The steps towards responsible tourism

The purpose of the project is to contribute to responsibility in travel and tourism business in Finland. The objective is to develop a flexible digital educational model for travel and tourism employees to learn how to implement responsibility in travel and tourism business. Due to the remarkable tourism growth in Finland, the threat of climate change and tourism impacts on local society, there is a need to strengthen the approach towards sustainability. The project is being executed in cooperation of five universities in Finland, JAMK University of Applied Sciences (UAS) being the coordinator of the project. The partners are Haaga-Helia UAS, XAMK UAS, University of Oulu and Multidimensional Tourism Institute MTI/University of Lapland.

The development of the digital learning model includes three sub-objectives: 1) To define the learning competences of responsibility in travel and tourism industry; 2) To develop a digital learning course corresponding to the competences 3) To ensure the continuity of the learning course.

The outcome of the project is an educational model, which is to strengthen sustainability of travel and tourism business. In a long-term perspective, the competence of travel and tourism employees concerning the sustainability will be improved. The educational model, once piloted in travel and tourism business, can be applied to other business areas.

• Rositsa Röntynen, Project Manager, Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences, firstname.lastname(at)jamk.fi, 050 436 1196
• Meri Vehkaperä, Haaga Helia, etunimi.sukunimi(at)haaga-helia.fi, 040 488 7176
• Kaarina Tervo-Kankare, University of Oulu, firstname.lastname(at)oulu.fi, 050 350 7159
• Minni Haanpää, University of Lapland / Multidimensional Tourism Institute, firstname.lastname(at)ulapland.fi, 040 484 4192
• Marjo Äikäs, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, firstname.lastname(at)xamk.fi, 044 702 8759