Μια ενδιαφέρουσα συζήτηση On line με θέμα “Κοινωνική οικονομία, βιώσιμος τουρισμός και πανδημία COVID-19” οργανώθηκε με πρωτοβουλία της Ευρωπαϊκής Επιτροπής και του ευρωπαϊκού δικτύου SOCIAL ECONOMY EUROPE. Συμμετείχαν φορείς από τον χώρο του βιώσιμου τουρισμού, όπως τα Ilunion Hotels, ένα γκρουπ 26 ξενοδοχείων που λειτουργούν ως Ειδικά Κέντρα Εκπαίδευσης, το δίκτυο Κέντρων Υποστήριξης της Κοινωνικής Οικονομίας στην Δυτική Πομερανία (Πολωνία) West Pomeranian Network of Social Economy Support Centers, ο Διεθνής Οργανισμός Κοινωνικού Τουρισμού (International Social Tourism Organisation (ISTO), καθώς και το δίκτυο Social Economy Europe. Στη συζήτηση που επικέντρωσε στο πώς κοινωνικές επιχειρήσεις στον τουρισμό επηρεάζονται από την κρίση και τι μπορούν να μάθουμε από αυτές για την έξοδο από την κρίση και για το μέλλον του τουρισμού πήρε μέρος και ο Άνεμος Ανανέωσης για το καινοτόμο WELCOMMON HOSTEL.
Διαβάστε το ενδιαφέρον υλικό για καλά παραδείγματα βιώσιμου τουρισμού, πώς επιδρά η πανδημία και τα μέτρα και στον βιώσιμο τουρισμό, πώς τουριστικοί φορείς συνέβαλαν να αντιμετωπιστούν προβλήματα μέσα στην πανδημία. Ποιοι είναι οι κίνδυνοι κι οι ευκαιρίες για την επόμενη μέρα
Participants
- Ilunion Hotels, Ms. Beatriz Miguel, Operations Director. Ilunion Hotels is a group of 26 Spanish hotels run as Special Employment Centres. This is a new kind of integration model in the tourism industry and can be used as an example to showcase workforce integration. In a Special Employment Centre, over 70% of workers are people with some type of disability. Its main aim is to carry out productive work within the market in which it operates, ensuring paid employment and the provision of services through the personal and social adjustments required by workers with a disability. Miss Beatriz Miguel will explain how this enterprise is dealing with the pressing circumstances in the tourism sector.
- West Pomeranian Network of Social Economy Support Centers (SZOWES), Justyna Iwankiewicz, Coordinator and Pawel Klimek, Animator and Public Procurement Specialis, would like to show in a cross-cutting context the specificity of social economy entities contributing to the still young and growing tourism industry and its social economy actors.
- International Social Tourism Organisation (ISTO), Charles-E. Bélanger, Director, will bring some examples of initiatives carried out by ISTO members and briefly present the positioning of ISTO in favor of Social tourism.
As a result of our collection of best practices from Social Economy and civil society in the fight against the Corona virus, we decided to share some of them in thematic on-line sessions. Τhis will give the chance to analyse and understand the modus operandi and allow learning opportunities for other regions, cities, ecosystems and social enterprises. We have selected for this session the topic the Sustainable Tourism in cooperation with Social Economy Europe (SEE) and International Social Tourism Organisation (ISTO).
This session focused on how social enterprises in tourism industry are dealing with the crisis and what can we learn from them for the exit strategy and the future of tourism?
| Overview discussion |
| Beatriz Miguel – Ilunion Hotels Ilunion is a unique business model conceived from the perspective of and for people, the goal of which is to create quality employment for people with disabilities. And the best way to achieve this goal is to develop and professionalise profitable and sustainable lines of business that offer a specialised, comprehensive and high value service. Ilunion is staffed by 35,000 professionals, 13,000 of whom are people with disabilities (38%). Moreover, attesting to diversity as one of the most important values: over 55% of our staff are women and nearly 5% of different national extraction. They are not only the biggest employer of people with disabilities in Spain. They also try to constantly innovate by intense collaboration with its stake – shareholders, the Once foundation within their own centers of thought and research, and with which they generate important synergies for the promotion of the Universal Accessibility. Response to COVID19 Some of the hotels facilities are turned into spaces for medical facilities and offering its hotels facilities to local hospitals, for example for recovery of patients. Furthermore, the hotels wanted to help several nursing homes by providing beds and thus facilitate their tireless work and shorten their travel time to work. Ilunion is currently in negociation with the Health Ministry in Madrid to turn two more hotels in Madrid into medical facilities. Other cities with similar initiatives are Barcelona, Zaragoza, Sevilla Malaga and Cadiz. Another project is the Foodie Box, which is making available 9 food carts for nursing homes, thus favouring a high-risk group: our elderly. Several food donations were done to organisations helping people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups such as homeless. As an anticipation to restart the hotel business itself, all teams receive ongoing training in health and safety processes. Therefore all protocols are updated based on the recommendations of health and safety experts: – Complete disinfection of common areas, – Disinfection of rooms, – creation of Safe spaces and – investment in protection for employees and clients (clothing and gear)  . Links Shared www.ilunionhotels.comwww.ilunion.com Presentation PDF Video https://youtu.be/_TrMO4bZpaM |
| Justyna Iwankiewicz and Pawel Klimek – West Pomeranian Network of Social Economy Support Centers (SZOWES) Poland is most known for it tourism spots such as Krakow, Warsaw, Poznan and the Tatra mountains. The West Pomeranian Region, including its sea coastline on north and border with Germany on west – over 180km each has developed a highly developed recreational tourism and cross-border tourism. Social economy organisations are very new in this this sector and are mainly providing services and events based on local natural and historical values.Since the COVID19 crisis these enterprises are suffering like any other SME from the restrictions taken. SZOWES has identified several threats to the social economy tourism sectors: – customer concerns to make use of tourist services based on social interaction – high risk of new restrictions due to a recurrence of the pandemic – reduction of employment potential – lack of funds for investment and development expenditures (effect of loss of financial liquidity and credit worthiness) – limited public transport Opportunities are: – building a dedicated ‘integration tourism’ offer for social service workers, health care workers, disabled people returning to employment. – creating a dedicated individual / family (B2C) one-day offer, taking into account the sanitary regime and restrictions on the number of participants (including the use of IT technology, local games) – Developement of new services and infrastructure (rental of bicycles, water adventure, exploration) – Attracting new clients by providing domestic tourist packages for regional clients, who usually decided on foreign destinations.   Links Shared SOCIAL ECONOMY ENTITIES – WEST POMERANIA, POLAND https://www.facebook.com/KKR.Rycerze/ https://www.facebook.com/Fundacja-Droga-Lotha-273860569782897/ https://www.facebook.com/totuczaplinek/ https://www.facebook.com/KoszalinskaKolejWaskotorowa https://www.facebook.com/KooperatywaLaznia/ https://www.facebook.com/Centrum-S%C5%82owian-i-Wiking%C3%B3w-Wolin-Jomsborg-Vineta-245778572122704/ https://www.facebook.com/Juchowo https://www.facebook.com/Centrum-Integracji-Spo%C5%82ecznej-Od-Nowa-481263235590719/ https://www.facebook.com/ndsfund/ SZOWES https://www.facebook.com/OWES-Koszalin-471574019567752/ https://www.facebook.com/owesregionstargardzki/ https://www.facebook.com/OWES.Szczecin/ https://www.facebook.com/szowes/?tn-str=k*F www.szowes.pl http://owes.koszalin.pl/ https://owes.es/ http://owes.ndsfund.org/ http://aktywneowes.pl/ Presentation |
| Charles-E. Bélanger, Director International Social Tourism Organisation The International Social Tourism Organisation (ISTO) brings together stakeholders from the social, sustainable and solidarity tourism sectors from all over the world, ISTO promotes the development of tourism for all and make holidays accessible to the greatest number of people and support forms of tourism that benefit people, communities and local areas. These include responsible, solidarity, fair and community tourism. ISTO has 159 members all over the world aligned along the ISTO DNA. ISTO has 5 priority axis: – Foster Accessibility – Demonstrate Solidarity – Ensure Quality of life – Promote Fair Business Protect the Environment Initiatives taken during the crisis One of the strongest impact in the tourism sector was the closure of most of the tourist accommodations which means in our sector, holiday centers and villages, youth hostels, camping, .. In some countries, these accommodations were used for medical purposes or for helping people without a place to stay. It was the case in Belgium with the Van Gogh youth hostel based in the center of Brussels. At the end of March, the hostel – which was empty – was asked by local authorities to host homeless during the containment period. Since April 6, the hostel is accommodating 42 persons who can stay there and have meals with the support of the social services provided by the local authorities. Another good example happened in Portugal where the INATEL Foundation which owns 15 holiday centers across the countries and has special programs for seniors was asked by the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security to keep its centers available for seniors who would need to be in safe place while residential cares register people infected by the virus. In France; one of the biggest associations managing holiday villages across the country, Village Vacance VVF – they receive more than 400 000 holidaymakers a year in their 90 villages – has welcome in one of their village in the Puy de Dôme some 30 migrant families with children in dignified conditions during the crisis period. This operation was made possible thanks to the support of the Secours Populaire Français which is permanently present at their side to raise awareness on prevention measures and to bring food, hygiene products and games for the children at home. Post-crisis Initiatives Several of our members – private or public organisations – are preparing the future and proposing new ideas in order to rebuilt part – but differently with a new vision – of what will be lost after the crisis. Here are some examples.In Italy, the association of the Most Beautiful Villages called Borghi Più Belli – is preparing a communication and marketing plan that will be put in place after the confinement phase. It is a very articulated plan that foresees the creation of messages aimed at promoting the choice of the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy when it will be possible to start travelling again. A campaign that foresees two phases: – the first for Italians and the second, later, for the foreign market. The first important initiative will take place in all of their 309 villages at the end of June and will be dedicated to romance in the villages. In France, the Union Nationale des Associations de Tourisme (UNAT) which represents the biggest number of stakeholders in the field of social and fair tourism has made several proposal on short and long terms to the National Government. There are financial proposals in order to help the supply side – national guarantee fund, reduction in property taxes; temporary reduction in VAT, aid to operators, guaranteed loans – but also to support holiday departures for French people especially for children and young people (better access to the summer camps and school trips), for families and seniors (extension of the holiday voucher), as well as for people with disabilities (reduce cost for trips and provide better access to the information). Public authorities are also playing an important role. It is the case in Belgium where Visit Flanders has made available a budget of 5 million € for social and youth tourism. Additionally, the agency will no longer collect rent from youth hostels, which adds up to an additional EUR 1 million in support. In Latin America where we also have several members, its It should be noted that “some countries” such as Guatemala, Costa Rica, Peru and Colombia are working on “reactivation plans”.One of the most common trend we can observe is that in many cases, there will be strong policies, programs and promotion in favor of domestic tourism. We all know that international tourism will take to restart and that a lot of people will prefer to go on holidays not too far from home. Opportunity to bring more social, environmental and societal added value in the tourism sector:Improve the social access in tourism, the right to have holidays and leisure.Create a tourism that respects the territory and contributes to its prosperityCreate more interaction between hosts and visitors, cultural exchangeRespect and protect the environment Innovation for new niches in tourism sector and discover area’s with lower developed tourism industriesStimulate fair and sustainable business in tourismImprove accessibility in the tourism sector as wholeUse the SDG’s as basic principles for the economic development of tourism sectorMoreover this crisis might be a good reason to revalue domestic and local tourism, as many people will not be able to travel abroad. This is a big opportunity to develop new forms of tourism nearby or in ‘own region’. Links Shared ISTO https://isto.international/cp_news/promote-a-sensible-tourism-tomorrow/Union nationale des associations de tourisme (UNAT) unat.asso.fr https://www.unat.asso.fr/sites/unat.asso.fr/files/UNAT/_Actualites/fichiers/2020-04_note_unat_proposition_covid_v5.pdf Visit Flander s https://www.toerismevlaanderen.be/nieuws/coronavirus-concrete-steunmaatregelen-voor-toeristische-sector https://www.flandersinvestmentandtrade.com/invest/en/news/covid-19-measures-limit-business-impact-in-flanders Borghi Più Belli d’Italia https://borghipiubelliditalia.it/ Youth Hostel van Gogh https://en.hostelvangogh.com/ INATEL Foundation https://www.inatel.pt /https://www.inatel.pt/INATELstag/media/Home-Page/Comunicado_INATEL_20200323_File.pdf Village VVF https://www.vvf-villages.fr/ https://www.vvf-villages.fr/espace-presse-villages-vacances.html Secours Populaire français https://www.secourspopulaire.fr/72/migrants-refugies-calais International organisations mobilised in favour of tourism: https://isto.international/cp_news/international-organisations-mobilised-in-favour-of-tourism/ Presentation & notes: Presentation + DocumentPromote a sensible tourism tomorrow (EN and FR): PDF PDF |
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