The project is based on the idea of creating a new training course that will combine general economic knowledge with the specifics of the sectoral economy. During their studies in the field of tourism, students get acquainted with general principles and methods of financial management and business economics in basic courses. In the courses focused on tourism, they subsequently focus mainly on the operational specifics of tourism companies with only a marginal emphasis on the financial issues of business in tourism. The aim of the project is to combine the areas of tourism and financial management and to create a new holistic training course. The second impulse for the creation of the project was the current epidemiological situation, which emphasized the need for intensive use of modern technologies in teaching and pointed out the insufficient quantity and quality of available didactic materials in electronic form. The main goal of the project is to create an innovative didactic material with the support of modern information technologies, which combines general economic knowledge with the sectoral economy specifics. Other goals are to support the internationalization of the educational process within higher education and to fill the gap in the education in the tourism sector. The project involves three European universities (Prague University of Economics and Business, Technische Hochschule Deggensdorf, Universidad Europea de Madrid), which have extensive experience in teaching subjects in tourism, finance and business economics and in processing international projects. All partners have set up highly accomplished expert teams to work on the project. Representatives of partner universities consider the project to be very beneficial, as they perceive a gap in university curricula and study materials and are interested in using the created didactic material in their teaching. There is no comprehensive modern methodology on the topic Financial management specifics in tourism companies, which would mediate this issue to students with the use of digital technologies. The output of the project will be comprehensive modern didactic materials (course content and methodology (syllabus), online teaching course, methodological manuals for teachers and students). All outputs will be in English The main output is an online training course comprising of 12 lessons, which will include in each lesson: a digital presentation of the topic, an example, a video / audio interview (podcast) with an expert, a case study, a control test. The content of the course is divided into two parts: the first part contains the theoretical background of financial management (4 lessons) and the second part describes the financial management specifics in various types of tourism companies (restaurants, hotels, travel agencies, guide services, transport companies, destination management organizations, spa facilities, event companies). Experts from the industry will also collaborate on the output - in the form of consultations and podcasts. Other outputs will be accompanying materials to the online training course: methodological guidelines for students and teachers and course syllabus (course content and methodology). Methodical guidelines will be the basic support for teachers and students, they will contain methodological procedures, solving examples and case studies, expanding questions and tasks, recommended resources. The syllabus puts the course into study plans, defines the requirements for students, requirements for graduation, states the structure of the course and the recommended literature. All partners will participate equally in the processing of individual outputs; one partner university will always be responsible for the finalization and final form of each output. Each partner will work on all outputs simultaneously. Representatives of partner universities will meet regularly at semi-annual intervals (a total of 4 meetings), further communication will be online (e-mail, video calls). The main result of the project will be modern teaching material that will be available to students and teachers in the field of tourism free of charge online. The newly developed online training course can be used as a whole or only for selected topics. The training course will contain mainly timeless information. Due to the digital form, it will be easy to update, the update will be performed primarily by the project coordinator or the partner university under its direction. The sustainability of the project is estimated to be at least 5 years. The main group that benefits from the project results are students and teachers of partner universities. The project results will be available to other schools on the platform Erasmus+. Given the expected average number of students per year at the partner universities, it can be estimated that the project outputs will be used annually by 360 students in the field of tourism.
The main objective of the project was to create innovative didactic material with the support of modern information technologies in the course, which will connect general economic knowledge with the specifics of sectoral economics. The second objective was to support the internationalisation of the educational process within university education. The material produced is therefore in English and can be used in the teaching of university students in different countries. The third objective was to fill a gap in the education of students in the tourism sector, where little attention is usually paid to financial management in tourism enterprises in the Tourism degree programme. The outputs of the project, i.e. study material, syllabus and manuals for students and teachers, have the ambition to become the basis for the inclusion of a comprehensive specialised course "Financial Management in Tourism Enterprises" in the study programmes or can be used in parts in existing courses within the study programme.
The impulse for the creation of the project was the idea to create a new educational course, which will connect the general knowledge of financial management of enterprises with the specifics of the sectoral economy in the conditions of tourism. Courses focused on general business economics and financial management are usually encountered by university students right at the beginning of their studies. These basics are then followed by courses focused on specifics in tourism enterprises. Only marginal attention is focused on financial issues. Graduates of the field of tourism most often seek and find employment in sales and marketing activities, but the supply of positions in the field of tourism has shown the need to pay more attention to financial issues in the study programme. However, until now, there has been no comprehensive study material available to serve as a basis for students and teachers to study the specifics of financial management in tourism enterprises. Due to the development of new technologies and modern educational approaches, there is a need to create study material that can be used for online and face-to-face teaching of students or for self-study, e.g. for existing employees in CR enterprises.