Who is this site for?

Tourism Learning Areas are of concern to all stakeholders in the tourism industry and related sectors, since a well-run Learning Area can provide the continuous information, training and learning processes needed in our modern European 'knowledge-based' economy. Specifically, however, the target group for this Portal consists of government departments, business associations and social partners that deal with tourism, education, employment, environment and information technology .

A Tourism Learning Area will encompass all these sectors, and will develop a complex set of partnerships and networks to make it work. To achieve this, it is clear that the implementation phase of a Learning Area is to be undertaken by public administrative and educational bodies who can take a leading role in the process . Who does this and how they structure their work is the subject of the Handbook available from this site . Therefore the contents of this handbook should be of primary interest to:

1. Regional development organizations (Coordinating bodies, sectoral departments, public-private partnerships)
2. Local/regional authorities (Councils NUTS III - V)
3. Learning Centres (Educational or training institutes)

In this target group, the Handbook is aimed at two types of individuals in such organisations -

• Individuals with policy level decision-making capability who can undertake an action to ensure a Learning Area policy is developed at destination level (or for a thematic area).
• Individuals whose job will be to implement, manage and advise on that policy as it unfolds as a networking/partnership/IT exercise.

Additionally, the use of a Tourism Learning Area is of interest to:

• Business Associations (SMES, managers, owners, employees)
• Local social partners (Trade Unions, NGOs)
• Individual consumers, destination residents and workers

This group will find the Handbook of interest in as much as they will be the beneficiaries of Learning Area processes, and should be included in the construction of individual Tourism Learning Areas.

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