Tendecy to rural tourism as an alternative tourism is increasing in Turkey as well as in Europe. According to the estimates, the share of rural tourism in total tourism revenues in Europe is around 15% and shows a continuous increase. Important rural tourism activities are carried out Europe-wide. Small and medium sized hotels, restaurants, village houses etc. are active in the rural tourism sector especially in the form of family-run businesses. In addition to structural deficiencies, there is a significant lack of trained human resources in this sector. In the direction of the principles of Erasmus+ Program, it is necessary to provide training opportunities for the people working in rural tourism sector in order to gain new skills, to strengthen their personal development and to increase employment opportunities. The main goal of the RURALTOUR project is to contribute to the sustainable rural tourism targets at the European level by developing the skills of business owners, managers, employees, VET students and potential entrepreneurs in the rural tourism sector through an innovative and easily accessible training method. In order to contribute to this goal, preparation of rural tourism sector report, training material, e-learning program, set of good practices, e-learning program mobile applications and various training activities will be carried out for the stakeholders in the rural tourism sector. 8 organizations with different backgrounds from 6 European countries will set up a strong partnership to achieve the objectives of the RURALTOUR Project. With the qualified partnership structure to be established, a training environment will be developed that provides distance education opportunities with innovative methods for the training of the business owners, managers and employees who work in the rural tourism sector and the people who plan to invest in this field and the students who receive vocational training on tourism. In this context, the following activities are planned. • Project management activities: These activities include administrative, legal and contractual responsibilities, budget management, website management, communication among partners, effective quality control of project activities, dissemination activities, transnational project meetings. • Activities for the development of intellectual outputs: The project is planned to produce 5 intellectual outputs with the active participation of all partners. • Learning/Teaching/Training Activities: A 5-day activity will be organized on the rural tourism in Spain for training and exchange of experince of the related staff of the partner institutions. • Multiplying activities: Following the development of all intellectual outputs, 8 muptiplier 2-day training activities for target groups in different level will be held in Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Spain and Turkey (2 events). In addition, an informative one-day conference with the participation of 100 tourism industry stakeholders from different provinces will be held in Turkey. Within the scope of the e-learning activities to be carried out in the project, a total of 24 staff will be provided a 5-day training in rural tourism in Almeria / Spain. Also within the scope of 7 multiplying training activities conducted in partner countries, 175 people from the target groups will get trained. In addition, 100 people from various tourism industry staholders will be informed.
Project partners’ territories in this project and other rural areas in Europe face the same problem: population is decreasing, low educational level and a need for new market opportunities. In European countries, small and medium sized hotels, restaurants, etc. are active in the rural tourism sector especially in the form of family-run businesses. Since the problems in the field of rural tourism in partner countries and Europe are similar, an transnational partnership has been established with the aim of bringing together the experience of each partner country and contributing to sustainable rural tourism at the European level. The main purpose of the project was defined as to contribute to the sustainable rural tourism targets at the European level by developing the skills of business owners, managers, employees, VET students, etc. in the rural tourism sector by an innovative and easily accessible training method. In order to contribute to this objective, preparation of rural tourism sector report, creation of training material and e-learning program, preparation of set of good practices, activation of e-learning program mobile App and organization of various trainings for the stakeholders in the sector were carried out.
Substantially rural tourism activities are carried out in Italy, Spain, Ireland, Turkey and also in the other parts of Europe. It is known that rural tourism is one of the most significant sectors for development and it has economic and sociocultural effects on rural development. In addition to structural and economical problems, there is a significant lack of trained human resources in the rural tourism sector. In order for the rural tourism sector to have a sustainable quality, it is necessary to change the perspective of the sector by developing human resources capacity at both businesses’ owner level and employees level. The most important argument to be used for this purpose is education and training. However, one of the most important deficiencies of the people working in rural areas is the difficulties they face in reaching training opportunities. Therfore, it is necessary to provide training for the people working in rural tourism sector in order to gain new skills, to strengthen their personal development and to increase employment opportunities. It was decided to carry out a project to meet the above-described needs in the rural tourism sector by making use of the supports within the scope of the Erasmus+ Program.