Developing Tourism Curriculum Content to Support International Tourism Growth and Competitiveness: An Example from the Central Baltic Area

ABSTRACT

This article presents an example of developing tourism curriculum content in regional cooperation to support the growth and competitiveness of international tourism in the Central Baltic Area. The whole area should be developed as a common tourism destination, but lack of suitable skills and availability of skilled workforce hinders the development. The necessary skills and knowledge were identified by considering the context and potential applications of skills and knowledge. The data were collected in Latvia and Finland by interviewing the tourism stakeholders (n = 76). The analysis resulted in five categories of skills and knowledge: product and experience development, multi-channel sales and marketing communication, multi-sectorality and cooperation, managing business operations, cultural awareness and internationalization. It can be concluded that the stakeholders identified mostly operational level skills and knowledge required by the SMEs. They did not deem important the skills and knowledge at the strategic level to facilitate management and development of destinations.

KEYWORDS:

• Competitiveness
• curriculum development
• international tourism
• skills
• the Baltic Sea
• tourism education

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Territorial Cooperation framework (ETC), Interreg Central Baltic Programme 2014–2020.