Project FinTour opens up new paths in tourism

3.3.2023 | DIT Public Relations

For students in the field of tourism, financial management often plays a major role after graduation. The finer points of financing, however, are not always easy for students to learn. The international FinTour project devoted itself intensively to this topic for two years and published the results in the form of an interactive online course just in time for the end of the project on 28 February.

For the FinTour project, the Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT) joined forces with the Prague University of Economics and Business and the Universidad Europea de Madrid. In two years of intensive cross-border cooperation, the participants have developed an online self-study course, the first part of which introduces students to the theoretical background of finance. The second part integrates the view from practice and describes the specifics of financial management in the different facets of tourism enterprises. The online course in English consists of twelve lessons and invites students to study independently. In addition to digital presentations, there are numerous examples, case studies and video and audio interviews.

For the DIT team, it was particularly important to design an engaging and interactive course that transitions well between the individual learning units and always guides students to participate through interactive H5P elements. In addition, experts from industry and academia are involved in all lessons - providing valuable and up-to-date contributions in the form of case studies and podcasts. The participants of the online course thus receive first-hand information on tourism focal points such as restaurants, hotels, travel agencies, offers from travel guides, event agencies or even spa businesses, always with a focus on the underlying financial characteristics. The course will be used in time for the start of the summer semester on 15 March in the Master's programme International Tourism Development at the European Campus Rottal-Inn (ECRI) in Pfarrkirchen.

The head of this project at DIT and ECRI is Prof. Dr. Robert Feicht. He summarises his main motivation for this cross-national and cross-university project as follows: "We have noticed that not all students in tourism have a penchant for numbers. With our course offer, we not only want to sharpen the basic quantitative understanding, but also apply it directly to relevant areas in tourism. In the end, it is always about the return on investment - also in tourism."

The FinTour project ran from 01 February 2021 to the end of February 2023 and was financed through the Erasmus programme "Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness" with funds from the EU. International cooperation is a key element: in addition to the Deggendorf Institute of Technology, the University of Economics and Business in Prague and the Universidad Europea in Madrid are also involved.

Bild (DIT / ECRI): The FinTour project team: Prof. Dr. Robert Feicht, Prof. Dr. Luis Lacalle Muñoz de Cuerva from the Universidad Europea de Madrid, Prof. Dr. Blanka Bejdáková from the Prgue University of Economics and Business and Franziska Friedenberger (from left to right).