EU MILLENNIALS Tour (Extract) Rome - Feb 2015
EU MILLENNIALS TOUR (Extract) Marika Mazzi Boém 1, Giuseppe Laquidara 1 Keywords: Tourism, Youth, Low-medium seasons, Industrial heritage, Culture, Skills, Fashion, Textile, Digital, School-trip, Education, European identity. Submitted to: COS-TFLOWS-2014-3-15 Topic: COSME-2014-3.5 Type of action: COSME-GA Proposal number: 676666 Abstract. EUMillennialsTOUR project aims at developing a transnational tourism product mixing together culture, education, knowledge capitalization and entrepreneurship up-skilling. The idea is to offer an immersive learning/creative trip addressed to the edu/school-trip tourism market field, thus comprising hands-on curriculum-linked activities addressed to youth, in particular those involved in the Cultural and Creative sector aged from 15-18 (segment 1) and from 19-25 (segment 2). School-trip tourism, in fact, is nontrivial: approx. 92,9M students make more than 100M day trips and 15-20M overnight trips a year. School-trips are planned by secondary schools all over the year, as well as students from HEIs and ACADs travel mainly for learning purposes. Basing on this particular fact, school-trip tourism can effectively contribute to improve arrivals in low-medium season period, meeting the goals of the Calypso initiative. The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and World Youth Student and Educational (WYSE) Travel Confederation together have documented the growing role that youth and student travel has taken within the global tourism industry over the last decades. More young people travel and do so more frequently and over greater distances than ever before. Building on these premises, EUMillennialsTOUR will create a transnational tourism product for the school-trip tourism market, addressed to secondary schools and High Education Institutes/ACADs, increasing the competitiveness of the EU tourism and capitalizing the shared value of European industrial heritage sites under the paradigm of sustainability, by also complementing national, regional and local policies in the field of creative industries and industrial heritage tourism, contributing to the professionalization of the tourism, cultural and educational workers. The resulting tourism product will also stimulate the young generations to the value of EU industrial heritage sites as memory of our past.
1. Concept and objectives e aim of the EUMillennialsTOUR project is to develop a transnational tourism product mixing together culture, education, knowledge capitalisation and entrepreneurship up- skilling. e idea is to offer an immersive learning/creative trip addressed to the edu/school- trip tourism market field, thus comprising hands-on curriculum-linked activities addressed to youth, in particular those involved in the Cultural and Creative sector. School-trip tourism, in fact, is nontrivial: approx. 92,9M students make more than 100M day trips and 15-20M overnight trips a year. Furthermore, it is important to highlight that school-trips are planned by secondary schools all over the year, as well as students from HEIs and ACADs travel mainly for learning purposes. Basing on this particular fact, school-trip tourism can effectively contribute to improve arrivals in low-medium season period, meeting the goals of the Calypso initiative which encourages many tourists as possible to go on holiday in low and medium seasons, in particular a few strategic (vulnerable) target groups such as youth. e UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and World Youth Student and Educational (WYSE) Travel Confederation together have documented the growing role that youth and student travel has taken within the global tourism industry over the last decades. More young people travel and do so more frequently and over greater distances than ever before. UNWTO estimates that youth travellers account for 20% of the international tourist arrivals each year. In 2014, it is estimated young people accounted for 220 million of the 1.1 billion international arrivals. Longer stays and more direct contact with the local economy mean that young travellers make valuable economic and social contributions to the places they visit. ey o en undertake longer trips than a typical tourist as their travel activities are o en oriented toward learning and increasing knowledge. Young people are also keen to travel during the year with no particular restriction; youth travel is motivated by many factors, including the desire to experience other cultures, build life experience, and benefit from formal and informal learning opportunities from other countries. According to the Millennial Traveller Report from WYSE Travel Confederation, the current economic climate, social inequality, and education are of the most concern to Millennials. ey view work experience, having a university degree, and studying hard as the top three factors that are most important for shaping future success. Building on these premises, and thus perfectly addressing the challenges and scope of the call, EUMillennialsTOUR s general objective is to create a transnational tourism product for the school-trip tourism market, addressed to secondary schools and High Education Institutes/ ACADs (2 separate target groups: 15~18 yrs; 19~25 yrs), increasing the competitiveness of the EU tourism and capitalising the shared value of European industrial heritage sites by also complementing national, regional and local policies in the field of creative industries and industrial heritage tourism. 2015 will celebrate the European Industrial and Technical Heritage Year, an event endorsed by the Council of Europe. Similarly, the general theme of the EU Heritage Days, in September 2015, will be the industrial and technical heritage. is will represent a robust promotion opportunity for the project. Specific objectives are: 1. to stimulate the young generations to the value of EU industrial heritage sites as memory of our past, in particular regarding the remarkable period of the Industrial Revolution, representing a unique moment in our history for the progress of humanity, from a cultural and social perspective, and a strong mean of EU cultural identity; 2. to support young people in their knowledge capitalisation, by providing direct and life experiences in those places where the industrial revolution happened, connecting
learning objectives (textile&fashion; design; art&cra ) to the travel experience; 3. to offer unique opportunities to participate to engaging workshops during the trip, up-skilling their competences also in new emerging technologies such as 3D printing; 4. ultimately to show all the tourism value chain how sustainability is a relevant key in terms of sustaining and diversifying tourism throughout the year, in a responsible manner as well as fair in practices. us EUMillennialsTOUR intends to: Support the extension of the tourism season, hence contributing to improve SME's competitiveness and jobs growth by involving them in the tourism product development; Contribute to the differentiation of the European tourism offer by developing 1 transnational tourism product based on industrial heritage sites in Europe - in particular relating to textile and fashion industry - attractive and affordable for youth as well as for teachers, competitive in times of the economic crisis, enhancing European identity. Promote the tourism product under the paradigm of sustainable /responsible tourism. Improve the competitiveness of SMEs active in the tourism sector by raising their awareness on the positive effect of transnational routes on SMEs competitiveness and involving them in the creation of transnational tourism product as service providers. Facilitate and enhance PPPs, thus transnational cooperation, by fostering and preparing the transfer of good practices and providing 1 discussion forum focused on the promotion of industrial heritage sites and on effective policy making for boosting CCIs/creatives potentials. Strengthen the managerial and promotional skills of public and private stakeholders, thus improving jobs growth, i.e. those in charge of the promotion of European industrial heritage sites as well as of policy makers dealing with education, cultural and creative industries (CCIs) through an e-learning course and preparing the transfer of good practices. is will be applied also to tourism professionals. Improve youth s awareness about the relevance of industrial heritage sites, in particular those recalling the Industrial Revolution, as mean for EU cultural identity and citizenship as well as vehicle for knowledge capitalisation, through ad hoc digital didactics material (storytelling) about the sites they will visit during the trip, thus increasing intra-eu mobility. Promote industrial heritage as a vehicle for sustainable development in regions in crisis by upgrading the skills of young workers in the promotion of industrial heritage sites and tourism sector in order to increase their employability, thus improving jobs growth in the field of youth employment in the field of tourism and culture. Develop a mobile application, displaying the information on the industrial heritage sites in real time, using gamification and storytelling criteria to be appealing in particular to the youth. Develop a digital edu-kit for teachers and students to be used before-during-a er the trips. Conduct research analysis before/during the pilot actions, to gather data and analyse them in order to produce recommendations and guidelines. e selected industrial heritage sites will be linked together by a common industrial revolution topic, i.e. the textile and fashion industry, enhancing differences and commonalities both as regard the development of the textile and fashion industries in the different participating countries as well as the different/common traditions in the fashion industry. is will allow to enhance at the same time unique cultural identity but also the influences of the different EU traditions and cultures on the fashion sector, all
this comprised in a distinctive transnational narrative logic. e linking elements among the different destinations/sites will be represented by their relevance to creativity, design, innovation, but also to a key element in our times: sustainability. All these factors will turn these places into the ideal destinations where youth could learn-by-visiting/practicing being inspired by what the past has to tell us to forge their future. Links to the 3rd industrial revolution will be of paramount importance as 3D printing is disrupting education as well as industry, so life experiences in this context will be offered within the trip by the involvement of Fablabs and Innovation Centres. [ ] (/Extract)