Between 2022 and 2024, three universities from Slovakia, Czechia and Poland collaborated with industry partner (major OTA in the Central Europe) to strengthen tourism students’ skills in line with labour market needs across the V4 region. The project delivered an interactive labour-market dashboard, redesigned 10 university course syllabi, and an AI-supported online application available in four languages to develop students’ soft, hard, and sustainability skills. Student learning progress was quantitatively evaluated, supported by feedback from 201 tourism businesses, teachers, and students, confirming improved competencies and teaching effectiveness. To ensure wider impact and long-term use, the project results were shared through cooperation with organisations such as national tourism boards, scientific publications, and a dissemination brochure.

The project introduced an innovative approach to aligning tourism education with labour-market needs across Central Europe. The project was the first in the region to identify employer skill requirements, compare them with university teaching, adapt curricula, and measure student skill progression simultaneously in multiple countries, using innovative methods such as the IPA assessment, multilingual qualitative analysis, and an interactive dashboard. A key innovation was a publicly accessible, AI-supported online application that develops hard, soft, and sustainability skills, including carbon-footprint awareness to help users create business ideas or startups and receive instant feedback and guidance. The project’s novelty was recognised by national and EU institutions, influenced policy and educational initiatives linked to the EU Pact for Skills and Transition Pathway for Tourism, and strengthened Central Europe’s contribution to a resilient and competitive European tourism ecosystem.