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Abstract

While sustainable tourism practices have long been acknowledged for their potential to reduce negative impacts and enhance positive outcomes, their effectiveness is often hindered by several challenges. These include a considerable gap in skills and inadequate collaboration between practitioners and educators. To meet these pressing challenges, it is essential to strengthen awareness, enhance collaboration between industry and educators, and develop the critical skills needed to champion responsible and sustainable tourism in European regions. As the principles of sustainability advocate for equitable management of tourism destinations combined with the upward growth in tourism activity in Europe post pandemic, there is an urgent need for a concerted effort to expand the adoption of sustainable tourism destination management. Specialised education programmes can play a crucial role in developing practical skills and fostering networks that help address the challenges and complexities involved in advancing and innovating sustainable tourism practices across destinations. The WeNaTour Erasmus+ project (The European Alliance for Innovation and Sustainability Education in Welfare, Nature and Tourism) responds to this call through the provision of a dedicated programme designed to empower tourism practitioners and educators to develop innovative approaches to more sustainable and responsible tourism futures. This paper presents the findings of an online questionnaire administered to tourism destination managers, employees, and students across the project’s five partner countries. The results informed a comprehensive Training Needs Analysis (TNA), which subsequently guided the development of the project’s training and networking initiatives. The TNA revealed there is a compelling need for a combination of traditional 'soft' skills such as communication and relationship building, alongside industry-specific skills, including sustainable destination management tools and project management. The findings underscore the significance of ongoing development of tailored sustainable destination management programmes that align to the diverse needs of tourism destination stakeholders.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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