Guidelines and Training Programme for Corporate Social Responsibility in Tourism Developed by VET and HE Providers for Micro and Small Sized Enterprises Erasmus Project

Project Title

Guidelines and Training Programme for Corporate Social Responsibility in Tourism Developed by VET and HE Providers for Micro and Small Sized Enterprises

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 addressing more than one field

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Environment and climate change; Research and innovation

Project Summary

Tourism is the third largest economic activity in the EU and the sector continues to grow. Although tourism has a broadly positive impact on economic growth and employment, it is also a resource-intensive industry that leaves a large footprint on the environment and it can also threaten cultural heritage and local food production.

Therefore, sustainable tourism and CSR in the tourism industry are intensively promoted by political decision makers as well as by an increasing number of customers and guests. In this context, sustainability and CSR have become standard elements of all good quality training at the VET and HE level within the last 10 years. Also large tourism chains and global operating service providers usually apply CSR standards.

However, one target group has so far had very little contact with the concepts, philosophy, methods and instruments of sustainability and CSR in tourism: micro and small to medium enterprises (SME’s). Their managers usually have no access to information about CSR and CSR concepts, to date, have not been tailor-made for SME’s. The trouble is that 95% of companies in the tourism sector employ fewer than 10 people. This brings us to the situation that the vast majority of tourism providers in Europe have not even heard of CSR, let alone apply it.

In order to overcome this situation, the project group has developed three main intellectual outputs, all arw available for download on the Fair Tourism website; www.fairtourism.eu and the dissemination platform:

1.) Implementation of a European survey to obtain a clear picture of the extent to which CSR is known in the tourism industry, especially within SME’s. The survey has been implemented all over Europe and has investigated issues such as general knowledge about CSR standards, the prestige of CSR with tourism managers, fields of interest, demand and needs. Results and outcomes of the survey have been evaluated, analysed and published in a survey report.

2.) Based on these outcomes the Fair Tourism training course has been developed, tailor-made to the needs, interests and demands of the main target group. It covers 6 modules; CSR in general, human resources and labour conditions; CSR related innovation and entrepreneurship for tourism SME’s; CSR issues in supply and service chains in a fair-trade tourism approach; sustainable accessible, food and rural tourism; public policies and labelling in tourism sector; customer services / intercultural competences. The training course, is based on the requirements and standards of ECVET and EQF, and it allows for accreditation of prior learning experience.

3.) Finally, we published the policy paper, which summarises experiences and outcomes from the project activities, and provides deductions for Europe’s VET/HE policy, labour market as well as its regional, economic and ecological development. It has also introduces benchmarks to be reached within the next five years at the local, regional, national and European levels and provides a list of requests to political stakeholder and policy makers concerning what will be needed for promoting and fostering successfully CSR within tourism SME’s.

Through our project activities we wanted to achieve direct and indirect impact both in the short term as well as in the long term.
The European survey provided, for the first time, an insight into the status quo of CSR knowledge and acceptance within Europe`s tourism SME’s and it contains their demands and needs concerning this issue. By this, we have provided a reliable and valid basis for any future decisions and actions taken for improving the situation.

The Fair Tourism training course allows VET and HE providers to offer tailor-made CSR training to managers of tourism SME’s. One year after the projects has ended, 50 VET and HE providers should offer this course to approximately 500 managers all over Europe.

The Fair Tourism policy paper has given all political decision makers clear guidelines and recommendations as to what needs to be done next to overcome the lack of CSR standards in Europe’s largest sector of the tourism industry.

All project activities are embedded in a wide range of evaluation and dissemination activities.

The partnership contained eight organisations in total; five of them are VET or HE providers specialised in the fields CSR in tourism as well as in tourism management; one is an association of tourism service providers, one is a service provider for tourism enterprises and one is the largest European network for the dissemination of European project results. They have all the skills, experience, and resources needed for implementing this project successfully. Representing the UK, DE, AT, BE, LT, LV, RO and FR the partnership will ensure an appropriate European dimension as well as a fine split between larger and smaller countries with differently developed tourism industry. They all have strong relations to their local tourism industry and to political deci

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 280284,55 Eur

Project Coordinator

Grwp Llandrillo Menai & Country: UK

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITE DE CORSE PASCAL PAOLI
• KLAIPEDOS UNIVERSITETAS
• ACADEMIA DE STUDII ECONOMICE DIN BUCURESTI
• LIVING STONE DIALOOG, VIAVIA TOURISM ACADEMY
• ERNST-MORITZ-ARNDT-UNIVERSITÄT GREIFSWALD
• LATVIJAS LAUKU TURISMA ASOCIACIJA LAUKU CELOTAJS
• E.N.T.E.R. GMBH