From July 18 to July 19, 2024, the University of Danang – University of Technology (UD-UTE) organized an international conference "Smart, Optimized, High-quality, and On-demand Tourism Innovative Education for Sustainable and Green Development " under the framework of SOHO project.

SOHO project (Smart, Optimized, High-quality, and On-demand Tourism Innovative Education for Sustainable and Green Development) is an international project which the University of Danang and UD-UTE were active participating members together with 03 European universities: Universite Lumiere Lyon 2 (France), Politecnico di Milano (Italia), National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA of Bucharest (Romania) and 04 Asian universities: Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman(Malaysia), Universiti Sains Malaysia (Malaysia), American International University Bangladesh, Jahangirnagar University (Bangladesh).

The conference at UD-UTE

Speaking at the Conference, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vo Trung Hung – Vice Rector of UD-UTE shared "This conference is an opportunity to discuss current challenges and map out a clear roadmap for the future, creating significant breakthroughs, having a long-term impact on the green and sustainable development of the education and tourism sectors", while encouraged and called for positive sharing from domestic and international experts, researchers, and scientists for the SOHO project.

UD-UTE’s Vice-Rector Vo Trung Hung shared his ideas

Funded by the Erasmus+ Program, the SOHO project has the following key contents: participating in short-term training courses, building digital training programs; supporting locality in promoting digital transformation in the tourism; strengthening and developing digital transformation training in the higher education environment, and spreading and transferring digital systems in green and sustainable tourism from short-term training courses from European partners; Building and deploying training groups, training program modules, and survey forms from Asian universities to analyze limitations and difficulties in digital system training; promoting the sustainability of the project by exchanging and approaching localities in managing the tourism sector in a green and modern smart way; promoting cooperation and exchange between universities in Europe and Asia.

At the Conference, delegates listened, exchanged and discussed 06 topics, details are as follows:

-Deploying Learning Management System (LMS) and innovative curriculum design

-Deploying Learning Management System (LMS) and innovative curriculum design

-Deploying Learning Management System (LMS) and innovative curriculum design

-Project Management and Administrative Issues

-Development of training materials and curriculum for tourism industry learners

-Quality and Evaluation

MA. Ho Long Ngoc – Vice Director, Department of Science and International Cooperation, the University of Danang shared information

Prof. Vladimir TANASIEV from the National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA of Bucharest (Coordinator of the Soho project) introduced WPs in the project

Taking advantage of regional university in sharing human resources, UD has established an Executive Board and a professional working group with the participation of leaders and lecturers with relevant knowledge from UD’s member universities to implement the interdisciplinary SOHO project at UD. UD is a nationally prominent, multi-disciplinary, key regional university with 06 member universities and 07 affiliated units, 2,500 staff members, and 55,000 students. Accompanying Da Nang City's tourism development goals, UD is always ready to support and provide human resources in the tourism sector with more than 10 years of formation and development of the Faculty of Tourism, UD-University Economics (UD-DUE). With the responsibility and mission to become the leading tourism business training center in the Central region, the Faculty of Tourism – UD-DUE has achieved many remarkable achievements throughout many years of development. As the main partner of the SOHO project, UD, the Faculty of Tourism – UD-DUE and UD-UTE hoped to access digital training programs of European universities and apply at UD for maximum support for lecturers and students in the context of highly developed digital technology.

UD’s Executive Board and professional group with  representatives from the National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA of Bucharest (Coordinator of the Soho project)

Group photo

Along with that, the goal of the SOHO project is that UD as well as UD’s member universities would be the units to apply, deploy, and spread digital technology programs/systems into sustainable tourism to create an efficient and personalized experience for each traveler.