Responding to tourism market changes caused by C-19 and Green Deal through micro-credential-certified upskilling of SME tourism managers

Tourism is one of Europe's largest industries, providing income, leisure and well-being for many people, but it is also a major polluter, threatens natural and cultural heritage and causes many so...

• To carry out a multi-methodological survey at European level to obtain the latest data and information on whether and how the tourism industry has recovered from the C-19 restrictions and what lessons have been learnt, whether the Green Deal objectives are known among tourism SME managers and how they would like to learn about them (if at all), and how the European concept of micro-credentials will develop and how it can be applied to our course. • To develop a training course to provide SME managers in the tourism industry with the key knowledge and skills to best adapt their services to the Green Deal targets and changing customer needs. The course should be modular, flexible, hybrid and easily accessible. With regard to accreditation, a micro-credential system should be used for the first time. • To summarise all project results and experiences and to present expert opinions and other EU projects on green tourism and micro-credentials to policy makers and strategic stakeholders; from a grassroots perspective, suggestions and recommendations will be given on which frameworks, incentives and funding programmes should be used to promote and support the Green Deal and micro-credentials from the policy side.

• In a triangulative approach, we conducted 3 surveys; an online survey asked 339 SMEs/tourism service providers about their views, standards and attitudes towards green tourism and how they would like to be trained on these issues. In semi-structured interviews, 10 experts in green tourism and 10 experts in micro-credentials told us about the state of the art in their fields and how they could be integrated into the project. • Based on these results, we developed a 60 hours CREDinCREEN training programme, divided into 20 modules of 3 hours each. Representatives from all partners were trained in the delivery of the programme in a transnational LTTA, and knowledge and skills were transferred to more trainers at national level. The programme was tested on 100 learners before being revised and finalised. • We invited 100 experts and EU projects on green tourism and micro-credentials policy to write a key note on their work for our policy paper, of which 51 provided us with insights, latest developments and lessons learned on these issues from across Europe. • Around 900 target group and stakeholder representatives were involved in the project and we reached more than 100,000 people through more than 400 dissemination activities.

• Publication of the 180-page survey report 'Recovering after Covid-19 and meeting the challenges of the European Green Deal for futureproofing tourism SMEs'. It provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the recovery of the tourism industry after Covid-19, the acceptance of green tourism among SMEs, the development of micro-credit policies in the partner countries and their relevance for further project outcomes. • Development of a 60 hour training programme consisting of 20 units (in fact, enough material has been developed and collected that the training could be doubled in size) and the creation of 20 tutorials; in general, the training can be fully delivered through webinars and has been partially tested in this way. We also developed a micro-credential strategy with 10 paragraphs and a master form for a MC certificate. • Published the 123-page policy paper 'Next stop: final destination? How education can help tourism achieve the European Green Deal goals - with a special feature on micro-credentials in EU education policy' (digital and print, ISBN 978-3-200-09667-7). It contains 42 articles, key notes and 22 EU project presentations by 51 different authors. The publication has been widely distributed, including at the world's largest tourism fair ITB Berlin 2024 and to the European Parliament's Environment, Regional Development, Transport & Tourism and Culture Committees. • All project outputs and products are available at www.credingreen.com