Odgovorni turist varuje raznolikost kultur, ljudi in okolja Erasmus Project

Project Title

Odgovorni turist varuje raznolikost kultur, ljudi in okolja

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Environment and climate change; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

In the project Responsible traveller values diversity of people, cultures and environments young people from 4 partner schools developed their entrepreneurial skills and social responsibility in the field of responsible travel. Responsible travel promotes awareness of tourists about their impact on the natural and cultural heritage destinations, as well as creates a positive impact on the local economy and increases the well-being of local communities. The promotion of responsible travel is a potential, which we wanted to increase in this project.

The implementation of the project on an international level had sense, because this way the participants learned about the diversity of people, cultures and environments. In terms of mobility among partner schools from Bulgaria, Czech, Lithuania and Slovenia, we developed and implemented a model of responsible travel. This was innovation in the school environment and it is important because the schools in their programs offer more and more mobility for young people. In this context, we found out that education for responsible travel should be included in the school field.

We cannot imagine effective implementation of the project without developing entrepreneurial skills among participants, those skills were developed through the preparation and implementation of travel programs in own local environment for guests from other partner schools. Participants experienced the role of a responsible traveller with participating in the travel programs.
The project involved four partner schools (Slovenia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Lithuania), approximatelly 60 students between the ages of 15 and 19 years and their coaches. The project lasted 28 months.

First activities in the project were learning about responsible travel and creating the 10 principles of responsible travel. Then we explored opportunities for the development of responsible travel in the local environment and prepared a travel program. The peaks of the project were short-term group exchanges of students, which implemented traveller programs according to the following 10 principles of responsible travel:

PLAN AND PREPARE: Do some research about the destination to learn more about it. Make a plan. Learn some local language in order to understand other cultures and people better. Have suitable equipment. FIND NEW HORISONS: You do not develop as a personality if you stay at home. You learn nothing if do not use your knowledge in practice. You may face many difficulties while travelling and it is great challenge to cope with them. RESPECT LOCAL CULTURE: Culture reflects the traditions, history and people of the country. Have an interest for the local way of life; behave according to the rules applied there. Although sometimes we may find things difficult to understand, we should always tolerate the culture of other countries. COOPERATE WITH LOCAL PEOPLE is another important thing nowadays when the global world around us makes the places and people similar in a way and only supporting locals while visiting new destinations can encourage cultural diversity and motivate them to promote their unique features which make our world colorful and full of diversity. Another principle is quite popular as most of us become more and more aware of the environment and we stress that again- to THINK ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT while travelling and it’s not only about not littering but much more than that: young people are educated not to use disposable containers and plastic bags, try to use eco-friendly transport and save water. One of the principles which helped young people to learn more about the traditions of new destinations was to focus on local products and souvenirs trying to SUPPORT THE LOCAL BUSINESSES. This way we promote local culture, cuisine, learn more about various crafts and learn to produce things ourselves. This is connected with being SELF-SUFFICIENT AND INDEPENDENT while travelling, which brings much more satisfaction, reduces your costs and gives you more time to explore the places and meet various people. If you do some research before and plan things properly, your trip will be easy and enjoyable as you will not depend on others. Still you should AVOID DANGER as travelling on your own in various unexpected circumstances may result in some difficulties but we should try to think rationally use common sense to avoid danger. Travelling in big or small groups is very common among young people and the spirit of a community should be anInevitable part of it as being PART OF THE TEAM makes your trip easier, more exciting and helps you to establish friendly relationship with people you share the same goal while travelling. Just abiding the principles, ourselves is not enough as we all need to RAISE AWARENES ABOUT RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL everywhere every time we travel or while planning our trips or holidays and this way we will leave our world a nice and interesting place to be for our future generations.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 117530 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gimnazija Franceta Preserna & Country: SI

Project Partners

• Gymnazium, Rumburk, Komenskeho 10, prispevkova organizace
• First Sofia Mathematical School LTD
• Vilniaus Jono Pauliaus II gimnazija