ELearning for the benefit of tourism during the emergency

Digital technologies play a key role in this time of health emergency in many sectors, including tourism, which is particularly affected by the changes taking place. The UNESCO Chair of USI and the Institute of Technologies for Communication (ITDxC) have already been involved for many years in research concerning the application of eLearning in tourism-related training, seen as key to supporting the development and sustainability of this sector. In this context, the UNESCO Chair and ITDxC have given free access to three MOOC - Massive Open Online Courses ("eTourism: Communication Perspectives" and the two volumes on "Tourism Management at UNESCO World Heritage Sites") and other online learning resources (full list available here ). The initiative has been highlighted, among others, by the World Tourism Organization and the Council of Europe. "UNESCO has launched a world coalition for education, which aims to promote learning opportunities for young people (and beyond) during the covid-19 emergency. We have answered this call, certain of the essential role played by eLearning in many fields. The possibility of being able to take advantage of distance learning courses also in the field of tourism and heritage is in fact more important than ever: by granting free access to online resources like USI has been doing, we are trying to provide those who work in tourism with the tools to face the new dynamics of the sector, to be able to start again with new ideas to promote sustainable tourism, especially in world heritage sites" explains Lorenzo Cantoni , chair holder of the UNESCO Chair at USI.