CREDinGREEN

Due to the Covid19 pandemic, the European tourism market and the entire global tourism industry continue to face huge changes in the coming years. Tourism is not expected to return to 2019 level before 2023. This goes hand in hand with a dramatic change in customer behaviour, e.g. in terms of attitudes and use of online/offline services, the use of sharing economy formats, of in-house vs. outhouse services, the integration of local and regional products and services. Sustainability and climate protection will have reached the social mainstream in all EU countries by then and will have a high priority in purchasing and consumption behaviour.
More than 90 % of the enterprises in the tourism sector are classified as small and medium-sized enterprises with less than 10 employees. These businesses have very few resources to cope with the upcoming changes related to the Green Deal and the Covid 19 pandemic. The question is how quickly and how successfully European tourism businesses can adapt.
The CREDinGREEN project addresses this challenge by aiming to create widespread awareness of the massive changes coming to the tourism sector in the next few years. In order to react quickly to market-driven changes in VET knowledge and skills and at the same time ensure high quality accreditation, the European Commission has recently introduced the new EU instrument the "EU Micro-Credential Approach", so called micro-certificates. The aim of this "EU micro-credential approach" is to support the tourism industry in adapting to these changes.
tourism industry to adapt to these changes. The CREDinGREEN project will develop a teaching concept on this new methodological-didactic basis. It is based on the latest market development studies. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic and the changing customer demands and environmental policy challenges, knowledge and skills will be imparted so that tourism managers in SMEs and destinations can successfully adapt their products and services.
In the teaching concept, great importance is attached to the accreditation of learning outcomes.
importance. It should lead to a high acceptance of the new EU instrument of micro certificates. This is to ensure that graduates and professionals can easily demonstrate that they are familiar with the latest changes in market requirements and have the latest and necessary knowledge, skills and competences.
In addressing the challenges facing the tourism industry, the CREDinGREEN project will achieve the following key outputs during the project lifetime: Design of a teaching concept based on the "EU micro-credential approach". This covers key areas of sustainable "Green Tourism" and shows how these can be considered and implemented in small and medium-sized enterprises.
Development of a comprehensive policy paper that gives an overview of the state of the art in green tourism. It gives an overview of the use of micro certificates as a learning tool in vocational training for lifelong learning in Europe. The policy paper presents 25 ongoing EU projects that address the above challenges. This 'bottom-up' feedback is intended to inform policy makers and funding bodies at national and EU level about what is happening at the grassroots level and how they can improve their policies and funding structures to drive developments. The policy paper will include contributions and articles from policy makers and stakeholders at national and European level explaining their educational approaches and objectives for Green Tourism and the EU Micro Credential approach.

Project duration: 01.01.2021 - 31.12.2023
Project volume: 299,621 €