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Experiential Sustainability I
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Swantje LehnersThe aim of the project by Futouris and Lufthansa City Centre is to impart basic knowledge about sustainability and to create a deeper understanding through practical experience, thereby anchoring this knowledge permanently in the sale of sustainability-oriented travel products.
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Projekct Results
The development of a comprehensive sustainability awareness tool for the travel agency industry with interactive elements for in-depth understanding and for various training purposes for the companies Lufthansa City Center (LCC) and TUI Leisure Travel (TLT) detachable sub-seminars.
Development and design of the ‘experiential sustainability’ training programme with theoretical content and a ‘live on-site experience’ for a deeper understanding of sustainability among travel agency employees, as well as communication of the possibilities and requirements of sustainable travel offers.
Implementation of the training programme with its theoretical and practical content. The programme consists of a preparatory and follow-up seminar, from which individual teaching formats for different training purposes at LCC and TLT can be extracted and applied separately. The core of the training programme is the interactive training part, in which travel agents become an active part of the Futouris projects using the special methodology of experiential learning.
Integration of the developed format into the overall project designed by the German Travel Association (working title: Green Counter) with the aim of providing a standard format for the entire travel industry in the medium to long term.
Experiencing sustainability in Germany and South Africa
Travel agencies are going green. The topic of sustainability and the question of how we can preserve and strengthen the Earth's natural and cultural resources for future generations has already reached large parts of the world's population. Numerous industries (energy, food and clothing) are responding to this, and their efforts in this area are not lost on consumers. The tourism industry, however, is taking a more cautious approach. New studies initiated by Futouris show that the most important interface with consumers – travel distribution – in particular is doing little or nothing to address the issue of sustainability. According to the results, this is often not due to a lack of willingness on the part of travel agents, but rather to a lack of education, information and offers in this area. As a result, travel agents currently have no access to or too little knowledge about the topic of sustainability in tourism. Existing educational programmes are not sufficiently developed to equip travel agents adequately for the topic of sustainability. As a result, customers cannot be adequately advised on sustainable travel options. To remedy this situation, it is essential for travel agents to engage with the topic of sustainability and understand what sustainability means. It is also necessary to provide appropriate training opportunities and travel products.
The DRV, as a strong professional association for travel distribution and patron of Futouris, has set itself the goal of providing appropriate support in this area and has asked Futouris to test certain sustainability test formats with the help of its members. Two of the leading travel agency cooperatives (LCC and TLT) have declared their willingness to work with Futouris to develop the first training programmes for travel distribution.
The ‘Experiential Sustainability’ project integrates a travel agent training programme into two current Futouris sustainability projects. This allows sustainability to be not only understood in theory, but also experienced in practice. Educationalists know that in the learning process, only 10% is achieved through passive absorption, 20% through supplementary exercises and 60% through personal involvement and independent study. Futouris members TLT and LCC are taking advantage of this fact by using their members' sustainability projects as direct experience platforms for their travel agents. The members who sponsor the respective Futouris projects make them available for this purpose and at the same time help to raise awareness of the industry separately with Futouris projects. Using the example of the Futouris projects ‘Safari Runner’ and ‘Life Cycle’ in South Africa, a self-building format is being developed over three seminar units that opens up all aspects of sustainable travel offers to travel agency employees and contributes to a deeper understanding of the interrelationships with interactive elements.
The aim of the project is to provide basic knowledge about sustainability, consolidate what has been learned through experience and consolidate knowledge in the sale of sustainability-oriented travel products. To this end, the knowledge and experience gained will be consolidated in a pre- and post-trip preparation phase so that the travel agent is able to apply their knowledge in a targeted manner at the counter after the trip. The knowledge base for the seminars is provided by existing online training courses that are already available to the industry. Building on this, the implementation of the ‘experiential sustainability’ format discussed here is intended to convey a deeper understanding of socio-cultural responsibility. The Green Counter is also to be regarded as a modular component of ‘experiential sustainability’.
The project sponsor ‘Infer’ is using the holistic teaching and learning concept of ‘experiential learning’ to develop the format. Experience-oriented learning and action are taught through an effective combination of theoretical and practical learning and experience modules. The high effectiveness of this scientific teaching and learning method has been proven repeatedly by studies from clinical and therapeutic practice. Due to the multi-layered requirements in scientific, medical, therapeutic and entrepreneurial areas, the project sponsor has comprehensive expertise as a teaching and research institution for experience-oriented learning.
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