“DigiTour” under the Erasmus+ program KA204-ADB2C3D1.
Emerging information and communication technologies (ICT) and digitalization have been substantially changing the way the tourism industries operate. Tourism businesses need to be well equipped to remain competitive and sustainable, to provide quality services and engage travelers and to fully capture opportunities in the digital marketplace.
The use of ICT and digitalization in the tourism sector requires new, specific knowledge from both tourism entrepreneurs and their employees. According to the European Commission, 90% of businesses in the tourism sector are made up of primarily family run, small and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs) which are often unable to attract and retain digitally skilled employees and lack the capacity to develop specific education and training programmes for digital skills. Besides, formal education and training institutions are generally late to adopt fast-changing new skills into their curriculum. The end result is that SMTEs cannot fully exploit the opportunities offered by online marketplaces and distribution channels, as well as new forms of marketing, namely digital marketing. such as search engine optimization, social media influencer marketing, press release distribution, affiliate marketing, etc. For this reason, European SMTEs need to keep up to date with the ICT developments and enhance the overall digital marketing and e-management skills through new educational and training programmes, new methods of learning/teaching and new occupations.
Dr. Vicky Katsoni, Associate Professor at the University of West Attica, Greece and President of IACUDIT, pariticipates in “DigiTour” under the Erasmus+ program KA204-ADB2C3D1 Development of the Digital Marketing Competence of Adult Learners for Small and Medium-sized Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs) in Europe. The specific aim of the project is to enhance the digital marketing capabilities of SMTEs by revealing digital marketing skill gaps and competences, providing practical learning / teaching resources and modules for digital marketing competences, developing a qualification framework for a new occupation (digital tourism marketer) and creating an open-source online/mobile learning/teaching platform.
The kick-off project meeting was held on 19-20 December in Istanbul, Turkey with Turkish, Belgian, Greek and Spanish representatives.
Target groups are:
- Current managers and employees of small and medium-sized tourism enterprises
- Unemployed people who are looking for a job in the tourism sector
- Tourism and hospitality management students (studying or graduated)
Beneficiaries are:
- Public and private VET providers
- Higher education and other public institutions
- Members of NGOs involved in tourism and hospitality education and training
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
