The Tourism Research Innovation And Next Generation Learning Experience (TRIANGLE) Programme is a response to a wide range of contemporary sustainability challenges and opportunities highlighted in the global SD Goals 2030 such as climate change and biodiversity loss facing European tourism stakeholders, in particular the need for sustainable consumption and production in the Europe’s Natura 2000 network, The project aims to build a European-wide knowledge alliance that will link research and higher education bodies to tourism sector SMEs through regional sustainability knowledge –based innovation training processes in European tourism protected area destinations. It will simplify and improve the way higher education and training institutions work with tourism SMEs to implement innovations that will improve environmental impacts, cut costs and speed up learning processes to enable TRIANGLE users to better compete in the global tourism market. The TRIANGLE outputs from the project include: 1. A European Sustainable Tourism Research and Monitoring Higher Education & Business Network focused on Europe’s protected areas 2. A collaborative tourism sustainability knowledge engine for specialist IT Applications production 3. European-wide Tourism Sustainable Development Open Educational Resource Kit 4. Placement and Internship system for up to 32 students per annum 5. An Interactive European Graduate Study Book on Sustainable Tourism Development 6. An online collaborative training room for partner organisations course delivery 7. Project dissemination material and events programme The programme will use key innovation and tourism business fairs to showcase and disseminate the results of its work to SMEs and destinations in other European countries, cementing the longevity and outreach of the programme in a European-wide country-based network of training institutes by 2019.
The Tourism Research Innovation And Next Generation Learning Experience (TRIANGLE) Project (November 2016 – October 2019), had the objective of establishing a European-wide knowledge alliance of Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) to link research and higher education bodies to tourism sector SMEs through the creation of a common knowledge development and training process. In this 3 year time frame, a European wide knowledge alliance of over 22 HEIs in 18 countries has been established to date, along with other key deliverables that were designed to bring European added value to the work of the member state HEIs and their business networks. As its central objective, the Alliance has developed the Tourism 2030 Knowledge Base into an online, HEI supported, collaborative learning delivery system to address tourism sustainability challenges and opportunities identified at the global and European level, including: Climate change, biodiversity loss facing European tourism stakeholders, the need for sustainable consumption and production in tourism destinations in or near protected areas, and the changing training and education skills required by the fast-moving global tourism market-place with its multi-sector SMEs and diverse destinations. This sustainable development of tourism-focused Collaborative Content Management & Database System and its user-designed information tools developed by the project partners has enabled the HEIs to work in collaborative European-wide process to develop and implement national and international next-generation learning experiences. The TRIANGLE ICT innovation-driven sustainability learning environment consists of online and in situ formal and informal courses, an internships system as well as mentoring and network experiences. It has engaged students and tourism SME training institutes to promote sustainability innovations based on product and service certification with the aim of improving their environmental impacts, cutting costs and building Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) maps and supply chains. A body of pilot students has been trained to have the gain basic sustainable tourism auditing competences based on global industry criterial. As a result the project has accelerated and improved in-country sustainable tourism learning processes to enable to the HEIs, the SMEs and students to use their European connectivity to better compete in the global tourism market-place, and ensure they act in a sustainable and responsible manner. At the conclusion of the project the Higher Education Institutes at the core of the process have implemented their program calendar targets with regard to the knowledge base development, the graduate course development and intern programme and the mapping of tourism SMEs in the Going Green process. A post-project continuation structure has been elaborated and agreed so that the partners can do more work to target and then link up with tourism SMEs to implement the project innovations designed to help SMEs improve sustainability learning processes in the future, to establish better links to protected areas, and to contribute to the European implementation effort towards the SDG goals 8, 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the UN Agenda 2030.