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The importance of social and cross-cultural skills for tourism and hospitality

Social and cross-cultural skills, often called ‘soft skills’, are among the skills seen as most important for the tourism and hospitality workforce (Wilks & Hemsworth 2011, Sisson & Adams 2013, Weber et al 2009). These skills are highly appreciated by employers in the sector and are also transferable skills that could be easily adapted to different working environments. With the growth of AI and emerging discussions about the displacement of the workforce, social skills are regaining importance with the recognition that many workers in the future will need more complex problem-solving, adaptability and creativity skills. But how can we define these skills?

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Finland’s Leadership in Green Skills Development: Pioneering Sustainability in the Tourism Industry

Finland has a reputation as a leader in environmental policy and sustainable development. The country is highly committed to global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and has been ranked number one in an international comparison of sustainable development in 2021. It has also established itself as a trailblazer in promoting sustainability and green skills development within the tourism industry. With a commitment to preserving its clean nature and minimising environmental impact, Finland has implemented innovative strategies and initiatives that set a global benchmark.

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Robots, AI and the skills requirements of tourism and hospitality employees

In the recent months, ChatGPT has become a trendy word, and a lot of provocative and even dark forecasts flooded the media. The power of generative AI to create content on a particular topic seems frustrating for many people. The general fear is that the AI will substitute many jobs, thus causing a huge unemployment. On the other hand, AI could significantly enhance employees, especially in service industries like tourism and hospitality.

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Tourism and hospitality along the lines of sustainability by VIMOSZ

As a Pantour consortium member, VIMOSZ is currently involved in 4 projects with sustainability and socio-economic issues as common points. Three projects have the common goal of promoting sustainability. The WASTELESS and Plan’Eat projects focus on sustainability of the food ecosystem by reducing food waste and promoting healthy, sustainable eating habits. The TOURBAN project focuses on the sustainability of urban tourism by introducing innovative solutions and sustainable business models.

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Interacting with travel information: Surf the net, travel the world

Many years ago, when planning a family holidays, tourists would have to go to a travel agency nearby, get loads of colorful brochures and take them home, where they would have to go through that information for several days to compare lodgings and prices before returning to the agency to hire their desired summer break.

At the present time, the Internet has changed completely the way travelers find and organize their holidays and, instead of travel brochures, they can find travel websites, blogs and social network accounts that offer them all the necessary information… and much more.

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Best Practice: Promoting Gender Equality and Sustainability for Entrepreneur Women in Central Vietnam

The Southeast Asian Region (ASEAN) has seen an increase in female-led businesses in the last decade, and Vietnam is one of the countries that have increasingly invested in entrepreneurship, with women playing an important role in Vietnam’s transition economy over time (Bui, Minh Tam, and Trinh Q. Long, 2021).  However, the profound impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on women around the globe has also contributed to a gender gap in the country, as entrepreneur women struggled to keep businesses running. In the case of the tourism industry, the multiple lockdowns imposed since 2020 led to large job losses, as international tourism plays an important role in the Vietnamese tourism industry (Da Van Huynh et al, 2021). The response of the country to the reopening of international travel began in 2022, and together with other areas of the economy affected by the pandemic, there was a need to boost the sector with different economic plans, for example, extending visa-free periods, and investments in inbound tourism.

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The use of data as a competitive skills level in tourism

Among the different sectors of the economy, the tourism sector is one of those that is riding the wave of digitalisation most quickly, according to the CaixaBank Sector Digitalisation Index (ICDS). This same study also indicates that, within the tourism sector, the accommodation sector is gaining a greater degree of digitisation, especially in terms of the marketing of customer services.

Innovation is closely related to digitisation. This concept could be defined as the transformation of information from physical to digital format. Besides being a form of “survival” in our increasingly digitised everyday life, is a form of communication to be able to transmit this information from generation to generation.

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Interview Svetlana Pantyukhina: Rural Tourism Development

Svetlana Pantyukhina is an expert in rural tourism development, affiliated with the Autonomous non-profit organization “Agency of rural community development” and an expert of the national project “Adaptation Accelerator. She is trengthening community-based tourism CSOs for sustainable development of rural and marginalized areas of Russia in post-COVID reality” delivered by ARCD in cooperation with RuralTour.

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Tourism Transition Pathway: three words full of meaning

On 10 March 2020, the Commission adopted a new industrial strategy. New compared to what? Why new? The aim was to help EU industry lead the green and digital transformations and to boost the EU’s global competitiveness and open strategic autonomy. In light of the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, the update of the EU industrial strategy highlighted the need to further accelerate the green and digital transitions and increase the resilience of the EU industrial ecosystems.

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Innovating and renewing Skills Intelligence | Recap 1st Pantour webinar

Fast developments in society and the tourism sector led to a new landscape for companies and workers in the industry. Also, due to the pandemic, many jobs in the sector have changed rapidly and new ones have emerged. At the start of the PANTOUR project, a thorough secondary data analysis has been done on current and future skills needs for the tourism industry. Existing data have been analysed, on global and European industry reports, EU policy documents, consultancy papers, and academic research. This has rendered a broad understanding of the status of skills in the tourism industry and what is needed for the future. In this blog, we will share some first insights from these analyses.

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