Green Tourism Education: Innovative way to Develop Rural Areas Erasmus Project

Project Title

Green Tourism Education: Innovative way to Develop Rural Areas

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 vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

GREEN TOUR is a European project implemented within Erasmus+ Programme, funded by the Hungarian National Agency. It’s main objective was to transfer an innovative training approach and the respective tools developed by “NATUR”. The project started in 2016 and finished in 2019.
This project supports the expansion of knowledge and sets an example for other tourism sectors. We believe that practice-oriented blended-learning method is the best way to promote ecotourism in EU countries.
Some of the project’s goals are:
– Developing a training material that helps anyone interested in green tourism to gain the skills and competences needed in the sector.
•Using various marketing tools to distribute informaiton about green tourism.
•Raising awareness and cooperation on relevant stakeholders about tourism potential of their regions.
•Promoting the cooperation between local entrepreneurs, companies, municipalities, manufacturers and the maintainer of ecotourism attractions and National Parks.
The Ecocenter Benefit Foundation, links education, culture and protection of the environment. The aim of the Foundation is to provide schools and organizations with a range of education and training that can be used in theory and practice. In addition, the Foundation regularly organizes events, forums, health screening programs, thematic days for local residents,to reach their main goal.
Szent István University is one of the most significant institutions of higher education in Hungary, having eight faculties and 14,000 students. The university provides education in various scientific fields, from agricultural science, through environmental, economic, mechanical, food science to horticulture and architecture.
In Bulgaria, the modern consultancy firm European Center for Quality, OOD, was founded in 2001. The company is working on two areas: development of EU programs, as well as international quality management standards for the development and implementation.
LUISS Guido Carli is a university that through its affiliation with Confindustria, is engaged in advanced educational and research activities. LUISS offers degree, masters and PHD programs, many of which are held in English.
AidLearn, a training and study company in Portugal, deals with studies and projects. AidLearn is a service’s private organisation that operates at national and EU level. It aims for contributing to a better qualification of Portuguese HR by building up a learning organisation concerned with the equality of opportunities, providing quality and innovative services targeted to actual needs of organisations and individuals, and by internally developing a strong commitment and team working.
In the first intellectual output, partners except AidLearn disseminated surveys and researched topics from which ECQ compiled a comparative Report with the main conclusion regarding green tourism and sustainability. A comparative analysis of educational differences in green tourism has been one of the goals. In addition, the legal framework for the three countries and also a literature review of the sources, for the course developed in the following IOs.
In the second intellectual product SZIU created the internal methodology for partners about the significance and common use of blended-learning method, and according to the platform the Project guide. The methodology contains the description of the Blended learning system, its benefits and components. It also includes the role of the tutors and the learners. The project guide is a kind of handbook with useful information for learners how to use the online platform. Partners created 20 questions/modules for Competence Validation Tool.
In the third intellectual product, LUISS was responsible for customize and integrate in the Moodle platform the GREEN Tour B-learning course, namely the eight modules, Lesson Structure, the Competence Validation Tool, Slides of module, Test and Case Studies. Partners except AidLearn created 8 modules, however the partnership thought that including the Portuguese language would be an add value for the project. Each module covers 36 hours of learning with distance learning included. After completing the modules, the participants will have to take a self evaluation test to assess what they have learned so far.
The fourth intellectual product is the thematic tour publication presented by the participating countries. By looking at the table of contents, you can easily adjust to the main parts of the publication. Each tour has a short description of the areas in the country where the tour could take place. Then an interview follows, where we get answers to many interesting questions, also broken down from country to country. The main objective of this output was to enhance good practices and show them as examples to can be followed by anyone interested in green tourism and sustainability.
The training course is a good motivational factor in the education of those employed in the tourism industry.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 194884,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ecocenter Alapítvány & Country: HU

Project Partners

• Aidlearn, Consultoria em Recursos Humanos Lda.
• LUISS LIBERA UNIVERSITA INTERNAZIONALE DEGLI STUDI SOCIALI GUIDO CARLI
• SZENT ISTVAN UNIVERSITY
• EUROPEAN CENTER FOR QUALITY OOD