This research analyses the current self-reported level of proficiency of environmental skills, the required future level of proficiency, and the gaps between them. Given the increasingly urgent need for the tourism industry to take action to support environmental management practices, this research provides evidence of key environmental skill gaps. Mixed methods research is applied where the sample includes 1404 respondents to a questionnaire and 264 interviewees from senior management of organisations from five tourism sectors (accommodation establishments, food and beverage outlets, destination management organisations, tour operators and travel agents, visitor attractions) in eight European countries. Analysis of variance, t-tests, correlation and cluster analyses, and Pearson Chi-square tests were employed for data analysis. The findings revealed that the country of registration, the size and the tourism sector type influence significantly the current and future proficiency levels of environmental skills, and the gaps between them. Most respondents did not receive environmental skills training. Theoretical, managerial and policy implications are also discussed.
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The Next Tourism Generation Alliance (NTG) is the first European partnership for building and improving a collaborative relationship between education and industry with regard to skills development in the fields of digital, green, and social skills. The NTG Alliance will provide employees, employers, entrepreneurs, teachers, trainers and students with a set of core modules in digital, green and social skills.Project Scope:a) To establish a Blueprint Strategy for Sectoral Skills Development in Tourism to respond to the fast changing and increasing skills gaps in digital, green and social skills sets.b) To define a scalable mechanism and model for sustainable and digital curricula between the industry and education providers at regional, national and European level.c) To create transformative cooperation in five key tourism sub-sectors: hospitality, food and beverage operations, travel agencies and tour operators, visitor attractions and destination management.d) To develop, deliver and test Next Tourism Generation (NTG) Skills Products for professionals, trainers, students, university tourism departments, local authorities, companies to respond to the fast changing and increasing skills gaps in digital, green and social skills sets
The PANTOUR consortium builds on previous knowledge and tools produced by the Blueprint for Sectoral Skills project/NTG Alliance and will develop new tools and methodology to address strategic and sustainable approaches and cooperation between vocational education, training, higher education, enterprises of the tourism sector, looking to boost innovation in Europe (in tourism, leisure and hospitality).Societal IssueThe aim of this project is to map and bridge the existing skills gaps in Green, Social and Digital skills of workforce in tourism, leisure and hospitality.Benefit to societyMaking lifelong learning and mobility a reality, developing innovative learning solutions and promoting inclusiveness and access to education. Promoting active citizenship, building equal opportunities and addressing gender equality, diversity and inclusiveness in targeted actions.The consortium aims especially at designing innovative and cooperative solutions to address skills needs in the tourism ecosystem, with the development of outputs such as: the Sectoral Skills Intelligence Monitor, the Tourism Skills Lab, Resource Books for Trainers, the implementation of the National Skills Groups, a Skills Strategy Plan for 2026-2036, among others. With the exploitation of its outputs, PANTOUR seeks to benefit job seekers, unemployed and employed workers from the industry, employers, SMEs and micro entrepreneurs, dedicating a special attention in reskilling and upskilling the workforce on future skills needs in digital, green and social skills.The number of people benefiting from this proposal will be over 10 million that work across the tourism and leisure sector in Europe.The consortium is a multi-disciplinary partnership which comprises 13 European partners: Industry Partners and Tourism Sector Representatives, Universities and Transnational partners. Project lead is CEHAT (Spain). The other partners are GESTLABOR (Spain), Turismo de Portugal (Portugal), Zangador Research Institute (Bulgaria), Technological University Dublin (Ireland), Federturismo Confindustria (Italy), VIMOSZ (Hungary), European Tourism Association ETOA (Transnational), Satakunta University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Ruraltour (Transnational), Landurlaub (Germany), University of the Aegan (Greece).
