Greek Gov’t Lays Groundwork for Advanced Tourism Education

Photo: GTP

In view of the tourism sector’s robust performance and increasingly key role as a top economic driver, the Greek tourism ministry is preparing the groundwork for the upgrade of the tourism education system.

Addressing the 7^th Regional Development Conference in the port city of Patra this week, Deputy Tourism Minister Manos Konsolas announced plans to set up a university specializing in tourism studies as well as upgrading curricula offered in current vocational training programs.

“We are moving ahead with plans looking to the future,” said Konsolas, adding that the goal is to successfully “link tourism education with the economy of the future and modern trends”.

Konsolas stressed that the ministry’s priority is to do away with outdated practices, which he said is the main handicap of current tourism education, adding that a far-reaching strategy focusing on specialization was necessary.

Deputy Tourism Minister Manos Konsolas

The deputy minister referred to a lacking and lagging tourism educational system that now requires targeted programs and contemporary study subjects “driven by the needs of the market”.

Konsolas added that the aim is to educate and immediately create areas of specialization that are both in high demand and well-paid.

In this direction, he said the ministry was drawing up four-pronged legal framework for tourism focusing on bringing tourism education up to par with the new tourism development model; establishing a university specializing in tourism and hospitality studies with modern fields of training and areas of specialization, foreign language courses and market-related classes; upgrading the current tourism school programs to include new study areas in the field of alternative tourism and offering the possibility of postgraduate-level studies; and moving ahead with integrated study and training programs for vocational education and apprenticeship schools.