Larnaka Tourism Board held an online ‘Community of Practice’ (CoP) workshop on March 27, 2024 as part of the MAAS project of the Erasmus+ programme of the EU that it is participating in as Cyprus partner.

With its full title ‘Match, Attain and Sustain: New Methods for Europe’s Job Brokers Supporting Tourism Businesses, Ukrainian Refugees and Job Seekers’, one of the deliverables of the project is monthly CoP workshops held in turn by the nine partners from Cyprus, Greece, Iceland, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine.

The LTB CoP theme was ‘Tourism Trends and Needs – EU’ with a parallel theme of the assistance offered to Ukrainian refugees to facilitate their entry into the local job market.

LTB invited guest speakers from its network to present within the theme, followed by break-out room sessions where the partners discussed different associated topics then presented their insights.

Mr Panagiotis Hadjiloizou - Tourism Officer A’ of the Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Tourism (DMT) presented how the DMT has tackled the new trends and habits of tourists, particularly the rapid developments and changes faced since Covid-19 and other world events. He emphasised the trend for nature, sustainable and authentic, local experiences and how the DMT has responded to this via the creation of destination labels and tourism clusters, and through integrating the smaller communities into the island’s tourism product.

Dr Katerina Antoniou – author and Lecturer in Tourism at UCLan Cyprus discussed the connection between politics, tourism and mobility. Speaking of the influence that states have on travel, Dr Antoniou demonstrated the influence that individuals can also have by citing the case of popular accommodation rental platforms being used to donate to - or house - Ukrainian refugees at the onset of the war.

The third speaker was Ms Christina Sophocleous from non-profit KEPAKY; an arm of the Andreas Sophocleous Foundation that assists Ukrainian refugees and other vulnerable groups in Cyprus. Ms Sophocleous outlined the actions of KEPAKY in response to the humanitarian crisis following the ongoing war in Ukraine, including offering language lessons, a full-time, children’s summer school, and assistance in finding accommodation and work.

The three break-out rooms were moderated by LTB staff and Dr Aspasia Simillidou – Lecturer in HRM & Hospitality at UCLan Cyprus. Topics covered were the level of training offered to Ukrainian refugees in partner countries; the difficulties faced by the tourism sector in finding qualified staff in general, and the role of AI in tourism as a trend, and its future implications.

The MAAS project’s main topic is meeting the labour market needs of the tourism sector via the training of intermediaries (employment counsellors), with a parallel topic of emphasising support for Ukrainian refugees as part of the job seekers the project aims to engage. its deliverables will include a multilingual eGuide for the MAAS method; a cloud platform that allows the management of people and tasks with an interactive approach to delivering a specific task or job.

More information about the MAAS project here. 

29 March, 2024