Project Duration: 1. 11. 2025 – 31. 10. 2027
Program: Erasmus+
Lead Partner: Háskólinn á Akureyri, Iceland
Partner Countries: Slovenia, Austria, Ireland, and Germany
Project Budget: €250.000, with approved funding for RCSS amounting to €35.784,00
Project Description:
The current tourism sector in Europe is facing numerous changes (legislation, sustainability requirements, digitalization, climate change, demographic shifts, and evolving consumer needs), which pose increasing challenges for tourism providers. These challenges also affect the (un)successful transfer of businesses. Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially family businesses, lack structured approaches to succession planning, which often leads to business failure, job losses, and reduced resilience of the local economy. The Next GEN Tourism project addresses this challenge with modern, flexible, and inclusive solutions in the field of vocational education and training (VET).
Next GEN Tourism is an international project bringing together six partners from five European Union countries. The project aims to strengthen the readiness of tourism SMEs for succession by developing innovative educational content, including training modules, digital self-assessment tools for succession readiness, and an educational online platform. These outputs aim to empower VET providers, SMEs, and business advisors to effectively address succession challenges. The project also promotes the integration of new content and tools into vocational education programs and business advisory services.
Key project activities include: forming focus groups, expert consultations, designing and delivering educational content, and developing and testing digital tools.
Next GEN Tourism directly contributes to three key priorities of European VET:
- Adapting vocational education to labor market needs: Many tourism SMEs, especially family businesses, lack sufficient knowledge for succession planning, leading to business closures and job losses.
- Increasing flexibility of learning opportunities: Educational content is designed to be delivered in diverse learning environments – classroom, hybrid, or self-paced online learning.
- Inclusion and diversity: The project also targets vulnerable groups, such as successors from remote areas, female entrepreneurs, and inexperienced successors of tourism SMEs.
Through a holistic approach focused on the sustainable future of the sector, Next GEN Tourism strengthens the role of vocational education, promotes early and professional succession planning, and reduces the risk of failed business transfers. Consequently, the project contributes to the long-term resilience and sustainable growth of the European tourism sector.
Contact: jasna.presecki@razvoj.si or +386 1 896 27 10 (Development Center of Central Slovenia)
