Tourism all over the world is on the rise. According to the UNWTO, the number of international tourist arrivals has been steadily growing worldwide, reaching 1.46 million in 2019. The tourism sector in Colombia, Chile and Brazil has been also following this global trend, as there was a significant increase in the number of inbound tourists, international tourism inbound receipts, and the number of newly established tourism enterprises. In this sense, managing and implementing tourism in a sustainable manner is getting more crucial than ever.

Although there is a high demand for the training of qualified personnel to work in ecotourism sector in the three aforementioned countries, opportunities for training are still limited. Hence, the offer of courses for training of professionals focused on the area of ecotourism, as well as on the enhancement of natural heritage combined with sustainable development is a latent demand and an extremely important contribution to economic development and environmental sustainability.

NATOUR project addresses these needs through building capacity of Brazilian, Colombian and Chilean Higher education institutions to develop and implement a joint PC-EU study programme in ecotourism and interpretive nature guiding. The development of such a programme by individual HEIs will result in an extensive degree of dependence on established practices and existing knowledge in the field of ecotourism. Carrying out this project transnationally will take into account a diverse mix of conditions and ensure higher quality and broader application of the results.