Information on previous, current and future projects of BAAT

                  This action received EC funding 

It is well-known that the human resource is an essential part of the quality of the tourism service. It is even more important in the rural tourism sector where the personal contact with the hosts plays a crucial role in the provided experience. From a rather economic perspective, the human resource is a driving force for development of rural tourism mainly by initiative of unprofessional entrepreneurs. This results in a need for training and education typical for Bulgaria and the rest of Europe.

The project “Transfer of Quality Ensurance Tools for European Rural Tourism Sector” – QUALITOOL- is part of Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation Project  under the Lifelong Learning Programme and it has received EC funding.
Rural Tourism (RT) represents an increasingly important niche sector of the hospitality industry in Europe (5-30% of the overall tourism activity in EU.) but skill gaps exist in this sector. Customers demand increases the need of professional quality services, while organisations are seeking for efficient provider training options. The aim of the project is to provide practical and efficient life-long learning opportunity for SMEs in Rural Tourism and to increase competitiveness of SMEs to reducing skill gaps in labour market. The expected long-term impact of this project is to change learning habits and attitudes of providers in SMEs sector and introduce the concept of easy, user friendly, informed learning as a common practice.

The Latvian Association for Rural Tourism in partnership with:
     The Bulgarian Association for Alternative Tourism (BAAT)
     Network of Rural Accommodation, Greece
     Network of Rural Accommodation, Andalucia
     European Federation of Farm and Village Tourism – Eurogites*
     Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry, Slovenia
commenced  a project for quality development in the rural tourism sector based on interactive online training.

The purposes of this project are:
     To support improvements in quality and innovation in vocational education and training systems, institutions and practices.
     To support the development of innovative ICT-based content, services, pedagogies and practice for lifelong learning.
     Skills development of adults in the labour market.

The project includes the following activities:
     Development of situational and problem analysis of the rural tourism sector – view the document (in English)
     Carrying out a customer survey for quality assessment of the rural tourism product - fill in the questionnaire (in English)
     Updating and adapting the minimum quality standards of Eurogites for rural tourism accommodations
     Development of a web-based tool (Qualitool) consisting of quality check for rural tourism providers and guidance for covering the quality criteria
     Translation, testing and adaptation of the quality tool by the project partners
     Informational campaign among interested countries

Results to produce:
Web based training tool for quality, consisting of:
     Web based quality check for minimum RT accommodation quality criteria in Europe
     Inspectors manual
     Virtual training module for minimum RT accommodation quality criteria in Europe 

BAAT in this project:
     Participate in the four partners meeting including RT quality workshop.
     Provide current situation in the country for RT quality and training
     Participate in web-based customer survey
     Testing the web-based quality check on RT accommodation in Bulgaria
     Testing the quality training tool and provide the feedback

* Eurogites is a federation linking the national associations for rural tourism in Europe and representing more than 200 000 rural accommodations in front of various EU institutions

създадена на 20.07.2009; обновена на 28.11.2010