Press conference of the Master course in “Inclusive Tourism Manager” – Genova (IT), May 5th

On Thursday May 5th at a beautiful location on the premises of the Aquarium of Genova (IT), the University of Genova and AISM organised a press conference to present the In-Tour pilot Master course in “Inclusive Tourism Manager”.

The press conference hosted high-level speakers from the Italian Region of Liguria – Ilaria Cavo, Councillor of the Liguria Region in charge of Social Policies and the Third Sector; Giovanni Berrino, Councillor of the Liguria Region in charge of Labour and Employment Policies – Nicoletta Dacrema, Vice-Rector of the University of Genova; Beppe Costa, President and CEO of Costa Edutainment; and Paolo Bandiera, AISM Director for General Affairs and Institutional Relations.

The innovative one-year pilot Master course is the result of the collaboration between the In-Tour partners, and it represents a unique opportunity to participate in a professionalising training course in a multidisciplinary area of great interest to companies and stakeholders in the inclusive tourism sector.

The course is due to start in July 2022 and is free of charge. 22 graduates will be able to participate. The aim of this course is to provide the students with the right set of competencies, skills, and knowledge to become Managers for Accessible Tourism organisations.

The Master's programme will enable the acquisition of skills and professionalism essential to:

• analyse customer needs to provide accessible and inclusive environments, services, information and communications.
• design, plan and implement overall accessible environments, services, information and communications, both physically and virtually.
• monitor, evaluate and maintain the quality of tourism offerings in terms of accessibility and inclusiveness.
• manage human resources, communicate, interact, and collaborate with customers and other stakeholders.

To achieve these objectives, the course is made up of three didactic modules with 240 hours of frontal teaching delivered by academics and professionals. This is followed by an internship of 400 hours and a final project work, requiring 100 hours.

During the press conference, some relevant features of the Master’s programme were stressed. The course is considered very innovative, especially for the Italian context, considering the general topic and the specific competences and skills.

As job opportunities in this area are growing, the degree will provide students with a broad variety of career choices once completed. The In-Tour Master course is a first, meaningful step to fill the skills gap for specialist roles in the labour market and contribute to a more inclusive Touristic sector.