DOCUMENTA is now implementing a new project, INMATOUR (European Manager of Innovation in Smart and Responsible Territories) financed by the Erasmus + program, which has been kicked-off through a first meeting with its partners in Santander, the city where the organization is located. The kick-off meeting has taken place 8th and 9th January.
The INMATOUR project will be implemented until August 2016 with the support of a consortium composed by several training& development organizations coming from 4 European countries: Rinova (UK), Folkuniversitetet (Sweden); MMC Management Center (Cyprus), and Lifelong Learning Research Institute (Greece), with the aim of creating a new training curriculum oriented to learn how to manage innovation at tourism destinations across Europe.
Innovation in the tourism industry is very important, as this sector is one of the most relevant economic areas in terms of GPD and territorial development for all the participating countries in this project. Innovation is also key to the ongoing process of economic, social and environmental restructuring the EU is now facing against the economic turndown, and together with knowledge, they help to promote higher levels of employment, social cohesion and environmental and economic sustainability.
The INMATOUR project is based on this idea. It plans the development of one training curriculum to promote innovation at the European tourism destinations, an online training tool and a European Community of Stakeholders on Tourism Innovation, which will serve to put in contact all the stakeholders and potential beneficiaries of the project in different countries, and exchange ideas and visions.
The end-users of this training will be both people who work in the management of tourist destinations (private companies and entrepreneurs, as well as people responsible and technical professionals of public administration), and also recent graduates seeking to specialize in this area (for instance, Graduates in Tourism, Business administration, etc.).
During the first project meeting, all partners had the opportunity to present their organizations. In addition, they shared opinions about the most relevant issues at the initial project stage: Explanation about the objectives and results of the project, estimated delivery dates of the intellectual products and dissemination events, partner´s sharing of tasks and responsibilities, presentation of the Evaluation and Dissemination approach, and finally, of the project, as well as the management of the project and financial aspects
More specifically, during the afternoon of the 8th January, the partnership discussed about the planning and elaboration of the first result of the project, the INMATOUR curriculum. DOCUMENTA proposed a model aimed at designing a standardized format of curriculum.
The curriculum will address the following Thematic Areas, each of them will be produced by one partner:
1. Creativity and talent in Tourism Destinations
2. Integration of Sustainability strategies in the existing tourism model
3. ICT tools used in designing, creation and promotion of touristic products
4. Social Participation and Good Governance in Tourism Destinations
5. Tourism industry and its contribution to Territorial Social Responsibility (TSR)
The next project meeting will be held on 17 and 18 September 2015 in Athens, Greece, where the partnership will be able to present the whole curriculum and training materials. Also the next steps of the project will be discussed, such as the elaboration of the following products and the organization of the first national dissemination events.
The project also plans a training activity in Cyprus where the contents and training tools will be transferred to professional trainers/teachers from the 5 participating countries.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
