By UNWTO
Published August 25, 2011

A US$2.9 million training project to provide vocational tourism training in seven sub-Saharan African and Asian countries in which tourism is increasingly a leading source of employment and economic growth is underway.

The initiative, dubbed High Impact Tourism Training (HITT) and implemented by SNV Netherlands Development Organisation with support from UNWTO, will provide training to 8,000 tourism workers and entrepreneurs from the informal sector in Benin, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Cambodia, Nepal, and Vietnam.

Government and private vocational training institutions will work together to strengthen their capacity to reach and properly attend the informal sector demand for training. Workers and entrepreneurs will receive practical tourism training in major working areas to further their technical and management skills and increase their income possibilities, as well as their resilience to potential crisis situations. Participants will also benefit from links established through the project with the mainstream tourism sector, which will open opportunities for entrepreneurs and workers.

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Each of the seven pilot countries is home to one or more of UNWTO’s Sustainable Tourism . Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP) and/or Technical Cooperation projects, which aim at reducing poverty among the local community through sustainable forms of tourism. Local communities involved in these projects will directly benefit from HITT, which will be implemented through a multi-stakeholders alliance involving national and local governments, syndicates, technical and vocational education and training providers, and the private sector.

Tourism is one of the world’s largest job creators and currently accounts for 1 in every 12 jobs globally. HITT will be largely directed towards the most vulnerable groups of society, such as rural communities, youth, and women, among which unemployment is particularly high and where tourism is a key employment opportunity.

A unwto.org article