Upskilling the digital skills of marginalised and rural communities is crucial to driving meaningful impact and enabling them to tap into the tourism flow in their destinations.
During a webinar hosted by PATA and Airbnb, Pavnesh Kumar, PATA’s director of sustainability and research, said it is key that platforms, such as Airbnb, which launched a series of capacity-building projects with rural communities through its academy arm, work with governments, civil society partners and impact organisations to drive digital impact.
Training the rural community includes educating trainers in order for it to be sustainable in the long-term
“While digital tourism platforms promise economic opportunity for all, certain communities still face significant hurdles due to inequitable access to digital skills and training,” he said.
Kumar added that this makes capacity-building projects pivotal in empowering communities, putting a focus on improving internet connectivity, enhancing digital literacy, fostering entrepreneurship and strengthening tourism operations.
Asmita Joshi, head of public policy for India and South Asia at Airbnb, said the key challenges the company found when developing its projects were that the tourism economy often does not reach underserved rural communities.
The major challenges are lack of digital infrastructure, limited internet access and the need to build digital literacy skills, coupled with a raft of socioeconomic factors and cultural nuances that vary from community to community.
“The internet and digital upskilling offer a galore of opportunities to communities, especially remote, that rely on walk-ins and offline measures to benefit from tourism. The moment they’re able to access the internet, their economic opportunities grow by many folds,” Joshi said.
Maica Teves, executive director of Spark Philippines – a benefactor of one of the Airbnb Academy programmes, which has seen females involved in the tourism field delivered training on digital skills, including marketing, to create a network of tourism micro-entrepreneurs.
“Collaborations with online global platforms can open up international markets for local entrepreneurs, increasing their visibility and potential customers. This will help diversify income sources and elevate their service standards to meet global expectations,” she said.
However, Joyce Dogniez, vice-president of empowerment and outreach at the Internet Society Foundation, stated when developing capacity training programmes, it is crucial that they are tailored to each community and build capacity on the ground.
“You need to get into the community, especially when you go to more rural areas. If you go to certain villages, you need to get the chiefs involved, for example. You need to build local capacity, which means not only training them, but training trainers. That’s critically important, because we need to have that sustainable aspect to it.”
Upskilling the digital skills of marginalised and rural communities is crucial to driving meaningful impact and enabling them to tap into the tourism flow in their destinations.
During a webinar hosted by PATA and Airbnb, Pavnesh Kumar, PATA’s director of sustainability and research, said it is key that platforms, such as Airbnb, which launched a series of capacity-building projects with rural communities through its academy arm, work with governments, civil society partners and impact organisations to drive digital impact.
“While digital tourism platforms promise economic opportunity for all, certain communities still face significant hurdles due to inequitable access to digital skills and training,” he said.
Kumar added that this makes capacity-building projects pivotal in empowering communities, putting a focus on improving internet connectivity, enhancing digital literacy, fostering entrepreneurship and strengthening tourism operations.
Asmita Joshi, head of public policy for India and South Asia at Airbnb, said the key challenges the company found when developing its projects were that the tourism economy often does not reach underserved rural communities.
The major challenges are lack of digital infrastructure, limited internet access and the need to build digital literacy skills, coupled with a raft of socioeconomic factors and cultural nuances that vary from community to community.
“The internet and digital upskilling offer a galore of opportunities to communities, especially remote, that rely on walk-ins and offline measures to benefit from tourism. The moment they’re able to access the internet, their economic opportunities grow by many folds,” Joshi said.
Maica Teves, executive director of Spark Philippines – a benefactor of one of the Airbnb Academy programmes, which has seen females involved in the tourism field delivered training on digital skills, including marketing, to create a network of tourism micro-entrepreneurs.
“Collaborations with online global platforms can open up international markets for local entrepreneurs, increasing their visibility and potential customers. This will help diversify income sources and elevate their service standards to meet global expectations,” she said.
However, Joyce Dogniez, vice-president of empowerment and outreach at the Internet Society Foundation, stated when developing capacity training programmes, it is crucial that they are tailored to each community and build capacity on the ground.
“You need to get into the community, especially when you go to more rural areas. If you go to certain villages, you need to get the chiefs involved, for example. You need to build local capacity, which means not only training them, but training trainers. That’s critically important, because we need to have that sustainable aspect to it.”