From 20 to 21 May 2025, the partners of the TourX project met for a scheduled positioning of the project’s progress to date, and DEHOGA (German Hotel and Restaurant Association) Brandenburg welcomed more than 30 colleagues from Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Belgium and China as hosts of this meeting.  

The partners in the TourX project meet regularly to discuss the implementation of the project’s challenging work packages, and the various regional project teams in the participating countries are responsible for preparing these project meetings.

After DEHOGA Brandenburg, AVT Teltow and the district of Spree-Neisse had already planned and carried out a study trip to the Lusatia region in spring 2023, Potsdam was now the venue for the current analysis of the work done so far and the discussion of the tasks ahead in the coming fourth project year.

The project team meetings were dominated by a comparison of the target and actual status of the work packages and modules to be developed in the project.

In several meetings and moderated workshops, the participants exchanged views on the results achieved so far and the regional conditions in the different countries, knowledge of which is an essential criterion for the success of the project.

New micro-credential offerings, possible scenarios for the further development of formal and informal education and training, and their recognition and certification were the focus of this project meeting.

The major challenge for the project became clear: to bridge existing differences in the structure of vocational education and training in the various countries and to develop a common, viable model for the development of teaching and learning materials that can be used throughout Europe.

On the day before the two-day project meeting, collegues from spain took the opportunity to find out about the work of the association, its member companies and its support group at ‘Gastro Brandenburg’, the spring event organised by DEHOGA Brandenburg.

Potsdam provided an attractive setting for this meeting and also showed itself from its best side in terms of weather. A joint culinary experience at Potsdam restaurants and a boat trip on the Potsdam Havel lakes demonstrated how attractive Brandenburg and its state capital are.

The four-year project is now entering its final phase, in which the concepts and tools developed so far will be tested in the regional context of the individual participating countries. ‘Step by step to excellence’ is now the credo for the project team’s further work.

It will be important to involve many regional players in the further project work, to take regional conditions into account and, at the same time, to demonstrate the Europe-wide benefits of the project.