National Tourism Organizations’ online training offer. Switzerland Travel Academy Case Study

Nadzeya Kalbaska

Abstract


A large number of studies have been undertaken so far both by academic researchers and by communities from the industry on the use of the Internet for educational purposes. However, very limited research has yet been done on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as educational and training modes within the hospitality and tourism field. Travel agent training, certification processes and the use of ICTs to deliver training to the travel trade have been largely excluded from previous academic
research.

This study aims to address this research gap in order to understand the range of e-learning in the tourism field. It explores the use of e-learning courses created by national
tourism organizations for the education and certification of their travel trade partners. This research will present the managerial perspective and will evaluate one of the best cases of e-learning courses presenting tourism destinations – the Switzerland Travel Academy.

This paper will present the overall cycle of the course design, looking in particular at how the e-learning course has been designed, developed, implemented and assessed.
Switzerland Tourism’s motivation for having such a training tool, the history of the training platform, management structure and usages will be discussed as well.


Keywords


Tourism Training, E-learning, DMOs, Travel Trade, Destination Marketing

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