🌍 TourEdu at ICOT 2026!

Last week, the TourEdu consortium had the pleasure of presenting our research at the ICOT 2026 – International Conference on Tourism, held in the beautiful and historic city of Mytilene, Greece (24–27 June).

📚 Our presentation, “Competence Gaps in Tourism and Hospitality: A Structured Literature Review to Navigate Future Skills Development,” was delivered by Professor Ove Oklevik (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences) on behalf of the TourEdu consortium. The study forms an important part of Work Package 2, where we investigate the future competence needs of the tourism and hospitality sector. Through a structured review of the existing literature, we identified five key competence domains that will shape the future workforce:
🌱 Green transition competencies
🤝 Transferable skills and adaptability
💻 AI and digital competencies
🌍 Intercultural competencies
👥 Leadership competencies

One of our key findings is that competence gaps are not simply about employees lacking individual skills. Instead, they reflect broader organisational challenges: tourism organisations often struggle to integrate, apply and develop competencies across different functions. As sustainability, digitalisation and changing visitor expectations continue to reshape the industry, organisations need interconnected competence development rather than isolated training initiatives.
These findings will directly inform the development of TourEdu’s micro-credentials, innovative learning approaches, and lifelong learning initiatives.

🏛️ A big thank you to the conference organisers and everyone who attended our session. We look forward to incorporating the valuable feedback into the next phase of the project!