Digital Tourism had its fifth meeting online
Due to the pandemic situation Europe is facing, with several countries under Emergency Rule and/or lockdown, the project partners organised a virtual meeting to discuss and decide several issues related to the project.
At the event two participants from these organisations attended: EfVET – European Forum for Vocational Education and Training; INSIGNARE – Associação de Ensino e Formação; Stichting Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work. ACISO – Associação Empresarial Ourém-Fátima; CDEA; EGINA – European Grants International Academy SRL; Instituto Tecnico Economico F. Scarpellini (ITES) with one participant.
Project Manager from the Partner Coordinator INSIGNARE, Sérgio Fernandes, introduced the first issue related to WP 1 on Financial Management; it was then discussed whether to still keep the next meeting physical and postpone it to late April or June in order to prepare the WP 4 internships; or conclude that it is better to continue with the virtual ones, except for the final one in late September which is foreseen to be held in San Sebastian. All partners decided for the latter and, as for the September’s meeting, it will be decided in the beginning of that month if it is possible to travel to the Basque Country.
The three partner schools discussed then the WP 3 underlighting that all deliverables would be sent to these schools’ Validating Authorities until March 31st, and that it is vital to have a formal document which states that those Authorities have received them.
An additional remark was made by Pieter van Schie, from DFIW2W, who mentioned that a Dutch school contacted him, after the online event “Digital Tourism: Current and Future Skills” held on February 4th, saying they were interested in the course. This is a positive impact from that event, and he pointed out that it will also be very interesting to have a school from The Netherlands to adapt it to the Dutch framework, so he would help them with that work.
For WP 4, Pieter van Schie presented the detailed documentation designed for the internships in Digital Tourism organisations. These documents are divided in three major groups, for the most relevant moments of the work-based learning, which will be performed by the three partner schools: Italy in July, Portugal, and Spain in May. All schools will organise these periods with these documents, which will be sent, after the conclusion, to DFIW2W, so that the final report of WP4 can be written. Therefore, CDEA, INSIGNARE and ITES will analyse and adapt them to their national requirements.
As for WP 5, Valentina Brilli, from EGINA presented the report for the external evaluation of the Digital Tourism course training content. The results provide positive insights, even if some are not feasible, as the course level is IV / V, and those recommendations are targeted to level VI – Higher Education courses. However, the number of answers was below the expected number. All partners mentioned that they had huge difficulties to contact the stakeholders, because due to the pandemic more than 90% of Hospitality organisations are closed in all countries.
Concerning WP 6, Sérgio Fernandes presented a calendar for “Tourism Talks”, a series of short events to be organised and broadcasted through Digital Tourism Qualification Forum. These events need to be further planned, even though it was discussed to organise one event per month also after the end of the project and, hopefully these “Tourism Talks” will start soon. The next meeting will be held in April 2021.