Tourism is recognized as one of the most important economic sectors worldwide due to its huge potential in generating economic growth and jobs and in Europe supports 25 million jobs, directly and indirectly. It is also considered a relatively easy-entry sector for youth where they can keep learning and accumulating important working skills. However, tourism is evolving becoming more complex and requires higher levels of skills under the quest of the sharing and green economy. Circular Tourism and Accessible Tourism (CAT) are seen as two fast-growing and sustainable sectors, according to the recent EC Study on the Supply Side of Tourism Education and Training (2016), and CIRTOINNO research report (Interreg Europe, 2019). These two emerging segments are expected to create a competitive niche for disadvantaged regions pursuing sustainable development and tackling the lingering unemployment. Nevertheless, shortage in related VET training reported in various countries poses lamentable hurdles to their take-off and actions should be taken to increase the Training resources. OBJECTIVES Project InterCAT means to: - to identify and exchange the best training practices in 5 project's countries according to an evidence-based approach, to be compiled into a Glossary of Training Items for CAT - offer solutions to skills mismatches in CAT and shortage of labour in the sector - to adapt existing learning methods and materials with new evolved methods and realities in CAT, using a bespoke DIATool (Destination Image Analysis tool). ACTIVITIES & METHODOLOGY The project will focus on the exchanges and development of best practices in non-formal education skill-building for youths in order to successfully enter these emerging economic sectors. Project activities can be divided into three categories: 1) Desk/ Office Work: By doing desk research, each partner will obtain needed background knowledge on the situation of CAT in their country and at EU level; as well as constructing appropriate training contents 2) International Mobilities: 3 Transnational Meetings and 2 Learning Mobilities will allow all partners and participants to have a better reality-check and reliable access to knowledge of the CAT circumstances and skill requirements 3) Public Relations and Dissemination: These activities will ensure the delivery of developed results to reach the desired quality and amount of audience. RESULTS InterCAT shall produce 4 principal results: (1) 6-day Training Course for Staff and Trainers on CAT in Portugal: to exchange knowledge and experiences between VET trainers and educators in a peer-training manner (2) Glossary of Training Items for CAT for VET: a direct result of the Training course by introducing CAT's key concepts and working tools for VET training (3) 5-day Study visit in Spain: to help participants relate better what learnt through the training with realistic examples in CAT (4) A Destination Image Analysis Tool - DIATool: in form of an Observation Template, the Tool will be used, tested and finalized during the Study Visit in Spain. Participants to each Mobility is strictly reserved to project partners' staff and collaborators for ensuring capacity-building return on participating organizations. PARTICIPANTS The project targets three main groups: - TG1: Tourism training providers, including VET centres, academies, colleges and associations. - TG2: Tourism students, operative staff and managers - TG3: Local & European public authorities, stakeholding agencies and advocacy groups. IMPACT The most important is the impact on the primary beneficiaries: participating organizations, VET providers, tourism workers and businesses to get access to developed project materials and field experiences for constructing their global view on CAT and reinforcing professional networks. Any training institution (of VET/NFE nature) or tourism authority could use the best practices collected in the Training Glossary to improve their curriculum, and DIATool for self-analysis. This way, InterCAT can serve as a stimulus for further institutional investigations and policy development in this direction so as to accelerate CAT's rate of diffusion. In a larger scope, InterCAT contributes to UN's Sustainable Development Goal, EU’s Access City TITLE, League of Historical and Accessible Cities (LHAC), a Resource Efficient Europe (2011) and EU Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP). PARTNERSHIP The partnership presents an ample geographical distribution that will help to exploit different experiences and contexts and to disseminate project’s results all over Europe. Project consortium contains certified VET training institutions, university-business foundation and youth organizations from 5 European coastal countries: Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and Latvia. Such discrepancy in terms of geography, expertise and network is valuable for creating the project's diverse perspectives, methodological synergy, and obtaining ample public outreach.
InterCAT aimed to strengthen the core competencies of VET trainers, tourism students in vocational colleges or VET centres and hospitality operators when providing services to tourists with access needs as a result of capitalising on the few but existing VET training curricula and best practices over Europe. With InterCAT project we wanted to achieve the following objectives: - to identify and exchange the best training practices in Italy, Spain, Latvia, Greece and Portugal according to an evidence-based approach, to be compiled into a Glossary of Training Items for Circular and Accessible Tourism; - offer solutions to skills mismatches in Circular and Accessible Tourism and shortage of labour in the sector; - to adapt existing learning methods and materials with new evolved methods and realities in Circular and Accessible Tourism (CAT), using DIATool (Destination Image Analysis tool).
The project InterCAT - INternational team for Circular and Accessible Tourism was conceived from the applicant’s local context, Tusa, a rural town in the central-north of Sicily struggling to find its development niche to grow sustainably and reverse the chronic depopulation phenomenon over the last two decades. Looking further, the problem of town abandonment happens not only in Tusa, but reportedly a prevalent trend from north to south in Italy). At the same time, in Europe many countries fall into the list of "fastest shrinking countries", especially those in the eastern part (Latvia) but without excluding the western ones (Portugal, Greece and Spain). Europe has always been a major player in the global tourism map, but tourism is becoming more complex and requires higher levels of skills and is faced with challenges because of the changes in global trends and increasing competition with non-European countries (e.g. Asia and North America). In order to enhance the attractiveness of European destinations, it is necessary to increase the number of highly educated operators and experts in the sector and being the "early birds" in embracing emergent tourism segments, such as Circular and Accessible Tourism for long-lasting growth.