On 20 November the Edifici Blanc hosted the presentation of the new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Sustainable High-End Tourism, as part of the closing ceremony for the project Erasmus+ SUHET “Creating and Implementing Education for Sustainable High-end Tourism throughout Europe”.
The new online course, which has been available on the UAB Coursera platform since November, was presented by Francesc Romagosa, who is Head of Research at the UAB School of Tourism and Hotel Management and a researcher on this project.
Maria Noguera, the Director of UAB Tourism and Hotel Management highlighted the usefulness of this free, online course for students, lecturers and professionals for contributing to the sector and on the other hand the fact that it responds to the university’s objective to “generate and transfer knowledge to the whole of society on a global level”.
Students from the Bachelor’s degree in Tourism and Hotel Management at the school helped to validate the MOOC. At the end of 2022, four students from the school also travelled to Brussels to take part in educational activities and visit establishments in the sector with representatives of the universities of the project: the Erasmushogeschool Brussel (Belgium), the University of Maribor (Slovenia) and the Lapin AMK of Rovaniemi (Finland).
The Erasmus+ project which is forecast to be completed in June 2024 also plans for the participation of students in its last phase, with internship periods at different businesses and establishments to collect examples of good practice related to premium tourism and sustainability.
According to Francesc Romagosa, the high-end tourism sector has grown enormously in the last fifty years, and has evolved with the perspective of a new type of clientele, and even a new conception of “luxury”.
Participation by representatives of the public and private sectors
In the second part of the presentation Esteve Dot, lecturer and researcher on the project, moderated the round table “The Premium Tourist Sector in Catalonia: challenges for its sustainability”, with Beatriz Nubiola, Head of Brands from the Catalan Tourism Agency, Miquel Herrero, Head of Hospitality at Gramona, and Macarena Escolar, Sales Director at Hotel Mandarin Oriental.
Dot said that the participation by companies, accommodation providers and government bodies had been “key” for the research, which has benefited from their experience and perspective of the sector, and also visits to the installations to see their products and services first hand.
The Gramona cellars located in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, offer sparkling wines with very high positioning in the premium sector. They offer personalised and exclusive enotourism tours to make visitors feel ‘at home’, and show them their working method under the concept of biodynamic viticulture and self-sufficiency. Sustainability is, according to Miquel Herrero, part of the DNA.
For Macarena Escolar the Hotel Mandarin Oriental experience is emotional, but it is also dynamic and adaptable, as it caters for the needs and the sociocultural characteristics of its clients. Using an internal tool the team generates a global guest profile with the preferences of their guests right from the time of reservation. Digitalization is also present in other aspects of their management such as energy efficiency and waste disposal.
Beatriz Nubiola told us that the Catalan Tourism Agency currently has over a hundred companies that are members of their Catalunya Premium brand. These members receive mentoring and support for commercialisation and promotion, access to market information and intelligence, and training activities. The Agency also offers special conditions to companies who with environmental quality badges and certificates.
