TOURIST – Competence Centres for the Development of Sustainable Tourism and Innovative Financial Management Strategies

Definition of Sustainable Tourism for TOURIST

General Information

The tourism industry in Thailand and Vietnam are among the fastest growing in the world and is the employer of a large number of locals. In order to preserve the benefits gained from tourism for the future it is important to protect the natural resources, the environment and the people. The concept of sustainable tourism when applied accurately, can support the tourism industry to grow further in a sustainable way. The concept itself is rather new to higher education institutions in Thailand and Vietnam and therefore it is essential to increase awareness and understanding of sustainable tourism. This will be done with expert trainings and the introduction of seven competence centres for sustainable tourism and innovative financial management strategies at Thai and Vietnamese higher education institutions.

Through expert training, academic staff, students and companies will receive upgraded knowledge on sustainable tourism and innovative financial management strategies to reach the following aims:

• to spread knowledge of sustainable tourism during the planned counselling sessions within the competence centres,
• to increase the number of projects on sustainable tourism and,
• to make sure that these projects will be funded by innovative financial management strategies to generate a long-term growth of sustainable tourism in Thailand and Vietnam

To expand the generated knowledge in the project, a network for sustainable tourism and innovative financial management strategies will be established. Furthermore, through the intensive cooperation with companies, associations and governmental bodies throughout the TOURIST project, the university-business cooperation will be improved.

Main Objectives of the TOURIST Project

• Capacity building of experts on sustainable tourism and innovative financial management strategies at HEIs in Thailand and Vietnam
• Implementation of seven competence centres at partner HEIs to increase awareness and expertise of sustainable tourism and innovative financial management strategies measures
• Foster university-business cooperation through the TOURIST competence centres and network
• Increase of employability of students due to upgraded knowledge on sustainable tourism
• Current status analysis of the industry and identification of efforts in sustainable tourism in Thailand, Vietnam and the European partner countries and the identification of gaps/necessities in each participating region
• Creation of a nationwide and international network with target groups from the tourism industry and from financial management to increase impacts of sustainability in tourism

Main Target Groups of the TOURIST Project

The main target groups within the TOURIST project are as following:

• HEIs leaders and managers of the areas of sustainable tourism and innovative financial management
• Academic staff focusing on sustainable tourism and innovative financial management
• Students and student associations studying tourism programmes and aiming to change tourism perceptions in the participating countries
• Companies operating in tourism
• Tourism associations and political partners

Main Outputs of the TOURIST Project

TOURIST capacity building trainings: Building up know-how within the seven HEIs in Thailand and Vietnam on sustainable tourism and innovative financial management strategies during 4 trainings in Thailand and Vietnam to improve capacities for more initiatives on the topics.

TOURIST network and knowledge transfer platform: Establishing a network which aims for international exchange on the topics of sustainable tourism and innovative FM strategies among all target groups of the project. Attached to the network also a knowledge transfer platform will be established aiming at sharing knowledge among the members of the network on the project´s core topics and to spread the existence of the competence centres as expertise hubs.

“The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsi¬ble for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.” Project number: 585785-EPP-1-2017-1-AT-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP