Knowledge development, education and growth in tourism are the basis of a partnership announced between Google and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) during ITB Berlin, the world`s leading travel trade fair. Google will support UNWTO members in addressing the new digital trends and transformation challenges faced by tourism. It will address the digital skills needed by the sector to fully harness its development potential and contribution to sustainability.
Digital skills are vital for competitiveness in tourism, a sector characterized by technological change and the generation of new business models.
As said by UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili “This agreement with Google coincides with UNWTO’s special focus on education, skills development and jobs, the connecting thread of all our actions this year”.
“Google is an affiliate member of UNWTO and this partnership proves the importance of public-private collaboration to advance tourism as a vehicle for sustainable development”, he further added.
“More than half of tourism revenue in the EU is now researched or booked online. By equipping tourism ministries with the skills, tools and programmes they need to market and protect themselves online, we hope it will increase opportunities for jobs and revenue across the industry. Following a similar tourism programme we ran in Greece, 68% of participating businesses confirmed they saw concrete business results following our training, such as more visitors to their website or physical business.”said by Lutz Behrendt, Travel Industry Leader, from Google.
A High-Level Dialogue on Digital Skills in Tourism set the backdrop for announcing the agreement. Organized by UNWTO with the support of Google during ITB Berlin,the event emphasized that digital skills development remain a major priority for destinations around Europe.
Further detail on the training and partnership will be announced in due course.
