European Sustainable Tourism Erasmus Project

Project Title

European Sustainable Tourism

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Transport and mobility; Environment and climate change; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

Open European borders in the Schengen Area, reduced fares for plane flights, the appeal of cruise ships – young people today grow up with an abundance of possibilities to travel Europe and the world. At the same time we are witnessing a young generation that cares about our planet and takes to the streets to demand action against climate change. Our project bridges both developments and focuses on sustainable tourism in the four participating schools’ regions. Teenagers between 14 and 16 years of age will investigate historical and modern developments of tourism in their home area and create a vision for sustainable tourism in Europe. The results of their work will be published in multilingual tourist guides, which do not just offer their information in the four project schools’ languages and English, but will furthermore provide QR codes which link to smartphone accessible additional information.
The four project schools are from tourist areas which face fundamentally different problems, obstacles and chances for sustainable tourism. This position enables us to compare our situations and thus visualise a greater picture and look beyond our own horizons. In this way we believe to be able to achieve lasting changes in the touristic behaviour of the project participants and impact our schools toward more sustainable ways of conducting school trips.
In every project school a group of around 25 students will meet on a weekly basis. They are tasked with researching, assessing and presenting adequate information in projects, independently and interdisciplinarily. Students will also plan their own school visits and trips to annual summer schools as a hands-on approach to bring theoretical knowledge of sustainable travel into practice.
During these visits and the summer schools project students will have to cooperate with their European partners in small groups. Since English will be the project’s language, this will further not only their intercultural, but also the students’ communication skills. Most of the time electronic means will have to be employed for communication, especially e-mail and the TwinSpace. This and the innovative use of QR codes for educational purposes will improve the ICT competences of the
students. Critical thinking, creativity, language skills, digital competence, tolerance, ecological consciousness, awareness of the EU’s impact on our lives and the European cultural heritage – all of these aspects included in the project are desirable skills in today’s and future European working environments. They are also essential abilites for EU citizenship and the means to shape a future of sustainable mobility.
The project’s results will be published for everyone interested on the Erasmus+ Results Platform. The tourist guides will be presented to the institutions supporting the project schools such as regional tourist offices and especially the University Gliwice and the University Rhein-Waal, which have kindly agreed to monitor the project and support teachers’ education and students’ workshops. We furthermore plan to present the tourist guides to our local city councils. They will contribute to the sustainability and distribution of the project’s result.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 131366 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gymnasium Rheinkamp Europaschule Moers & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Zespol Szkolno-Przedszkolny nr 12
• Institut de Navarcles
• Kuressaare Gümnaasium