10 March 2022

Home

The RETOURN project (REcovery TOURism after Natural disaster) involves a heterogeneous and representative partnership of Chambers of Commerce, VET providers, Universities, and Associations, from 5 EU member States (Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Hungary, and Germany), in order to respond to the lack of preparation and adequate knowledge by the figures operating in the tourism sector in relation to risk management and the recovery of damage resulting from natural disasters including earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and pandemics such as the one caused by COVID-19. 

The aim of the project is to structure, implement, test, and disseminate the “Recovery Tourism after Natural Disaster” training program, centered on tourism disaster management and on the restoration of the tourist image after the advent of a natural disaster.
This path will consist of:

  • Face-to-face teaching sessions;
  • Open Educational Resources;
  • Laboratory activities provided according to the alternative didactic method of serious play, aimed at learning techniques and practices of emerging strategy making in complex, uncertain, and “disruptive” contexts such as those that have suffered natural disasters.

The beneficiaries of the training course will be 65 individuals (20 IT, 15 GR, 15 SLO, 15 HU) who operate in the tourism sector or who guide companies and associations in the tourism professions, such as tour operators and managers, tour guides and tour leaders; graduates and undergraduates in economic-tourism disciplines, unemployed and unemployed with a background in tourism-economic disciplines who need to acquire new skills to actively relocate on the market as the path is also aimed at those who have lost their jobs after a natural disaster.

In particular, the RETOURN project entails four Project Results such as:

  • Creation of the Competence Framework for the Tourism Recovery Expert;
  • Design of the structure of the new interdisciplinary teaching in Recovery Tourism after Natural Disaster and Processing of the contents of the Open Educational Resources;
  • Realization of the online platform for the project and realization of the Open Educational Resource;
  • Piloting of the new training program and SWOT analysis post-natural disasters.