The “INclusive TOURism professions – European curricula for accessible tourism manager and frontline staff (In-Tour)” European project was completed with success, and received a very positive evaluation score of 82/100 by EACEA, summarizing a 45-month demanding and high-quality implementation by the project consortium, with the DAISSy Research Group of the Hellenic Open University (HOU), as the Greek partner.

The In-Tour project started on January 1^st, 2020, and ended September 30^th, 2023, with the clear objective of covering the gap within the educational system regarding knowledge and competences in the field of Inclusive – Accessible Tourism at European level. The overall aim of the project was to equip managers and personnel in tourism sector with the appropriate knowledge, skills, personal and transversal competences in order to provide adequate services for all the customers, especially those with specific access requirements.

Particularly, the In-Tour project managed to fill the existing gap by providing quality training, through:

• Defining occupational profiles (according to ESCO definition) for Inclusive Tourism Manager (ITM) and Inclusive Tourism Frontline Staff (ITFS)
• Specifying the skill gaps by directly connecting the demand with representatives of tourism industries and entrepreneurs and by analyzing the good practices already developed (even within other European Projects)
• Defining the European Curricula in the accessible tourism sector, at EQF level 5, 6 and 7
• Designing a flexible and modular training path for both curricula
• Delivering the curricula in pilot’s courses in different countries (Germany, Greece and Italy)

The Curricula were defined in a flexible modular way, in order to provide a general European reference model which could be implemented in each EU Member State, and they were tested through five local pilots, by incorporating work-based learning.

It is noteworthy, that the In-Tour project produced a wide range of deliverables (54 in total) which are available, free of charge, through the project’s website.

The DAISSy Research Group of the Hellenic Open University (HOU), was the project partner responsible for the implementation of all In-Tour activities in Greece, participated in all project work packages and deliverables, and was the Leading Partner of the WP5-Delivery of Pilot Courses. In addition, it was responsible for the development of the In-Tour e-learning platform regarding the five (5) pilot courses delivered through the project’s pilot Universities, namely the Hellenic Open University-HOU (Greece), the Fachhochschule Dresden University of Applied Sciences—FHD (Germany) and the University of Genova- UNIGE (Italy).

More precisely, the Greek pilot courses for the “Inclusive Tourism Frontline Staff (ITFS)” (EQF-level 5) and the “Inclusive Manager in Tourism (ITM)” (EQF-level 6) were based on a blended (combination of synchronous and asynchronous) distance learning format, with Greek tutors and each one attracted more than forty (40) participants from the tourism sector. They were supported by the “Training & Lifelong Learning Centre-KEDIVIM” of the HOU and their detailed programme was available at Centre’s official website.

The In-Tour activities implemented by the DAISSy-HOU in Greece, were coordinated by Achilles Kameas, Professor at HOU, Director of DAISSy, and were managed by Vicky Maratou, Project Manager at DAISSy (until April 2023) and by Panagiota Polymeropoulou, Senior Researcher at DAISSy. The In-Tour working team of DAISSy included Ioanna Giannoukou (Professor at the University of Patras), Christos Pierrakeas (Professor at the University of Patras & HOU), Marina Giannakakou (Technician at DAISSy) and Foteini Gatomati (Senior Administrative staff at DAISSy).

The In-Tour project was co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme (Key Action 2: Sector Skills Alliance – Design and Delivery of VET) of the European Union  and was implemented by a consortium of fourteen (14) partners from six (6) countries, namely: Italian Multiple Sclerosis Society (AISM Onlus) – Coordinator (Italy) and partners: Science and enterprise together to improve quality of life (SI4LIFE) (Italy), Università degli Studi di Genova (UNIGE) (Italy), Foundation for Research and Innovation (FRI) (Italy), Hellenic Open University – DAISSy Research Group (Greece), Chamber of Ileia (EPI) (Greece), Akademie für Berufliche Bildung gGmbH (AFBB) (Germany), Fachhochschule Dresden – University of Applied Sciences (FHD) (Germany), Funka Nu AB (Funka) (Sweeden), Official chamber of commerce, industry and services of Valladolid (CAMVA) (Spain), Criteria-05 S.L. (Spain), European association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) (Belgium), International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions – Europe, Middle East, Africa (IAAPA EMEA) (Belgium), European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) (Belgium).

For more information regarding the In-Tour project and other activities of the DAISSy-HOU:

• Website : https://daissy.eu/  and  https://in-tour.eu/
• Platform : https://learning.in-tour.eu/
• Facebook : @DAISSyResearchGroup
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/daissyresearchgroup/
• X (formerly Twitter):  https://twitter.com/daissy_research   and @InTourProject
• Instagram : @daissy_researchgroup
• Email  : info@daissy.eap.gr