Forestur is a
pilot project, co-financed by the
European Union through the
Leonardo da Vinci Programme, aiming at increasing the skills of tourism professionals in
rural areas by providing
lifelong learning
Lifelong learning is the "ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated"Department of Education and Science (2000).Learning for Life: Paper on Adult Education Dublin: Stationery Office. pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons ...
services on-line.
Objectives of the project
The main objective of the project is to provide tourist professionals in rural areas with continuous, specific and high quality training adapted to their needs.
Considering the
isolation and tight schedules of people who work in rural areas,
Internet is the only reliable way to provide them with a proper training.
Information and Communication Technologies
Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computers, ...
(ICT) can counteract the disadvantages of remote
geographical locations. So, it becomes an ideal tool to reach
rural tourism employees.
Forestur has also taken advantage of other
ICT
ICT may refer to:
Sciences and technology
* Information and communications technology
* Image Constraint Token, in video processing
* Immunochromatographic test, a rapid immunoassay used to detect diseases such as anthrax
* In-circuit test, in ...
features that represent an alternative choice to traditional management for other sector companies. They offer a wider range for
advertising activities to simplify administrative work.
In order to make the most of ICT possibility training, Forestur has identified specific needs of rural tourist sector and has developed a training
methodology based on the use of
asynchronous communication and
social integration.
Asynchronous communication means that teacher and student do not connect at a real time like on-line chats or phone calls. It is done at a different time, so that there exists a time space between the question and the answer. It is exactly the same as e-mailing or posting.
The flexibility provided by asynchronous communication has been really important for Forestur in order to help students to follow the courses easily. The
social integration has also been a successful approach: taking always into account the specific
sociocultural
Sociocultural evolution, sociocultural evolutionism or social evolution are theories of sociobiology and cultural evolution that describe how societies and culture change over time. Whereas sociocultural development traces processes that tend t ...
situation of the students has been extremely useful to create real tailored courses and, therefore, to reach the audience's attention and interest.
Forestur training program tries to consolidate tourism as an economic engine for many European rural areas in the nowadays economic context, full of doubts and challenges. One of these challenges, which might be the most important, is to achieve a
sustainable
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...
growth for our societies. Therefore, Forestur bets on the inversion in the
human capital
Human capital is a concept used by social scientists to designate personal attributes considered useful in the production process. It encompasses employee knowledge, skills, know-how, good health, and education. Human capital has a substantial ...
of rural tourism, knowing the natural interest of this sector in preserving the environment.
Target group
The project is mainly addressed to tourism professionals (employees and managers) who develop their work in rural areas. Potential users are: local
development agencies
An aid agency, also known as development charity, is an organization dedicated to distributing aid. Many professional aid organisations exist, both within government, between governments as multilateral donors and as private voluntary organization ...
and policy makers, tourism associations and
service companies in rural areas; continuous training professionals (teachers and directives) and people in charge of development policies in local and regional tourism.
Used tools
* Report on specific training needs in the
rural tourism sector in the four participating countries
* ICT-based training methodology adapted to the tourism sector
* Training materials suitable for tourism professionals in remote areas (CD format and downloadable from the project website)
* On-line training platform (open source software)
* Support manuals for trainers and trainees
Results
Forestur initial conclusions suggested the need of a gradual incorporation of the use of ICT, beginning with a presence training, followed by a semi-presence training to end in a complete on-line training. Forestur results have helped to improve the professionalism of employees lacking in specialized training such as
customer service, usage of
new technologies, language competence and the approach of
quality management in tourism establishments.
Partnership
Professionals from
Hungary,
Italy and
Romania are taking part of this project together with La Florida, the Fundación Comunidad Valenciana Región Europea (FCVRE) and
Tuéjar
Tuéjar is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Los Serranos in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populo ...
town council:
References
External links
*http://www.forestur.net {{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070626174300/http://www.forestur.net/ , date=2007-06-26
Rural tourism