Digital Marketing Competencies Development for Silver Tourism Expert (eSilver Tour)

Erasmus+ KA2 – Duration: 2 years ½ (October 2020 – March 2023)
No. 2020-1-FR01-KA202-079845

Partners:

- E-Seniors Association (France – coordinator)

- EOLAS (Spain)

- Aidlearn (Portugal)

- Confederação do Turismo de Portugal (Portugal)

- HELLAS 50+ (Greece)

- KAUNAS STP (Lithuania)

Aims:

The aim of the eSilver Tour is to develop Digital Marketing competences in seniors organizations staff and tourism professionals to answer the real tourism needs of senior people, by addressing the psychosocial and physical needs of older travelers and their expectations, as to identify and overcome the well embedded stereotypes about older people as being passive, less ambitious, less interested, less knowledgeable, less vital, and in need of rest. This VET course must develop the technological know-how to answer the increasing use of the Internet as a way not only communicate but, essentially, to negotiate on the tourism market.

The eSilver Tour combines, in an innovative way, the continuous vocational training (C-VET) of the organizations staff and tourism professionals to develop competencies of Digital Marketing specifically for Silver Tourism market, resulting in the increase in seniors participation in tourism activities by promoting more affordable products, while contributing to the creation/maintenance of employment in the tourism sector on medium and low season by fostering more affordable tourism offers for the senior population.

Results:

The eSilver Tour project is structured in 3 intellectual outputs (IOs):

· O1: Professional Profile of the eSilver Tourism Expert: analysis of Silver Tourism, Tourism Digital Marketing and the competencies for Active Ageing.

· O2: eSilver Tour B-Learning Content: developing a learning package and contents for eSilver Tour innovative blended course in Digital Marketing for Silver Tourism and Active Ageing through meeting the needs of seniors’ organizations staff and tourism professionals, thus expecting to be meaningful from a pedagogical point of view.

· O3: eSilver Tour Platform/Website: creating a high quality learning tool, user-friendly and visually attractive, incorporating the B-Learning Content into the platform; performing pilot actions with senior organisations’ staff and tourism professionals for validation purposes; doing the improvements resulting of validation moments; generalisation and multiplication of eSilver Tour products through speeding out information on the project and its results for the target-audience and other interested stakeholders.

Older people are not a homogeneous group actually they are more diversified than other groups of tourist consumers. Understanding active ageing is a pre-condition for a successful marketing of the Silver Tourism destination and products. In order to improve the quality of the touristic services promoted to older people by seniors organizations and tourism SMEs, eSilver Tour project intends to develop an innovative blended training course directly addressing to specific needs of the:

(1) Senior people organizations staff who wants to develop touristic products for their user/clients as well as students active in tourism;

(2) Tourism professionals, entrepreneurs and those staff of tourism SMEs that want to be specialized in Silver Tourism.

The blended learning course will develop innovative learning models and (e-) learning content which will be flexible enough (e.g. time and place) to address the training needs of target group, allowing the overall improvement of the tourist offer for Silver people. The learning model and content will consider strengths of on-site and e-learning (blended learning) and will include facilities for communication (forum, chat, etc.) among participants.

Website