and products to improve the capacity of PA managers in relevant associated sectors such as tourism, including development of online courses, shared materials and case studies, as well as highlighting the need to enhance capacity of European training institutions to develop online training as well as standards and curricula for 'train the trainer' workshops. This project directly addresses the stated needs, and will be the first to jointly develop a European standard for Sustainable Tourism Training on the key topics of the Charter, aimed at all tourism stakeholder groups working in European protected areas. OBJECTIVES The project 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. The project activities are expected to target around 2,500 persons (belonging to working groups of protected area stakeholders implementing the Charter, businesses, tour operators, trainers, etc). ACTIVITIES/METHODOLOGY The project will develop a new strategic partnership between educational institutions, EUROPARC and key regional and national level organisations representing specific stakeholder groups within protected areas. The project's main focus is on the development of innovative outputs and its subsequent dissemination, testing and optimisation through Multiplier Events. The intellectual outputs that will be produced are: the sustainable tourism curriculum, a supporting training toolkit and the online training platform on which the training materials will be hosted. In addition, a sustainable tourism skills report will be produced, based on a thorough training needs analysis which will be undertaken across the Charter network as one of the project’s initial tasks; and a dissemination report containing recommendations for policy and practice, to further maximise the project’s impact. The multiplier (training and dissemination) events include (a) a transnational workshop to train a number of trainers from the wider Charter network; (b) a series of national workshops mirrored across three different partner countries, each time targeting a separate stakeholder group; and (c) a final dissemination event in Brussels targeted at European-level policymakers. The online platform including the sustainable tourism curriculum content (in English/French/Spanish/Italian) will be launched in the middle of the project; and afterwards updated (based on the feedback gathered from the multiplier events) and extended (including the training toolkit). IMPACTS • Participants of the training (both face-to-face and online) will be motivated by their learning, and be ready to integrate good practices and new methods into their daily activities, with enhanced competences and increased employability. • The training toolkit will facilitate a high quality, stream-lined, committed and professional approach to sustainable tourism development across Europe’s PAs.
CONTEXT/BACKGROUND As the EU's "Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism" (2007) recognised, one of the biggest challenges for tourism is the sustainable conservation and management of the natural and cultural resources that support it. Europarc (the representative body of Europe’s Protected Areas (PAs)) has long recognised such tensions, understanding that not only are parks themselves facing challenges and pressure from visitation, but they also provide the potential to act as inspiration for more sustainable tourism management models. In 1995, Europarc set up the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas. The Charter network now counts 106 Sustainable Destinations from 15 countries involving a growing number of local tourism businesses as Charter partners, local and regional government authorities, NGOs and many more. Over the past 25 years the Charter has been one of the most successful tools contributing to the EU policy aim “to promote the development of sustainable, responsible, and high-quality tourism" (EC 2010). However, an integrated training on the key topics addressed in the Charter is lacking. Furthermore, the Vilm Declaration on "Professionalising Protected Area Management in Europe" (2013) stressed the need for jointly developed training activities and products to improve the capacity of PA managers in relevant associated sectors such as tourism, including development of online courses, shared materials and case studies, as well as highlighting the need to enhance capacity of European training institutions to develop online training as well as standards and curricula for 'train the trainer' workshops. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for sustainable tourism as visitation to PAs increased, adding new levels of pressure and challenges to PA stakeholders. This project directly addressed the stated needs by jointly developing a European standard for Sustainable Tourism Training on the key topics of the Charter, aimed at all tourism stakeholder groups working in European protected areas. The project developed a new strategic partnership between educational institutions, Europarc and key regional and national level organisations representing specific stakeholder groups within protected areas. OBJECTIVES The project reached 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 enables 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. NUMBER AND TYPE OF PARTICIPANTS Throughout the project a series of Multiplier Events were organised: 180 PA stakeholders from Spain, Italy and France tested the developed platform (including the curriculum) and gave suggestions which were later taken into account; an online Train the Trainer course was organised (the originally planned 2-day face-to-face workshop could not take place due to COVID-19), in which 19 participants from 13 countries were involved; and an online final event took place with 190 participants. Moreover, all partners did various dissemination activities through newsletters, social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram), their website and the project's website (sttft.eu), etc; these 150 dissemination and communication actions had a large reach. Finally, the sustainabletourismtraining.eu platform counts over 1200 registered users. DESCRIPTION OF UNDERTAKEN ACTIVITIES During the project, five Intellectual Outputs were produced, as planned. All outputs can be found at sttft.eu. 1) A sustainable tourism skills report, based on a thorough Training Needs Analysis was the first output. This included a review of previously published literature, and a survey of Protected Area stakeholders across Europe, resulting in the identification of important knowledge and skills areas, gaps and training needs. 2) A sustainable tourism training curriculum based on the principles of the Charter was developed. Each of the 9 curriculum topics has been elaborated through a fixed structure of content, including: a short video introducing the focus and learning objectives of each topic, key information providing introductory knowledge on key concepts for each topic, containing a theoretical framework as well as practical examples; links to relevant webinars (including a short description) or other video material; a collection of (in total 130) best practices and inspiring case studies; a list of relevant resources containing links to manuals, reports, or extra cases on other websites; and a quiz per topic. Users that successfully complete a quiz obtain a confirmation certificate. An overall completion certificate is sent to users that successfully complete all 9 topics. 3) The training toolkit provides additional supporting materials and resources for those who wish to build on the online platform’s content and develop practical learning experiences around those. 40 activity outlines were produced, that can be used to support face-to-face, online or ‘blended’ learning formats. The toolkit was designed to support different levels of experience in training, facilitation or capacity-building, providing both introductory guidance for those who have never designed, developed or delivered training, as well as a collection of resources and training activities that both experienced and inexperienced trainers can use. 4) The online training platform developed in the project is available at sustainabletourismtraining.eu. The content of the platform (consisting of the curriculum and the training toolkit) is available in four languages: English, Spanish, Italian and French. The platform is addressed to all types of stakeholders with an interest in sustainable tourism development in PAs, such as PA staff, local businesses, local governments, researchers, students and others. The platform's content stays available after the project's end through Europarc's website. 5) The outputs of this project aim to provide a starting point and invitation for PA managers, business owners, public officers, policymakers, trainers, facilitators and any other relevant stakeholders to engage in and promote continuing development of shared sustainable tourism skills and knowledge. A final report outlining a set of recommendations on sustainable tourism training for practitioners and policymakers was produced at the end of the project. IMPACTS The "impact+ exercise" was carried out regularly by the project consortium during the project, resulting in the following set of main impacts: A) the project staff obtained new knowledge, insights and skills on sustainable tourism development as well as blended/online learning and platform building - has discovered new information and practices and apply these in daily work - has an increased number of new contacts B) the partner organisations have practical training material to offer to PA stakeholders and members to increase their skills and improve their performance - have a recognised training / capacity building program to increase practising sustainable tourism - created an active network of PA stakeholders (e.g. in terms of further collaboration) C) the learners obtained raised awareness on the importance of sustainable tourism - were facilitated in putting theory into practice - trainers obtained hands-on training material - learners have an attractive way of learning at their disposal - and have enhanced knowledge, skills and competences D) the systemic impact includes more awareness about the training gaps - awareness and sustained use of the platform - awareness and focus on a (more) sustainable approach in policy making. In addition, a number of quantitative indicators were monitored on a regular basis throughout the project, for example: the number of registered platform users (per language and profile type), the number of certificates issued (per topic and overall), and the number of unique visitors to the project's website and platform, and their average time spent on various pages. In general, this project has created a positive impact for the partners/organisations involved, the participants of the Multiplier Events, the learners and (potential) trainers using the platform, contributing to more sustainable tourism development across Protected Areas.