Awareness regarding biodiversity, climate change mitigation and solutions for the decarbonisation of the economy are also critical in the tourism sector today. The growing discussion of responsible tourism and the UN Goals for Sustainable Development shows the importance of implementing actions to address sustainable development in tourist destinations. For this to happen, everyone in the industry must work together to develop and implement best practices, balancing the local needs of the population and promoting a responsible tourism strategy. Integrating new practices does not happen overnight; it also demands time, training, resources, effort, and commitment.
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.
In a joint event organised by the Pantour Consortium, and the Pact for Skills for Tourism (PfST), which promotes joint action through the establishment and implementation of large-scale skills partnerships at national, regional and local levels, on the 17th of February, we brought together panellists in Dublin to discuss this urgent issue in the industry.READ MORE
Introduction
Fast developments in society and in the tourism sector has led to a completely new landscape for companies and also for workers in the industry. Also, as a result of the COVID-19 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 conducted on current and future skills needs for the tourism industry. Existing data has been analysed, such as from 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 session, we will share some first insight from these analyses.
Program 11.00 – 12.00 CET (10.00 – 11.00 GMT)
Registration
Gina Oglesby, Back to Work Connect interview
Since the beginning of the pandemic, many studies have pointed out the disproportionate impacts of Covid-19 on the female workforce (OECD a, 2020, European Parliament 2020, UN Women 2020). Arguably the pandemic exacerbated structural inequalities that already existed (UN 2020, Wenham, Smith and Morgan 2020). Women faced differential economic risks, having been overrepresented in hardest-hit sectors of the economy, facing several barriers in business, being more vulnerable to the economic impacts of the crisis, and having to take care of family responsibilities, forcing them to leave their jobs and studies (OECD a, 2021). Furthermore, according to the World Forum Economic Report (2020), since the beginning of the pandemic, displaced workers have been on average more likely to be female, younger and earning a lower wage (p. 17). In the tourism and hospitality industry, the effects of the Covid-19 crisis on women were even more visible as they are more likely to work in this hard-hit sector supplying 60% of the workforce in accommodation, 53% in food and beverage and 47% in air transport around the globe (OECD b, 2021, p 7). Covid-19 impacted jobs and hours of work – particularly for this group (Renaud et al., 2020). Additionally, the loss of jobs in the sector, already highly gendered, the social struggle women have facing as caregivers during the pandemic and the barriers found in applying – for jobs led to more inequalities in the job market.
Join the livestream: NTG Webinar Series – New Skills Requirements for Tourism in a Post-Covid World – YouTube
Introduction
This webinar, organized and chaired by key NTG partner, TU Dublin, School of Hospitality Management and Tourism, will discuss and address post-covid skills requirements for tourism. The webinar will focus on perspectives from industry and examples will be presented from a number of different tourism sub-sectors in Ireland including accommodation, food and beverage, travel and tour operators, and visitor attractions. Additionally, the webinar will provide an overview of the reopening and recovery of the tourism industry and post-covid skills requirements at the European and national levels. Speakers include Rob Rankin (member of the Recovery Oversight Group for Tourism and President of the Irish Tour Operators Association), Alan Smullen (Head of People, The Doyle Collection), and Roisin McKee. The webinar will be chaired and moderated by TU Dublin and will conclude with a Q&A discussion.
Program 17.00 – 18.00 CET (16.00 – 17.00 GMT)
Join the livestream: NTG Webinar Series – New Skills Requirements for Tourism in a Post-Covid World – YouTube
What do we have to do with VR in tourism organizations? Is there a lot of budget needed? How can organizations benefit from digital media and VR, and what kind of knowledge is necessary to make experiences in VR? The Next Tourism Generation blog team sat down with Professor Marnix van Gisbergen from Breda University of Applied Sciences to ask these important questions.