Lyon, Dec 9th, 2011 : Erasmus Mundus Action 2 "Sustainable e-tourism" Official Launching Ceremony

The inauguration of the international Erasmus Mundus Sustainable e-tourism programme was held on December 9th at the "Grand Amphithéatre" of University of Lyon 2. Presidents and Vice Presidents of partner universities and personalities of the Rhone-Alpes region were attending this meeting.

The ceremony was chaired by the President of University Lumière Lyon 2, Prof. André Tiran. He officially launched the program host of students and researchers from institutions of Asian partner universities in Europe. The local coordinators, presidents of partner universities and representatives of embassies have exchanged their visions about sustainability of the collaborations during the “View and perspectives” Panel Session (see schedule below). This also led to new appointments with embassy representatives to discuss about their help and contribution in future exchange programmes.

Besides, new Memorandums of Understanding have been signed between the Presidents of the partner universities thanks to the coordinated action of Staffordshire University and the International Relations Office of Université Lumière Lyon 2. This is a commitment from the administrative side to collaborate in the future and opens for the Sustainable eTourism programme a real chance to proceed from one side with the next Erasmus Mundus Action 2 (eTourism II) and Action 1 (Joint PhD) and from the other side to sustain the relationships beyond Erasmus-Mundus programme. To sustain the relationship between the EU partners and Asian partners some proposals have been accepted by the partners during the Project Management Board meeting of Lyon and are currently under implementation (alternate stay for some PhDs and Post-Doc for example).

In addition to hosting students in Europe, this project seeks to promote international cooperation through the establishment of an "intercultural workshop" which aimed at improving intercultural understanding and exchange of knowledge, and increase the attractiveness of European countries as a destination for study and a research center of excellence. "This program also allows the EU partners to better know each other, as meetings and mutual visits are organized for European administrative and education staff to harmonize their practices about the mobility of international students, and exchange about the validation process of the ECTS”, says Abdelaziz Bouras, the general project coordinator. Thus, local coordinators and presidents of partner universities participated in the first Trans-Cultural workshop chaired by Vincent Renner, Head of the Tourism Department at University Lumière Lyon 2.

Erasmus Mundus Sustainable e-tourism in facts and figures

The Faculty of GHHAT  (Department of Geography, History, Art History and Tourism), the Faculty of SEG (Faculty of Economics and Management), the international relations office of University Lumière Lyon 2 and the IUT Lumière hosted the first settlers of this programme in September. There are Bachelors, Masters, PhD, post-doctoral researchers and teachers who come from six countries: Cambodia, China, Laos, Mongolia, Thailand and Vietnam. In University Lumière Lyon 2, there are about forty persons to be accommodated in the university for four years. These students come to learn topics such as information technology and knowledge management, marketing and tourism, or economics and management, and they participate in seminars and special projects in their fields of studies. The other European partners of the program are universities from Germany, England and Italy. The e-tourism project was previously part of two other large scale exchange programs managed at the university and IUT Lumière: Erasmus Mundus eLink programme and Asia-Link programme, totaling one hundred exchange students.

Lauching Ceremony programme

Pictures of the meeting here