Shaping the future education in tourism

Tourism is important source of income for great number of countries. No matter whether they have access to sea, or are landlocked. This branch of the economy brings hard currency income into country’s economy, but also contributes to reduce unemployment rate, as it provides opportunity for creation of large number of working places especially in the service sector. In 1994, the United Nations had recognized three forms of tourism i.e. domestic, inbound and outbound tourism. Naturally, the first and second one are most favorable for developing national economy. In order to attract more guests, especially the foreign ones, the accommodation facilities are working constantly on improvement of their services. Tourism plays great importance to the development of national economy to the countries of the Balkan Peninsula. In Greece, for instance, in 2014 the tourism industry directly contributed with € 11,8 bn or 7% of total GDP. On the other hand the total contribution to GDP was € 29,4 bn (17,3% of GDP). In 2014 Travel & Tourism directly supported 340.500 jobs (9,4% of total employment). The situation in Bulgaria is as follows: The direct contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP was BGN 2.998,9 mn (3,7% of total GDP) in 2013. The total contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP was BGN 10.670,6 mn (13,3% of GDP) in 2013. In 2013 Travel & Tourism directly supported 100.100 jobs (3,4% of total employment). In Croatia, the direct contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP was HRK 35.876,5 mn (12.5% of total GDP). The total contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP was HRK 80.982,2 mn (28,3% of GDP). In 2014 Travel & Tourism directly supported 139.500 jobs (13,6% of total employment). And, finally, in Macedonia The direct contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP was MKD 7,3 bn (1,4% of total GDP) in 2014. The total contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP was MKD 27,4bn (5,2% of GDP), while the Travel & Tourism directly supported 9,000 jobs (1,3% of total employment). Looking at these figures, one can hardly not be wise enough not to conclude on the magnitude this sector has in the “neighborhood”. But, this sector, is as volatile as it can be. Natural or man mad disasters (economic crisis, political instability etc.) can significantly reduce its contribution. However, those situations eventually resolve, giving wind to the development wigs. Since the number of accommodation facilities is on the rise, new staff need to be recruited, often causing problems in finding trained and educated staff. Number of HEI institutions in the region provide formal tertiary education. But the challenges they engage are increasing year-by-year. Tourist demands, the industry’s accommodation to the demands by the tourists and not just tourists only but the general population as well, ever growing IT equipment used in the facilities…everything listed needs to be transferred to the students. But, this is not the only challenge. Since the IT and the rest of the machinery are not the only part which creates the overall picture of a successful enterprise that deals with tourism, the HEI need to be in touch, close relation to the enterprises in order to gain knowledge of what’s different from previous years and address the issue accordingly i.e. to adapt curricula or knowledge transfer techniques. Institutions, partners in this project, will create a strategic partnership in order to create a more modern and up-to-dated environment for their students to understand the volume of the tourism industry, especially in the areas of gastronomy/nutrition and hospitality. The project will create two separate outputs i.e. one in gastronomy/nutrition, the other one in hospitality. The first output will serve the students’ needs to have a tool to be able to compose a meal in accordance to the client’s needs. Facing obesity in general population students need a tool which will train them in their learning process how to use ICT based technology in creating their guest daily diet (very common while working in facilities who deal with specific clients). On the other hand, latest amendments to the legislation requires declaration of nutritional value of the meals they prepare. Not to be neglected is the tourists’ trend to seek for national cuisine while abroad. So, each project partners will create a list of at 15 national menus (full course) and will determine their nutritional value which will be a part of the “National menu” of the institutions that collaborate with the HEI partners in this project. Once the project finishes and results are to be published, the outcomes will be of a use to all interested enterprises and other HEI. The second output will create a tool which will introduce students to a management practice of accommodation facility (hotel/motel). It will give them unique opportunity to get familiarized of the operational principles of the different departments facilities have, how they are inter-dependent and how they synchronize their activities