Our Mission

To transform tourism and hospitality education worldwide by integrating sustainability principles, empowering local communities, and creating a global network of change agents committed to authentic, responsible tourism and hospitality.

The Challenge

Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries, yet graduates in many regions lack the skills needed for sustainable practice. Partner regions — Uganda, Vietnam, and Ecuador — face a combination of rapid tourism growth, skills shortages, outdated curricula, and limited practical infrastructure, while their communities contend with environmental degradation, cultural erosion, and unequal benefit distribution.

About the Project

Beyond the Souvenir is a 10-year international project (September 2025 – August 2035), funded by VLIRUOS through the ICP Connect programme. It brings together five universities across four continents — Belgium, Uganda, Vietnam, and Ecuador — in a multi-institutional partnership built around practice-oriented education, collaboration, and long-term network building.

The project is designed to outlast its funding: the joint course, stakeholder networks, and alumni community are built to continue beyond 2030. Scholarships are tied to the VLIRUOS funding period; the networks and education infrastructure are built to be permanent.

What We Do

Joint Online Modular Course

A cornerstone of the project is a jointly developed online modular course on sustainable hospitality and tourism. Each partner institution contributes a module based on their region’s unique context and expertise — for example, VIVES contributes a module on sustainable practices in European hospitality, while the Uganda hub contributes a module on ecotourism development and sustainable gastronomy in Africa. The course is delivered on an accessible online platform designed for asynchronous learning across time zones, with interactive features to foster discussion and knowledge exchange between students from different regions.

ICP Connect Scholarships

Eight full scholarships per year, funded by VLIRUOS, allow students from partner regions to complete a 3-year Bachelor in Hotel Management at VIVES in Bruges. Scholarship recipients return to their home regions after graduation — including a final-year internship in their home country — to apply their skills and act as change agents in their local tourism communities.

Staff Mobility Programme

Each year, two faculty members from each partner country visit a designated hub for a week of in-person workshops, collaborative course development, and site visits with local stakeholders. The hosting hub rotates annually, deepening the partnership and ensuring all partners develop direct knowledge of each region’s context.

Alumni Network

An alumni network is being built in each region, with an online platform (hosting forums, resources, and job boards), annual alumni events at each hub, and a mentorship programme connecting alumni with current students. Alumni serve as ambassadors for the project and role models for future applicants.

Stakeholder Network

Each regional hub builds a multi-stakeholder network bringing together hospitality and tourism businesses, educational institutions, local governments, NGOs, community representatives, and industry professionals. Stakeholder advisory boards provide feedback on curriculum relevance, and stakeholder events coincide with annual staff mobility visits.

Research & Practical Infrastructure

The project includes research into private sector labour needs in sustainable hospitality, informing curriculum development across all partner institutions. Investment in practical training infrastructure — cooking labs, banquet equipment, computer labs, and streaming technology — at each partner institution ensures education meets international standards.

SDG Alignment

The project directly contributes to:

• SDG 4 (Quality Education) — inclusive, practice-oriented higher education
• SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) — employability in underserved regions
• SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) — targeting vulnerable and underrepresented students
• SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption) — sustainability integrated throughout the curriculum
• SDG 14 & 15 (Life Below Water, Life on Land) — addressing biodiversity loss through tourism education
• SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) — multi-institutional, multi-stakeholder international collaboration