Sustain-T, a new virtual platform for SMB sustainable tourism talent

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

An international research team led by the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) has developed Sustain-T, a virtual learning platform in sustainable tourism, for the self-training of small and micro enterprises in the tourism sector in Europe.

Sustain-T is the result of the Erasmus + Sustain-T (Sustainable Tourism through Networking and Collaboration) project, led by the Tudistar and Grats research groups and in which institutions and companies from Spain, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria, United Kingdom have participated and Hungary.

“The objective of Sustain-T is to improve the sustainability performance of companies, through the sensitization of their managers in sustainable tourism practices. And encourage at the same time the improvement of their networking skills to establish new alliances and implement sustainability based on joint initiatives,” explained Gemma Cànoves, professor of the UAB Geography department and director of Tudistar.

Replace the lack of current training

Europe is a tourist destination worldwide. It represents a market share of 40% of the total, a figure that represents a high pressure on the natural and socio-cultural environment.

Despite the awareness initiatives to ensure sustainable management of destinations, companies and tourism products promoted by the European Union (EU), numerous reports show a lack of training in sustainable development of the sector's workforce.

It is also a sector where small and micro enterprises predominate, which often have a lack of resources to invest in sustainable practices or the training of their workers.

Sustain-T offers tools to replace this lack of resources in training and collaborative work, so that more and more small entrepreneurs are committed to the environment in their businesses, and gives visibility to those who have incorporated sustainable tourism practices and already They have proven their economic viability.

In addition to the owners and managers of small and micro enterprises, the platform is aimed at professional training providers and students interested in sustainable tourism.

The research team points out that the platform can be used by more than 25,000 tourism companies, training centers and academic institutions of the countries that have collaborated, highlighting that it is applicable to any European country.

Most of the materials are in the languages ​​of the countries of the partners participating in the project.

Training, audits and mapping ideas

The new platform includes several useful spaces for users. The main one is formed by educational material for self-learning, structured in different themes linked to the criteria of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC): economic, social, environmental and cultural sustainability.

Also included are cases of good tourism business practices from several European countries, Spain among them, and from different areas of the sector (hospitality, sports activities and restaurants, among others).

Sustain-T also contains tools to audit companies and to map resources and ideas that allow us to reflect on the current business situation, analyze the resources available to improve them and generate and share collective ideas.

For the realization of the platform, the research team has had the collaboration of more than 1,500 representatives of the project's target interest groups - tourism administration and management bodies, sector associations, professionals and networks, etc. - who have participated directly in organized activities and events, such as curriculum validation workshops, training launch seminars or national promotional conferences.

“The Sustain-T project is presented as a first step towards the most ambitious objective of providing a comprehensive tool for self-training in terms of sustainability in the field of tourism in Europe. The promotion of sustainability initiatives in companies in the sector will bring Europe closer to its final goal, which is to turn our continent into a sustainable destination ”, concludes Cànoves.

The platform will remain in force for at least the next five years.

The institutions, entities and companies that have carried out the Sustain-T project have been, in addition to the UAB, through Tudistar and Grats, the Luiss Guido Carli business school (Italy), AidLearn (Portugal), the European Center for Quality (Bulgaria), Total Innovation EU (United Kingdom), the Chamber of Commerce and Regional Industry of Csongrád (Hungary) and the Confederation of Tourism of Portugal.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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