CIFAL Malaga - Sustainable Tourism Strategies for Local Development
The Agenda 2030 was agreed in September 2015 by the heads of state in the United Nations General Assembly. At the core of the 2030 Agenda are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The universal, transformational and inclusive SDGs describe major development challenges for humanity. They cover global challenges that are crucial for the survival of humanity. They set environmental limits and set critical thresholds for the use of natural resources. The goals address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection and job opportunities while tackling climate change and environmental protection. The SDGs address key systemic barriers to sustainable development such as inequality, unsustainable consumption patterns, weak institutional capacity and environmental degradation.
This introductory course provides an introduction to Sustainable tourism development guidelines and management practices which are applicable to all forms of tourism in all types of destinations, including mass tourism and the various niche tourism segments. Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability.
In this version of the course, a general overview of how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the tourism industry will be studied.
The ultimate goal of the course is that participants will be able to understand and apply key concepts about sustainability to the management of tourism destinations, and also to understand the conceptual framework of the Sustainable Development Goals applied to tourism and know how to apply them in relation to the management of destinations. Lastly, to understand the importance of communication techniques to raise awareness of sustainability.
- To discover the link between sustainable tourism poverty by analysing how the creation of stable and decent employment and income-earning opportunities can contribute to better social services to the host communities, and to contribute to poverty alleviation.
- To acquire the required knowledge to apply optimal use of environmental resources
- To discuss how to maintain essential ecological processes and to help to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity
- To enable learners to collaborate, negotiate and communicate to promote the SDGs as well as self-reflection skills, values, attitudes and motivations that enable learners to develop them.
- To consider different ways of respecting the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities by conserving their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values
- To compose viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed
- To learn about the COVID-19 pandemic and all its consequences
- MODULE 1. Contextualizing tourism to enhance local development
MODULE 2. Applying the 17 SDGs to the local destination - MODULE 3. Strategic development of the local destiny
- MODULE 4. Sustainability as a tool for competitiveness and quality of the local destination
- MODULE 5. Towards a new tourism model
E-Learning: The course is internet-based, moderated by a CIFAL Malaga expert on SDGs, asynchronous, and places emphasis on online discussions and self-paced learning. The participants will be primarily responsible for their own learning over the duration of the course. The course will consist of the following components:
- Compulsory and optional reading material, intended to teach the basic concepts and principles of the module's subject-matter;
- External links to additional books, articles, documents, and websites related to the modules;
- Quizzes and case studies at the end of each module. To be eligible for the course certificate, a passing grade of 80% on the final quiz is required;
- The course includes a tutoring system through the virtual platform Forum or e-mail, so that the student can contact the teacher of the course without any problem in case of any doubt.
- A Community Discussion Board is also available for participants to post questions or comments visible to the instructor and other participants
All sectors of society interested in learning more about sustainable tourism. The course is specially addressed to political authorities and government officials working in the tourist sector, but also professionals from the private sector, NGOs, university researchers and students can benefit
from the course.
Participants will be eligible to receive a certificate of completion after the successful completion of the course.
- The course is offered in Spanish.
- We highly recommend credit card or Paypal payments.
- We recommend the following as a minimum in hardware and software to take our e-Learning courses.
Platform: Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT, ME, XP or superior; MacOS 9 or MacOS X; Linux
Hardware: 64 MB of RAM, 1 GB of free disk space
Software:
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Adobe Flash Player
- Microsoft Office (Windows or Mac) or Open Office
- Browser: Internet Explorer 11 or higher; Safari version 8.0 or higher
- Note that JavaScript, Cookies and Pop-ups must be enabled
- For more information, please consult the CIFAL Malaga website or contact info [at] cifalmalaga.org (info[at]cifalmalaga[dot]org)