The tourism sector is witnessing a constant change in its strategies and in the way it works. Nowadays it is mainly developed online and new digital skills are required to enter competitively the sector. Moreover, tourism has a huge potential to generate economic growth and create jobs, in fact, in Europe the sector supports 25 million jobs. Tourism can be a good opportunity to senior workers who want to re-enter the labour market. In fact, retirement is changing, and people are working past 65 years old and many seniors are still working or are planning to return to the workforce. Your Local Guide aims to increase the digital competences of more than 400 seniors with low digital skills willing to work as experts in tourism management and promotion and understand the business opportunities it brings. The project will produce new and innovative teaching and learning approaches that will be shaped thanks to all the best practices in the sector of the countries participating (Romania, Italy, Spain, Ireland and Bulgaria). The project activities and products will ensure a direct impact on more than 400 adults learners increasing their digital skills. A bigger impact on more than 500 travel agencies and ultimately on the European tourism sector is expected.
All the partners started the activities with the production of a report where are collected all the digital skills needed in tourism sector. The collection of the material is going to shape the training that will be divided in 4 different handbooks:
- Digital skills needed in tourism handbook;
- Implementing tourism destination management, strategies & best practice handbook;
- Promoting tourism destination handbook;
- Social media communities for tourism destination.
Right now all the partners are involved in the creation of these practical handbook that will form a training kit entitled “Expert in Tourism Destination”. Afterwards this training will be taught and presented to seniors, stakeholders and some small medium enterprises representatives from tourism in order to achieve the biggest audience possible and create a bigger impact in the countries involved in the project. Hopefully, thanks to a capillary dissemination program, the project results will affect the whole European community.
Starting from February 2020, the partners will cooperate for the creation of a last tool useful for seniors who wants to have a support guide in the learning process, put in practice what they learned. This tool will be a videogame named “Learn Tourism 4 All”. It will be an application that works as a gamified virtual assistant to the elderly during the learning process of how to promote and manage a tourist destination. The gamified interaction with the learning environment intend to improve motivation to accomplish the knowledge objectives and make the content absorption easier and funny. The videogame works on geo-referenced maps where the users’ location is a trigger to launch storytelling content and challenges based on geographical, artistic, religious, historical, cultural and human contents. The application intends to work as a companion that provides self-confidence, support and social integration to elderly learners. Starting from May 2021, it will be possible to participate in one of the multiplier events held in all partners’ countries and try first-hand the innovative videogame.