International projects
Recovery Tourism after Natural disaster
Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
7.02.00 |
Interdisciplinary research |
Interdisciplinary research |
|
Code |
Science |
Field |
S230 |
Social sciences |
Social geography |
Natural disaster, recovery, tourism
Organisations (2)
, Researchers (5)
3045 University of Maribor, Faculty of Tourism
6007 Chamber of Commerce and Industry od Slovenia
Abstract
“Retourn” is an Erasmus+ Key Action 2 (KA2) – »Cooperation partnerships in higher education« program. The duration of the project was 30 months, starting on the 1st of November 2021. The topic of the “Retourn” (“REcovery TOURrism after Natural disaster”) project is natural disasters in the context of tourism, specifically recuperation from them. Tourism is a hugely important sector in the EU economy, yet it has proven to be extremely fragile when faced with unforeseen disastrous situations (the current epidemic is proof of that). The tourism industry should be better prepared to deal with such events. However, there was a critical gap in knowledge regarding risk management and the recovery after damage resulting from natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and nonetheless pandemics such as the one caused by COVID-19. Such events can have a serious impact on tourism and tourism providers need to be equipped with adequate knowledge and skills to overcome them. This is where the “Retourn” project comes in. It modernized the education and training of future experts who have knowledge of tourism disaster management. They fill the position of the “Tourism Recovery Expert” that was developed in this project. The interested parties for this project include professionals who operate in the tourism sector or who lead companies and associations in tourism, such as tour operators and managers, tour guides, and tour leaders. The opportunity for training is given to graduates in economic-tourism disciplines, who often lack adequate training to best meet the needs of their communities during recovery from a natural disaster. The program is also aimed at individuals who are currently unemployed and who will be given new skills and knowledge that will enable them to have higher success in the job market. Opportunities aer be given to those that have lost their occupation after the occurrence of natural disasters. The project’s goal was thus the creation of the competence framework for the Tourism Recovery Expert, however, the project will also bring other long-term benefits, such as the creation of new links between training institutions and the tourism sector, creating new job opportunities through training in areas affected by natural disasters, helping tourism businesses to cope during the recovery period, raising awareness of the importance of the impact of natural disasters and the importance of disaster prevention, and encouraging greater use of risk management plans in the tourism sector.