Forestur

[http://www.forestur.net Forestur] (Tailored training for professionals in the rural tourist sector) is a Pilot Project, part-financed by the European Union through the [http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/leonardo/leonardo_en.html Leonardo Da Vinci Programme] , aiming at increasing the skills of tourism professionals in rural areas by providing [http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/index_en.html lifelong learning] services on-line.

Objectives of the project

The objective of the project is for tourist professionals in rural areas to benefit from high quality continuous training adapted to their needs. Tourism has become a critical sector and an important engine for most rural areas in Europe, enabling the creation of employment, diversifying local and/or regional economy and contributing to rural development in general.

Rural areas will face important challenges in the future regarding economic growth, employment and sustainability but, on the other hand, leisure and tourism related activities will lead them to a favourable situation and will provide them with a bigger responsibility towards the preservation of natural resources.Investment in human capital in rural areas is a key element in order to face these challenges.

Forestur aims at increasing professionalism among the tourism human capital by means of tailored continuous training adapted to previously identified needs and requirements in the sector. Tourism professionals in rural areas usually find difficulties to access training due to the distance between urbanised areas and the rural environment; the sector structures, composed by "micro-enterprises"; or due to the lack awareness regarding their training needs.

The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) provide a perfect framework in order to facilitate training. The project intends to take advantage of the new possibilities offered by the Internet to counteract the drawbacks of a secluded geographic location. Moreover, ICT represent an alternative to traditional management for tourism companies in rural areas, offer a wider scope for publicity, and simplify administrative work, as well as bookings, invoicing, etc. Forestur will identify the specific training needs of rural tourism sector and will create an ICT based training methodology adapted to it. Its pedagogical approach is based in the use of asynchronous communication and social integration

Target group

The project is mainly addressed to tourism professionals (employees and managers) in rural areas. Final and potential users are: local and regional development agencies and policy makers; tourism associations and service economy in rural areas; and continuous training professionals.

Expected results

* 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

Partnership

* [http://www.florida-uni.es Florida Training Centre]
* [http://www.uegva.info Fundación Comunidad Valenciana - Región Europea]
* [http://www.cidaf.ro CIDAF. Innovation & Business Development Center]
* [http://www.bucovinaturism.ro Bucovina Tourism Association]
* [http://www.pixel-online.net Pixel]
* [http://www.cia.it/cia CIA. Confederazion Italiana Agricoltori della Provincia de Firenze]
* [http://www.europrof.org Europrofessional Hungary EC]
* [http://www.falusiturizmus.info.hu Hungarian Federation of Rural and Agrotourism]
* [http://www.gva.es/tuejar Tuejar Town Council]