Croatia sustainable tourism success

Over 350 students from Croatia, Poland, Greece and Latvia complete sustainable tourism courses

Educational institutions have offered courses in Sustainability in Tourism to students in 4 EU countries (Croatia, Poland, Greece and Latvia) with more than 350 of them successfully completing the courses.

Another result of the project is an exchange of best practices between travel agencies and tour operators from 5 EU countries.

After a successful last year during which more than 350 students passed their exams and received a certificate, based on the positive remarks and interest by students the educational institutions involved continue to carry out the lifelong learning sustainable tourism. educational programmes.

In this academic year even more interest from students in Croatia, Greece, Latvia and Poland is expected. The students see the certificate as an investment in their education and consider it do be an advantage in their future endeavours.

Educational system for tourism isn’t a merely theoretical approach. It is also essential to educate the students by raising their awareness of corporate social responsibility, providing them with the examples of good practices for the sustainable management of a tourism enterprise and with update of new trends and preferences of tourists so, as graduates, they have practical knowledge and skills for running tourism companies sustainably and successfully.

"The Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management in Opatija implemented the educational programme Travelife for travel agencies for the first time, which makes it among the first educational institutions in Croatia to use this programme in the process of lifelong learning. The programme had been achieved by involving students within the "Marketing of Travel agencies" and "Quality Management" courses."

"The positive experiences and opinions about this way of working and learning are shared by both students and mentors. The realization of this programme offers students the opportunity to gain additional competences and increase their competitiveness in an ever more demanding market, which is surely a cause for recommending this form of lifelong learning." Dora Smol-i-‡ Jurdana, dean of Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Opatija

 "Examples of our activities in the field of sustainable tourism have for a long time been a part of our business practices and we consider them to be an added value to our suppliers, as well as tourists. By including destinations which other travel agencies avoided to our programs we not only helped the local community, but through a different, sustainable, approach became noticed in the market by offering new and different products which were appreciated by our customers." -½eljko Kelemen, director of Huck Finn travel agency

"When we started the programme with traditional boat tours instead of standard ship cruises, we weren’t sure of how the customers will react to this, but now our clients always point out that this was one of their most impressive experiences from the tour. Our case indicates that a sustainable choice can be commercially very successful." Leszek Ostaszewski, director of Travel Projekt, Poland.

"Our passion for bird watching motivated us to start a project which many thought would be unsuccessful, but our responsibility and deep respect for nature and local knowledge ensured their success. But, we didn’t stop here. Our offer includes souvenirs such as wooden birdhouses and feeders for birds which help our clients discover nature and come closer to it in a sustainable way." Andris Klepers, Motacilla travel agency

Valere Tjolle

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