More than 650 participants from all over Europe – and even some non-European countries -registered for the two online courses that make up the ACADEMY, the Educational Programme and the Training Programme. Participants included companies and organizations from the tourism sector - including many hotels and tour operators - as well as academics, start-ups and public authorities.

To launch the EU ECO-TANDEM ACADEMY, two live events took place during the first week:

1) For the Educational Programme: the first live session with experts, with the Austrian company Weltweitwandern GmbH as special guest. Weltweitwandern GmbH is a tour operator specialising in intercontinental travel, combining sustainability and respect for local cultures. Founder and CEO Christian Hlade shared with the participants the motivations that led him to focus on sustainable tourism and the mission&vision of his company. A big thank Christian Hlade and his team for this inspiring contribution!

2) For the Training Programme: the first live training session, hosted by our project partner Dr. Ioannis Pappas, CEO of Green Evolution SA. About 200 participants took part in the webinar dedicated to the topic of Climate Change emergency and its connection with tourism, actively participating in the discussion and sharing their impressions and ideas. In the coming weeks, the participants of the Training Programme will be divided into working groups, to work concretely on a project assignment on the topic of sustainable tourism.

The ACADEMY will take place until 30 May, 2021, delivering 10 modules in each type of programme. 

• The EU ECO-TANDEM Education Programme is a self-study e-learning course that allows participants to access the content at their leisure. We developed ten modules following a scientific approach to provide abundant material about the tourism industry and its future. The modules include theoretical and practical inputs enriched by case studies (good practices) and optional real-time online meetings with experts and practitioners. The participant will get an overview of recent developments and first-hand knowledge that you can apply in your daily work.
• The ECO-TANDEM Training Programme is a real-time, online training course that is targeted towards SMEs related to the tourism supply and value chain, with emphasis in accommodation facilities, tour operators, travel agents and technology-oriented start-ups. The industry-specific modules on offer aim to improve skills and build capacity around the standards for sustainability in the tourism industry. Three of these modules overlap with the parallel running ECO-TANDEM Education Programme.

Those who successfully complete the EU ECO-TANDEM ACADEMY courses will be given priority to apply for the EU ECO-TANDEM Business Programme, which will be launched in autumn 2021! Stay tuned!