The project is an example of strategic partnership supporting the exchange of good practices. The partnership is made up of four entities from four EU member states. The project responds to the needs of all Partners. The initiator of the partnership was the leader. The construction of the partnership was guided primarily by the experience and competences of individual entities in terms of target groups and solutions used in partner countries for the benefit of people with disabilities or the tourism industry.The idea of the project was created in June 2017 during a partner meeting in the HORECA project (2016-1-PL01-KA202-026228) dedicated to the activation of deaf people. The president of the Greek Deaf Association, invited to the meeting, pointed out that the tourism industry is only minimally (if any) prepared for the service of deaf people. There are no advertising leaflets or guides adapted to the needs of this group, there is no appropriate offer, travel agency employees or tourist organizations have no knowledge about the needs and expectations of such a target group. This also applies to the blind and visually impaired. As a consequence, deaf or blind people can not take full advantage of the opportunities available to non-disabled people in the tourism industry, they feel overlooked and disadvantaged. In March 2019, during the next partnership meeting, the project proposal received the full approval of the Greek Ministry of Tourism.The main goal of the project is focused on the development, thanks to the exchange of international experience, of good solutions in the field of professional preparation of tourist organizations to support people with sensory disabilities (deaf and hard of hearing people, blind and visually impaired people). As part of the project, it is planned to develop three results that directly match three specific objectives, namely:1) International analysis of solutions for tourist services (groups) of people with sensory disabilities (4 partner countries - Poland, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus), based on a qualitative analysis, preparation of a ranking of solutions.2) Good European practices in tourist services (groups) of people with sensory disabilities.3) The scope of competency gap in the tourism industry in the field of professional service for people with sensory disabilities - recommendations and an indication of the scope of training and training materials for the tourism industry needed for professional service of people with sensory disabilities.The target groups of the project are:─ employees and employers of the tourist industry (tourism organizations and travel agencies) are so-called a group of users, ie people who thanks to the project will be able to professionally serve people with sensory disabilities,─ people with sensory disabilities who will be able to use the offer of the tourism industry to a greater extent.The analyses carried out in the project and the results obtained will allow for better preparation of the tourist industry for the service of people with sensory disabilities. They will also indicate competency gaps to be completed. Taking into account the structure of occupations in the tourism industry, the project results will be particularly important for people preparing the offer and people directly serving customers. Benefits from the implementation of the project will translate into better functioning of the tourism industry entities (the possibility of expanding the group of potential clients for people with sensory disabilities), as well as the possibility of full inclusion of people with sensory disabilities (full use of tourist services).Innovation in the project mainly concerns two areas:1. Target group - people with sensory disabilities and their needs and expectations in service in the tourism industry.2. Methods - assessment of the current situation - inventory of existing solutions and development of recommendations in the scope of training needs, using the knowledge and experience of representatives of two target groups - employees of the tourism industry and people with sensory disabilities.The project should be implemented in an international partnership. The subject has been marginalized or even overlooked for years. Undoubtedly, it deserves to be discussed, analysed and searched for and exchanged good practices (even in the smallest dimension). The current state of knowledge does not allow for professional preparation of a large partnership project for innovation. The partners jointly decided that the project of exchange of experiences would be the best way to look at the situation in tourism in the field of preparation for the service of specific target groups, to which undoubtedly belong people with sensory disabilities.

<< Objectives >>5 partners working together to strengthen the potential of VET providers (in particular partnership members) to implement vocational international traineeships under Erasmus + (2021-2027). The partnership will achieve this by: developing and implementing new learning agreement programs for 4 professions; as well as development of recommendations and good practices in the field of inclusion of students with disability into international vocational mobility projects under the Erasmus+ programme.<< Implementation >>In the Project, we will conduct 4 stationary, international meetings. During which we will visit min. 16 VET provides that can serve as examples of good practices for hosting and sending students from 4 professions (logistics technician, hotel technician, veterinary technician, photography and multimedia technician). Particular emphasis will be placed on finding good practices in the area of inclusion of students with disability in international vocational mobility activities.<< Results >>We will prepare the following results:A) Learning agreement programs for (minimum) monthly traineeships for students of technical schools in the following professions: logistics technician, hotel technician, veterinary technician, photography and multimedia technician. These programs will be in line with the standards of the new Erasmus+ program (2021-2027).B) A set of specific recommendations, procedures and best practices in the field of inclusion people with disability in VET mobilities

<< Objectives >>The main goal of the project is to increase the diversity of the offer of rural women's organizations from three EU countries, allowing for increasing the effectiveness of educational activities for local communities. Thanks to international cooperation, we want to expand and make the activities of women's organizations in small local communities more attractive and thus encourage a larger group of residents to participate in activities organized by these entities.<< Implementation >>We are going to take four types of action. These are: partnership meetings (one in each country) for the exchange of experiences and good practices, development of three substantive results in the form of collections of good practices, activities for the local community, promotion and dissemination (including meetings for local communities - at least 2 in each country) and project management to ensure the smooth implementation of the project and to evaluate the results and activities.<< Results >>We plan to work out three results. Result 1 is a collection of good practices in the field of educational activity for the cultivation of local traditions, presented in the form of unified cases from Poland, Cyprus and Greece. Result 2 is a collection of educational activities to promote local specialties and culinary preparations. Result 3 is a set of educational activities for tourism and sport, including the so-called green good practices aimed at increasing the ecological identity.

"There is a wide belief that when it comes to hospitality industry there are not a lot of ways to be innovative. However European citizens life is become more focused on digital technologies and according to the research of Ristova & Maglovski (2018) the transformation is affecting all industries, including the hospitality. Europe is (the worldwide leader in international Tourism, that is a key driving sector of the European Union. Today >95% of travelers use digital resources in the course of their travel. Digitalisation is one of the key megatrends determining the future of the tourism sector and competitiveness not only for big hospitality companies but also of the individual businesses/SME’s vis-à-vis the constantly evolving playing field and customer behavior of the ""smart tourists"" (tourists that intensively use applications of technology for their travels).According to the World Economic Forum’s Digital Transformation Initiative (DTI), from 2016 to 2025, digitalisation in tourism and hospitality is expected to create up to hundreds of billions euros of value for the industry through increased profitability, transformation from traditional players to new competitors, and to generate huge benefits for customers and the wider society. Problem addressed:Digitalisation in the sector has taken place in various tasks, activities and operations, from interoperability of the technological infrastructure, through education and training of tourism professionals, to delivery of personalized services. This kind of development may be an everyday routine for big companies in the sector, however this is not the case for SME's, which are unarguably the core of success that led Europe on the top of the world as Tourism destination. EASME’s report on Digitalisation in Tourism (2018) showed that SMEs face great challenges when it comes to digitalization, especially due to individual business circumstances. The SME's usually do not have the capacity to adapt as quick and as effectively needed, on their own, and sometimes are ""trapped"" to the traditional ways of doing things without realising all the potentials that arise through digitalisation and the new opportunities that may take advantage off in order to boos their business performance. Thus, in order for Tourism SMEs to grow there should be an individualized plan for them, and this is where dTour comes in the picture.Project aims and objectives:The project is seeking to train and certify agents that will promote digitalisation to boost SMEs, in Tourism and Hospitality, performance, namely dTour agents. The agents, could be people that have been already working in the Tourism and Hospitality sector, and would like to enhance their skills and employment opportunities. They could also be owners and operators of SME’s, that understand the need for digitalisation and would like to bring their own hospitality business to the new digital era, business consultants that are already working or are interested to cooperate with SMEs in the sector etc.The project aims in training dTour agents that can help on both digitalization levels of a tourism and hospitality SME, as presented in the paper of Ristova&Dimitrov (2019): 1) At the managerial and operational level and2) For the services for the guests, Such project will lead to following innovative elements:-An occupational Profile for dTour Agents, in accordance to EQF-A training programme based on the developed Occupational Profile that will be validated by the final users during the course of the project.-A blended Learning Course for training d Tour Agents in consulting Tourism SME’s to develop plans and proceed with the digitalisation in order to use their new acquired knowledge to facilitate boosting the performance of Tourism and Hospitality SMEs-A certification scheme that will give the agents the chance to get certified for their competences-A navigation guide, e-book, that will promote dTour training to SME's & will aim to enable all SMEs related to Tourism and Hospitality sector to get to know various digital technologies and tools that are used in the sector.Partnership:The project brings together 8 partners from 5 European countries, forming a transnational cooperation partnership with a balanced regional geographical representation of the Erasmus+ Area and with qualitative representation of countries that depend heavily on the tourism industry . Impact and long term benefits:-Promotion of European Cooperation among various countries-Create new employment paths for agents in Tourism and Hospitality Digitalisation-Provide complementary and sustainable development options for professionals.-Boost the performance of SME's in Tourism and Hospitality.-Offer new approaches to identified issues and needs.-Developed training tools and materials that will be open for the public to use-New certification scheme to remain after the end of the project."

<< Background >>Tourism is also one of the main economic drivers of Europe’s rural economies and offers employment prospects for young people and thus has the capacity to reduce global youth unemployment. In a VUCA world it has become imperative to ensure an adequate level of preparedness among tourism graduates.<< Objectives >>QUEST main objective is to increase HE students employability in the tourism sector, one of the most fast pacing sectors in terms of innovation and most afflicetd by Covid-19 emergency.There is a continuous challenge of developing students’ knowledge and employability attributes in two ways: -the first is by embedding employability skills within curricula through supervised work experience; -the second is by building these into curricula through stand-alone skills-based training.<< Implementation >>In order to do so the QUEST partnership will address students employabiliy by analyzing skill gaps, developing a flexible long distance training program supported by innovative tools (QUEST project results) developed during the project, and conducting 5 blended mobility of students (for a total of 30 students) and a specific training of HEIs and company internship tutors to support stdents. On a parallel effort, QUEST will develop and implement new policies and a cooperation methodology to bring together the education and business sector to work increase the success of the methodology designed to enhance students’ employability<< Results >>PR1 QUEST flexible learning programme: an innovative and skill-based programme for HE students that face the tourism sector labour market;PR2 QUEST e-learning platform and app: a unique platform for HE student, HEI trainers and organisations tutors that supports them all along the learning programme and work experience;PR3 QUEST policy and cooperation methodology: a cooperation agreement between HEIs and tourism organization in the Mediterranean area, supported by a Cultural Route of the Council of Europe;PR4 QUEST manual: a comprehensive publication summarizing QUEST methodology, leraning programme, activities and results to support further exploitation.