Algarve’s Hotel and Tourism School (Escola de Hotelaria e Turismo do Algarve) in Faro is one of just three in Portugal that will be launching a new online luxury tourism course in April.
The 100-hour course (which can extend to up to 165 hours if students choose the optional modules) aims to help tourism professionals learn how to provide “personalised and exclusive experiences” to luxury hotel and resort guests.
In other words, the course will teach students what the luxury hospitality sector is all about, how to welcome luxury tourism travellers and the behind-the-scenes work involved to cater to all their needs.
It is aimed at people already working in the tourism sector or who have completed their hospitality and tourism education, or anyone who wants to invest in the world of luxury tourism.
Said Paula Vicente, head of the Algarve’s Hotel and Tourism School, “the course was developed with the involvement of stakeholders who already work and manage businesses in this sector, which means the course focuses on the real needs of the sector.”
The course’s coordinator Ângela Martins added that the goal is to “prove that hospitality, luxury and comfort can co-exist with a more proactive environmental awareness, creating unique, positive and memorable experiences.”
At the end of the course, students will receive a Training Certificate (Certificado de Formação) from the national tourism authority Turismo de Portugal.
Price is €250, with each additional module costing €50 each.
The course seems to have come at the right time. A new study by Condé Nast Johansens focusing on post-Covid luxury tourism travel habits has placed Portugal eighth on a list of the world’s most popular destinations.
The findings were based on a survey which was taken by over 95,000 of Condé Nast Johansens’s newsletter subscribers. The list was topped by the UK, followed by Italy, Spain, France, Greece, USA, and the Caribbean Islands.
More information is available online (in Portuguese) at https://escolas.turismodeportugal.pt/curso/curso-executivo-de-turismo-de-luxo/
