The City of Helsinki was founded in 1550 and became the capital of Finland in 1812. Today, it is the country’s most popular tourist destination. In 2023, the city registered more than 4 million overnight stays with approximately 57% of visitors being domestic and 43% coming from abroad.
The Diversity Charters, initiated by the European Commission in 2010, aim to promote workplace equality across the EU. The Diversity Charter Greece (DCG) is implemented by two organisations: the Cell of Alternative Youth Activities (KEAN) and the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion. KEAN, established in 2004, focuses on advancing universal human values, peace, prosperity, and environmental protection. The Institute, founded in 2019, was created to support the DCG by coordinating all diversity-related initiatives.
The Lapland Education Center (REDU) is the largest vocational education provider in Lapland and is part of the Rovaniemi Municipal Federation of Education. REDU offers a wide selection of training programs to 5,000 students across six locations.
On the 9th of June, the NTG Alliance hosts the final online conference ‘The Next Tourism Generation: The transition of green, digital and social skills development’. This conference will be divided into four main modules; collaborative framework on skills development and the NTG Blueprint, innovation in Education, Skills Training, and curriculum development, assessing skills gaps and future skills needs in tourism and the road ahead on skills in tourism – Pact for Skills and PANTOUR.
In this Blog, key NTG partner, TU Dublin, School of Hospitality Management and Tourism, explores accessibility, inclusion, best practice and skill requirements in tourism destinations. Paudie Healy, CEO of Universal Access Ireland, shares his insights and experiences of best practices in the sector.
Sandra Bertholet (43 years old, born and living in Luxembourg) has been working in tourism and hospitality since 2001. After graduating from the Hotel management school in Diekirch, Luxembourg (in 1997) with a diploma as “Hôtelier- Restaurateur” and several traineeships in Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria she continued her studies in Krems / Donau in Austria at the International Management Center (IMC Krems) with a master degree in Tourism Management and Leisure Time economics; specialization topic: “Sustainable tourism development in rural areas”
Her global vision of the tourism planning, having worked at a senior level in the private and public sector, as well as -being closely involved with the associative network follows.
There has been a lot of disruption for the tourism industry because of the coronavirus pandemic. Before the first lockdowns many places were struggling with over-tourism, however, the opposite is now true. Other changes within the tourism industry shows that trends emerging before have accelerated drastically as a result of the consequences of COVID-19. From this, the Next Tourism Generation Alliance can see that a lot has changed and will continue to change. The industry must adapt to how people are now behaving in the market, which means that new digital, green and socio-cultural skills will become in demand as it becomes more obvious how destination management has changed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Agnė Vaitkuvienė is the President of the Lithuanian Countryside Tourism Association, the owner and manager of the homestead “Provansalis”, and a lecturer at Vilnius University. She has been teaching at Vilnius University since 2006, in the courses – Interpretation and Communication of Cultural Heritage, Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Lithuania and Cultural Heritage and Tourism. She therefore combines “the best of two worlds”: practical experience as a small rural tourism entrepreneur, and at the same time a profound understanding and vision about the importance of training and skills development in this sector.
