- 06-06-2024 09:30
- Velizar Petrov
A concept
for smart tourism solutions and education for adults offers Smart Tourism
Skills (SMARTOUR). The Bulgarian partner in the project is the Regional
Development Agency with a Business Support Center for Small and Medium-sized
Enterprises (RDA BSC SME). Smart (intelligent) tourism not only provides
information to tourists, but also includes all services for them. It is the
connectivity and mobility of tourists, moving them from one attraction to
another, creating memorable experiences for them in the relevant place.
"The main
aspect in its development is the integration of information and communication
technologies into the physical infrastructure. This will satisfy the end user
much more." This was said by the Executive Director of RDA BSC SME engineer-manager Velizar Petrov to a packed hall in the city of Linz (Austria) during
the "Learning, Teaching and Training Activities/Development Seminar of
Smart Tourism Skills #2" – 05 June 2024. He added that SMARTOUR's goal is
to meet the needs of creating smart tourism solutions in European cities by and
for tourism entrepreneurs. Smart tourism is presented as a concept that
actively connects tourist sites (natural attractions, historical monuments,
cities, etc.) with best practices in areas such as accessibility,
sustainability, digitalization, cultural heritage and creativity, marketing,
and cooperation.
What, to whom and how we
communicate is essential for the smart tourist destination. The training module
includes a theoretical part, presentation of examples and good practices on the
relevant topic, discussions after each part of the content. Tests and
information on additional sources have been developed.
The aim is at the end of the
training to increase the knowledge, skills and competences of the trainees
regarding the quadruple helix and stakeholders in the field of smart tourism;
about possible collaborations between them; on destination marketing and
territorial marketing; about the principles of successful tourism marketing;
for tools that can be used in tourism collaboration and marketing, including
smart tourism, such as social networks, brand management, reputation, image,
storytelling and others.
"For
me, an outstanding added value of this training course is the use of examples
and good practices from the project partner countries, which seem less known to
the general public. We are planning the creation of curricula and educational
methods, as well as the development of educational materials" – added the executive director of RDA BSC SME engineer-manager Velizar Petrov.
The second training component for testing developed
online training modules under the project Smart Tourism Skills (SMARTOUR) took
place from 4-6 June 2024 in the city of Linz, Austria. The project partners are
from Austria, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Serbia and are working
on new curricula, educational methods and teaching materials in an online
platform based on Moodle.
Engineer-manager Velizar Petrov and project activity
expert eng. Alexander Tonkov presented a marketing and cooperation module.
Professors from the University of Agribusiness and Regional Development (UARD)
also participated – prof. Dr. Zlatka Grigorova and Prof. Dr. Plamen
Lakov.
Duration of the
project is 24 months.
You can read detailed
information about it on the websites:
https://rda-bg.org/index.php/projects/smartour
https://smartourism.solutions/
#
SMARTOUR