The Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research (ATLAS) was established in 1991 to develop transnational educational initiatives in tourism and leisure.
ATLAS provides a forum to promote staff and student exchange, transnational research and to facilitate curriculum and professional development. Membership is institutional and it currently has 194 members in 61 countries worldwide.
Some of the objectives of ATLAS are the promotion of the teaching of tourism, leisure and related subjects, and the promotion of transnational research. This helps to underpin the development of appropriate curricula for transnational education.
ATLAS organizes conferences on issues in tourism and leisure education and research. The 2018 annual conference will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark. Regional conferences are held in Africa, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. Smaller meetings are also organised by the ATLAS Special Interest Groups on themes like Dark Tourism, Mobility, Gastronomy and Events.
ATLAS publishes contributions from its members, Special Interest Groups and participants of the conferences and meetings in conference proceedings. Publications appear in ATLAS Review, ATLAS Reflections, reports, publications series, books and also in outstanding international journals.
CEHAT (Confederación Española de Hoteles y Alojamientos Turísticos) represents the entire Spanish property sector (both independent hotels and chain hotels, apartments, resorts and campgrounds & resorts) with more than 14.000 establishments and 1.500.000 beds, grouped in 54 national, provincial, regional and local associations throughout the national territory.
CEHAT has been managing training funds since its foundation in 2004. Workers all over Spain have benefited from these programs, which have included courses taught modality or distance. We have been working on defining topics of these training programs funded by the Spanish state. Professionals working in this project cooperate with the Spanish state in the implementation of public education programs.
CEHAT represents the hotel sector in Spain. It is the main knower of the training demands and the main job vacancies in the sector, for its direct contact with the hotels and with the main regional associations. In the NTG project CEHAT can contribute the vision from the sectorial point of view, contribute to the demands of digital and green capabilities so necessary for the digital transformation of the sector. Also promote the use of innovative training technologies and methodologies that help to improve the competitiveness of the hotel sector at European level, thanks to direct contact with ITH (innovation center for hotel sector) and HOTREC (European umbrella of accommodation and hospitality sector).
Varna University of Management (VUM) is a private not-for-profit higher education institution. The university was established in 1996 and is based in Varna, Bulgaria. It offers undergraduate and master programmes in the fields of Business, Management, Hospitality, Tourism, Business Information Systems and Software Systems and Technologies. All VUM study programmes are delivered exclusively in English. The main campus of VUM is located in Varna, however the University has campuses also in Dobrich and in Sofia.
The long-term efforts and work of VUM academic community have been internationally recognized and validated. In 2018, in terms of student mobility VUM was ranked 1st worldwide by U Multirank. VUM master programme in International Hospitality and Tourism Management is ranked 17th worldwide by Eduversinal Best Masters ranking.
VUM Research Institute issues internationally recognised science journals such as European Journal of Tourism Research (indexed in Scopus and Web of Science), Journal of Pedagogy and Educational Management and VUM Management Review.
VUM maintains an extensive network of more than 200 Universities from five continents and multiple industry partners with which it participates in joint study programmes, staff and student mobility and/or projects. In the recent years VUM has accomplished a number of international projects in the fields of tourism and hospitality, education, human resource development and training, competitiveness and internationalization. Thanks to the close relations with the industry, VUM is a desirable partner of many business initiatives and hosts such events as well.
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