Cultural Sustainability Tourism Knowledge and Skills: Lessons from the Amazon to the Mediterranean
Abstract
Increasing global sustainability crises and climate change are impacting biodiversity loss. The terms ‘net-zero’, ‘green transition and ‘green skills’ are increasingly used, but many employees in the tourism sector do not know what this means, nor the relevance in their own roles. This exploration addresses an overlooked area of workplace learning, competencies development, for the people expected to drive the massive changes required in the tourism sector in Greece. The aim is a multidisciplinary, conceptual framework for knowledge and skills in sustainable tourism management, underpinned by theory in learning transfer and experiential learning, with pedagogy anchored in community-cultural insight, including beekeeping, for making sense of sustainable tourism development. Through an enquiry lens of Greek tourism, the methodology reviews academic and practitioner studies about sustainable tourism education and citizen-science models from The Amazon (Peru). Literature insights are explored through empirical study, targeted surveys and probing interviews. Qualitative data is analysed through discourse analysis coding. Findings suggest a ‘talk-act’ gap as many Greek tourism professionals do not know what green management competencies are but think they do, which can manifest in inadequate skills and inaction. Adaptation of citizen-science style learning and storytelling focused on bees and honey production, could play a ‘sensemaking anchoring’ role in developing sustainability management competencies in the Greek tourism sector, with the potential for adaptation for other countries.
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Article Details
Accepted 2025-01-12
Published 2025-01-31