Tourism is one of the sectors which plays an important role in development and also generates foreign revenues. This sector is peaceful and reflects the nature and beauty of the country. It helps people of far flung areas to promote their culture and norms, it also provides opportunity to country to make a better image around the world. Tourism and culture have a deep relation. Tourism is mainly divided into two parts: origins of tourism and impacts of tourism, and the main problem is that tourism origins is only concerned with tourists and foreigners, while the impacts are only related to local public. Origins of tourism should include the local public and how they can attract tourists ,how they can promote the tourism in their region, this is why we need to do this project. The main goal of our project is to get to know the European cultural and history as well as our own history and tradition. Other important goal is to reduce the phenomenon of xenophobia, a problem that usually occurs due to the lack of knowledge and understanding of others. Students should understand the full meaning of the word tolerance and be able to speak up in the event of negative phenomena related to intolerance. Like other forms of development, tourism can also cause its share of problems, such as social dislocation, loss of cultural heritage, economic dependence and ecological degradation. Learning about the impacts of tourism will convince many people to seek more responsible holidays. These include various forms of alternative or sustainable tourism such as: ‘nature-based tourism’, ‘ecotourism’ and ‘cultural tourism’. Sustainable tourism is becoming so popular that some say that what we presently call ‘alternative’ will be the ‘mainstream’ in a decade. A sustainable approach to tourism means that neither the natural environment nor the socio-cultural fabric of the host communities will be impaired by the arrival of tourists. On the contrary, the natural environment and the local communities should benefit from tourism, both economically and culturally. Sustainability implies that tourism resources and attractions should be utilised in such a way that their subsequent use by future generations is not compromised. We hope that our students will have purposeful travel to natural areas in order to understand the culture and natural history of the environment, taking care not to alter the integrity of the ecosystem, while producing economic opportunities that make the conservation of natural resources beneficial to local people. The project will have a good impact on schools. We will invite children from other schools and use ‘peer learning' to inform them about the results. Every school involved in the project will have an Erasmus project corner. In this corner all the activities developed during the project and the results will be displayes so that all school community will have a chance to see what is going on. We will also share all the results and materials on our common web site, school”s web sites, and on E-Twinning group. All the materials will be open resource materials for the people who visit the site. We will also upload photos from our mobilities. On 27 th September we will celebrate “International Tourism Day " in our schools. We will invite the parents of our students and group of students from other schools, local press and some people from school. Beyond the dissemination plan we believe that our participants will be the most important dissemination agents because they will transfer what they learnt from our project into the real life. They will use a new way to understand tourism, improving their interpersonal skills and leaving bies against different cultures and nations to create a common European citizenship. We also are going to use Europass mobility certificates for our students.
The great achievement of our project was that our students gained a better understanding of other cultures and the influence of the culture of their countries on the shape of the whole European Union. They opened up to other cultures, traditions, tourism and peoples. Through the project students, teachers and the whole school community were able to learn more about European tourism and culture heritage in both social and educational context. Each national coordinator set up a multidisciplinary Erasmus+ Team in their school. These Teams worked internationally, engaging in all the tasks that included the organisation and preparation of the LTTs. In addition to the students, each school also had about six teachers who supervised and assisted the Teams. Instead of controlling the groups, the teachers guided the students to complete the tasks. These teachers also accompanied the students on the LTTs abroad. Prior to the LTTs, necessary information about travelling was provided to the students and their parents, and the students were prepared for cultural differences - it was explained how to behave and interact in a foreign culture. For the teachers, the project provided excellent opportunity to improve their English and to realise the value of international contacts. It gave them a chance to share examples of good practice, exchange ideas and build up their confidence in communicating in English with people from other countries. Our project equalised opportunities for all students and recruitment to the project took into account the principle of equal opportunities and non-discrimination and the principle of equal opportunities for women and men. All students who wanted to improve their English language skills, work in international groups and develop their ICT skills were eligible to apply. The project enabled students from disadvantaged groups to participate in international activities. While in the case of Poland these were mainly students with certain learning challenges, e.g. dyslexia or dysorthography, and therefore with learning difficulties, in the case of Romania and Turkey these were also students with economic difficulties. In addition, children from the Romanian school belonging to the Romani minority also participated in the project. Some of these students felt insecure and were reluctant to interact, but the teachers involved in the project made sure that the students felt as comfortable as possible, while providing them with opportunities to interact with their peers. When we submitted our project proposal, we planned five LTTs, but Portuguese school left the project and also the Covid-19 pandemic prevented us from achieving this goal - the last LTT in Turkey had to be converted to a virtual one. All the LTTs were very successful, though naturally the last LTT was not as rewarding as the other ones. Within the LTTs, students worked as one team - contributing to the completion of the tasks. Our students willingly participated in all activities. Their progress in developing English communication skills and greater cultural awareness is very valuable and will certainly have a lasting impact on the students. Students also learnt how to be a wise tourists in a modern world. They achieved better results in their exams, improved their fluency in English and will do better in the next levels of education. Through participation in the project, our students gained very valuable experience in information technology. As most of the communication took place online and they had to prepare presentations and films, our students became more computer proficient. The project participants got to know foreign cultures through their stay abroad and upon their return home they were able to share their observations and experiences from the LTT with the whole school community. The LTT participants lived with the host students' families, thus getting to know the realities of everyday life in other countries. In preparation for international cooperation, students learned about their own cultures, traditions and history. Students from partner schools had the opportunity to learn that despite seemingly very different cultures and traditions, more things unite than divide us. After each LTT we organised meetings with students and their families to disseminate its effects. After these meetings, the families were more aware of the benefits that our project and Erasmus+ projects bring to the participants. Articles were published in the local press to raise awareness of our project and its impact within the local community. We also disseminated the aims and results of the project at meetings attended by teachers from neighbouring schools. All participating schools prepared "Erasmus+ Corners", presenting information about the project and the Erasmus+ programme to all visitors and school community. The schools have also made roll-ups and banners that hang outside and attract the attention of passers-by.