Project Description

Statistics show that tourism has the potential to contribute towards employment and economic growth of rural areas as it represents the third largest socioeconomic activity in the European Union and is estimated to provide approximately 12% of all jobs. A study on the quality of rural tourism shows the key success factors are creative training and networking systems.

In addition to Spain and Bulgaria, in Latvia and Slovenia the tourist industries have identified the demand of Active Tourism services and have started to offer them, but with no qualified professionals to secure their quality.

This project intends to transfer an innovative, technology-enhanced and job-related Training Guide and Curriculum on Active Toursim as a new professional profile for European rural regions. The transfer will be essential for structuring the existing knowledge on the project topic and for meeting some of the employment needs in rural areas. We believe that this transfer of innovation will be useful and influential in several sectors like:

• - travel agencies, tour operators and related;
• - sports, amusement and recreation activities;
• - human health;
• - sports and recreation education;
• - cultural education, environmental protection, etc.

Expected outcomes:

• - skills map – graphic illustration of the major skills need to provide services in Active Toursim;
• - updated and improved Training Guide and Curriculum;
• - web site and Web Learning Tool;
• - online database of stakeholders.