National Tourist Association Slovenia is organized annual competition YOUTH FOR TOURISM for secondary schools. Topic of the 17th conference, that will be held on 29th March 2012, is "Development of social entrepreneurship in tourism".

Participate and win!

   
The purpose of the survey is to analyze your opinion about tourism in Serbia. Your feedback through this survey is very valuable and greatly appreciated. Your responses are processed electronically and anonymously for mere statistical purposes and will not be passed on to third parties!

As a small thank you for your participation, you will have the opportunity to take part in a raffle. The draw among all participants includes iPod.

To access the survey please click HERE

About the project in short:

In 2010, Serbian government started with the project 'Support to implementation of the National Strategy for Tourism', funded by the European Union. The overall objective of the project is to increase the contribution of Serbia’s tourism sector to the National Economy. Mag. Janez Sirše, head of consulting at the International Tourism Institute, is involved in the project as a key expert and the Team Leader.

www.tourismsupport.rs

To ensure equal rights for all people, including the disabled who represent about 10 % of world population and whose number is rapidly increasing, people aged 65 or over and all their relatives, we have to create a more accessible society, including more accessible tourism services.

The main aim of the project is to improve accessibility of tourism services through tailored training for tourism employees on working with disabled and elderly guests, and to increase the competitiveness of tourism facilities and tourism workers on the labour market.

Therefore National Tourist Association, Slovenia has developed with partners modules for:

1. ACCESSIBLE TOURISM AND TOURISTS WITH DISABILITIES

• Market size and trends in accessible tourism   
• Types of disabilities and related needs
• How to cater for tourists with specific needs   
• Consequences on services and profitability

      2.  MARKETING ACCESSIBLE TOURISM

• Competitiveness   
• Segmentation
• The marketing mix   
• Final Practical tips for marketing accessible tourism

      3. DESIGNING ACCESSIBLE TOURISM SERVICES AND PRODUCTS

• SWOT analysis   
• SWOT matrix for accessible tourism product/service   
• Creating quality tourism product   

      4. PROVISION OF ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION

• Getting and distributing information   
• Characteristics of information   
• Specific elements to provide information according to specific needs   
• Retrieval and information distribution   
• Information distribution methods   

      5. WELCOMING  TECHNIQUES

• Overcoming Cultural Barriers to change   
• Which are the elements for a good welcoming?   
• Monitoring of the Service/Product quality: Customer satisfaction techniques   
• From CRM (Customer Relationship Management) TO CMR (Customer Management of Relationship)   
• Examples   
• Problem solving techniques
• Problem Solving in Tourism For All   

      6. EXAMPLES OF GOOD PRACTICES IN TOURIST FACILITIES

First trainings amnong tourism employees will be implemented in October 2011.

For any further information on trainings please do contact:

National Tourist Association, Ms Nina Pečoler, e-mail: nina.pecoler@ntz-nta.si

“Cultural tourism has a huge potential in the regions of Europe! Especially if it is possible to combine the impressive cultural heritage of European regions with modern trends in tourism.” This was the consensus of the participants to  the final conference of the European CrossCulTour project, that took place on 7th September 2011.  European experts on culture, tourism and politics assembled at a conference in the Representation of Saxony-Anhalt in Brussels to receive and debate the results of the EU project "CrossCulTour".

In the past three years, cultural tourism experts from different European regions (Saxony-Anhalt/Germany, Modena/Italy, Piedmont/Italy, Carinthia/Austria, Thuringia/Germany, Slovenia) have jointly developed future ideas for the expansion of cultural tourism, which have already been implemented in various projects. On afternoon workshop these results have been presented.  In the evening, a political debate discussed future funding and development opportunities. The event was attended by representatives of the EU Commission, the European Parliament, UNESCO, various state governments as well as cultural and tourism organisations. Speakers included Dr Horst Schnellhardt (Member of European Parliament), Valentino Izzo (European Commission), Marie Paule Roudil (Representative of the EU), John Winton (ECTN Coordinator), Alice Jude (NECSTouR Coordinator), Mieke Broeders (Member of the European Network for Accessible Tourism), Christophe Ebermann (Project Manager Central Europe ), Christoph Pienkoss (Director European Route of Brick Gothic) and Daniel Amersdorffer (Manager of “TourismusZukunft”).


European touring exhibition opened

The most interesting results of the CrossCulTour project will be presented in a European touring exhibition, which was opened during the conference. After being shown in Brussels, the exhibition will be touring through the participating regions in Germany, Italy, Austria and Slovenia (24th September 2011) in the coming months. It presents the results of the CrossCulTour project, including a newly designed map for cyclists interested in Romanesque architecture in the Province of Modena, themed cycle routes, audio guides and cultural signposting. In Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, the Saale cycle route was set up as a cultural connoisseur route. New information boards along eight themed one-day routes will draw cyclists' attention to particularly interesting places along the route. In Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Modena, audio gudies are available to the visitors for individual viewing. They can be downloaded from www.transromanica.com and taken along for the ride.

Exhibition and final event in Slovenia will take place on 24th September in Kamnik within European Heritage Day 2011.


Background of the EU project "CrossCulTour"

The EU project CrossCulTour stands for "Cross-Marketing Strategies for Culture and Tourism". The project brings together partners from the German federal states of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia (Germany), as well as Slovenia and the regions of Carinthia (Austria) and Modena and Piedmont (Italy). It emerged from the European Cultural Route TRANSROMANICA, initiated during a previous EU project in 2003. Starting from the common Romanesque heritage of the participating European regions, CrossCulTour also takes into account later periods and other cultural aspects of the regions; it establishes associations with marketing partners and promotes cross-industry collaborations.


Further Information: www.transromanica.com/crosscultour

International Tourism Institute actively participated at the Serbian Spa Congress, which was held between 16 and 18 May 2011 in Vrnjačka Banja, one of the largest Serbian thermal centres. Together with internationally renowned experts such as Dr. Kai Illing, an expert for wellness tourism, and Mag. Klaus Grabler, our partner from the field of tourism marketing, ITI's experts were the top speakers at the congress. In this manner, Mag. Janez Sirše, head of consulting service at the institute, presented the progress and current activities on the project of the implementation of Serbian tourism strategy, where he works as a team leader. Furthermore, Mag. Miha Bratec, expert at the institute, opened the congress with a lecture on accessible tourism, its potential benefits for Serbian spas and its development opportunities.

International Tourism Institute is one of nine partners in European project CrossCulTour, which aims to promote cultural sites and landscapes of central Europe by means of an appropriate cross-marketing approach to cultural tourism. It is based on the results of former project TRANSROMANICA, in which ITI and other partners developed European Cultural Route Transromanica, which was awarded by the Council of Europe and works under the European Institute of Cultural Routes.

University of Klagenfurt is this year organizing already the 2nd CrossCulTour Summerschool, which will take place from 13 to 16 September 2011 in Gurk (Carinthia) and will focus on "Symbolism in Medieval Architecture". Recognized experts from the field will conduct several workshops, with the discussions on symbolism in medieval architecture and future marketing possibilities. Besides that, excursions to nearby medieval sites and exchange with interested participants are on the agenda. Presentations will be held in German language.

All the participants will be awarded with 2 ECTS credit points.

Additional information, program and application form for the 2nd CC Summer School are available here. Program is as well available at the attachment below.

You can also look at the slideshow with pictures of the 1st CrossCulTour Summer School here. It took place in the medieval city of Friesach (Carinthia) in September 2010 and focused on the issue of alimentation and culinary art from medieval to modern times and future marketing possibilities. 

For more information, please contact:

Miss Nina Pečoler, Project Leader: nina.pecoler@ntz-nta.si

Accessible tourism (travelling and vacations for people with disabilities) is in recent year increasingly gaining in importance. Market segment with great potential is an economic opportunity for the tourism industry, besides that it is enjoying a high level of support from global organizations and the public, as it enables a practical implementation of the principles of equal opportunities and the social aspect of sustainable tourism. A systematic development of social tourism is also planned in the current Development Plan and Policies of Slovenian Tourism.

The workshop was moderated by Miha Bratec, who as well made a presentation on the characteristics and current issues in social and accessible tourism development and later talked about a Competitiveness Model for monitoring accessibility of tourism companies and destinations.

The second speaker was Urša Valič, a Junior Researcher and assistant at the Faculty of Arts, who spoke about the problems and needs of the people with disabilities when travelling. Workshop continued with Dolores Kores from Slovenian Association for Mental Health, who presented the first “disabled-friendly” certificate in Slovenia and the first travel agency, specialized in accessible tourism, Turag4All. Kristina Ravnikar, the director of travel agency Turag4All, continued with more detailed presentation of the travel agency, its business model, their objectives for the first year of operation and the opportunities for their potential business partners.The last section was dedicated for the presentation of training programs on accessible tourism. The speaker was Nina Pečoler from National Tourist Association.

The workshop concluded with a summary and a plenary discussion on the challenges of social and accessible tourism in Slovenia and the possibilities of cooperation for the interested tourism companies with National Tourist Association, Slovenian Association for Mental Health and Turag4all.

Do you want to become a part of accessible tourism network? Are you interested in the topic? Are you looking for accessible vacations? Please contact:

Nina Pečoler: nina.pecoler@ntz-nta.si
Miha Bratec: miha.bratec@ntz-nta.si 

Turag4All project is funded by the European Social Fund and the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs of Slovenia, under the fourth development priority "Equal opportunities and promotion of social inclusion" of the Operational Programme for Human Resources Development for the Period 2007-2013.