CETEM participates in a conference of the European project TourXpeRience to identify training needs in tourism and extended reality.

Last Monday, the Furniture and Wood Technology Centre (CETEM) actively participated in a conference of the European project TourXpeRience, held at the Faculty of Business Sciences of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT). The session brought together students, teachers and professionals from the tourism sector and the extended reality industry, with the aim of analysing current skills and training needs in the field of the digital transformation of tourism.

During the meeting, several focus groups were held with the participation of students and teachers of Vocational Training, undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees in tourism studies, together with representatives of key entities and companies in the sector, such as Seismicrosdata XR, Visitive 360, the Roman Theatre of Cartagena, Cartagena Puerto de Culturas, the student association BioMed’s UPCT, and the Technological Research Support Service (SAIT) of the UPCT, with the participation of its head, Isidro Ibarra.

As a partner of the TourXpeRience consortium, CETEM carried out pilot tests aimed at gathering experiences, ideas and perceptions on the use of immersive technologies, such as virtual, augmented and mixed reality. These actions were aimed at bringing together students, teachers and companies so that they could interact directly with some of the Extended Reality technological solutions currently available on the market and offer their assessment of their applicability in the tourism sector.

All this information collected will be fundamental in the next phases of the project, as it will serve as the basis for the design of the training platform, the didactic content and the immersive scenarios (XR) that will be developed. The final aim is to offer innovative training adapted to the demands of sustainable tourism and the integration of new technologies in this constantly evolving sector.

The TourXpeRience project is funded by the European Commission with a budget of €4.8 million. Its main objective is to train vocational training and university degree students in tourism as future leaders of green tourism, strengthening the digital skills of teachers and promoting a more sustainable and inclusive tourism model.