Baku hosts the first meeting of tourism educational institutions of OBSEC

On the joint initiative of the State Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan and the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (OBSEC), the first meeting of educational institutions on tourism of EU Member States will be held in Baku to discuss cooperation, perspectives and problems in tourism education , reports Apa-Economics.

The meeting will be attended by official state representatives and representatives of tourism educational institutions from 11 member states of the organization, including Azerbaijan, Türkiye, Russia, Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine, as well as representatives of the UN Tourism ( UNTWO).

Chairman of the State Tourism Agency Fuad Naghiyev, who spoke at the event, emphasized that the meeting in the framework of the State Tourism Organization is useful in terms of facilitating the exchange of knowledge and experience of the higher education institutions of the Member States providing tourism education.

Lazăr Comănescu, the Secretary General of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (OBSEC), noted in his speech that the meeting was the first event in the field of tourism education within the organization and said that the organization of the event and holding ot in Baku further proof of Azerbaijan’s contributions to the implementation of the objectives and tasks of the OBSEC.

The meeting included panel discussions on “Connecting Government, Academia and Industry: Best Practices in Tourism Education”, “Curriculum Design: Improving Tourism Education for the Needs of Tomorrow”, as well as a roundtable on “Quality Assurance and accreditation in tourism education” were held.

During the discussions, ideas were exchanged on topics such as identifying key areas of cooperation and partnership opportunities, discussing problems and possible solutions in promoting cooperation, ways to ensure that graduates are ready for the demands of the tourism sector, analyzing industry trends and incorporating them into training programs.

On the second day of the meeting, it is planned to organize a roundtable on expanding partnership opportunities for tourism education among the organization’s member states.

Ashraf Mehdiyev