According to the World International Tourism Organization, tourism development in Europe in the next decade will be marked positive trends. Eastern EU's neighbors, such as Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine, have a better chance to be in the center of these trends and become interesting tourist regions in Europe.

All three countries have a great partner, but to date, is the territory and under-utilized tourism potential. This potential includes, first of all, natural landscapes, the Black Sea coast, the cultural and historical richness, and, not least, the special hospitality of the people. Promising prospects for tourism development in these countries, which follow from the latest trends in international tourism, found its realization, which is reflected in the tourism policy in Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine: At present in these countries adopted the bulk of national and regional programs and plans for tourism development . Some of the programs and plans of some completed, others are in preparation.

From the point of view of the partner universities involved in the project WeNeT, tourism offers opportunities to improve the economic, social and environmental situation in their countries. As one of the most important results of the development of tourism you will create new opportunities for the population structurally underdeveloped peripheral regions of these countries. To take advantage of this opportunity and to use it in the future, more investment is needed, both in general and in tourism infrastructure, promotion of cooperation between the public and private sectors of tourism, support of international marketing of tourism activities and more. In addition, from the perspective of national policy in the field of economy and tourism, sustainable tourism development imperative to improve professional development in this area in Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine. During realization of plans and programs for the development of tourism in these countries has been found a great need for quality improvement skills at all organizational levels, as well as on many topics.

Among other things, the preparation of such a large international events such as the football World Cup in 2012 in the Ukraine, or the planning of the World Championship in 2014 in Belarus, requires immediate improvement as the general conditions of the economy tourism and leisure and to improve the quality of tourism services, such as event management, transportation, supply, and service in the field of high gastronomy, etc. With the expected flow of tourists and to ensure the sustainability of the results of such activities from the economic point of view, the use of multi-country experiences of Member States (eg, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Austria, etc.) in this area is for the partner countries of great importance . This experience, as well as know-how in the field of tourism can be achieved by stimulating and intensifying cooperation in education, skills development specialists in tourism particularly among the partner countries of Eastern Europe and the EU in the framework of the planned project.

During the planning and preparation of the project proposal, numerous stakeholder consultation project with representatives of public and private tourism organizations and companies to take into account the current situation in the field of tourism education and training. In addition, for more substantial orientation and identify target groups in need of professional development, project participants from the partner universities surveyed demand for educational services of excellence in the field of tourism for tourism enterprises, travel agencies and institutions of public and private sector in Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine. Subsequently, the results of surveys and interviews were discussed with representatives of tourism organizations and businesses, and they serve as an important basis for identifying priority topics, content and target groups (including the qualifications, competence, etc.) for professional development in the field of tourism for each of the countries partners. According to the participants of these meetings in the form of round tables (for example, during the tourism fair-exhibition "Rest" in April 2009 in Minsk), the cause of problems with education and skills development in the tourism industry to be found in the missing for the most part partner countries, the general system of education throughout the lives of the staff (with the exception of the first positive trends in Belarus after the organization of the National Center of Excellence, as well as some specific examples of Georgia and Ukraine).

In the future, as part of these meetings it was established that in the tourism sector of the partner countries-dominated members of other professions that although they have many years of practical experience, but do not have a professional education in the field of tourism and do not, respectively, comprehensive knowledge of the processes and interactions in this area. Not least for this reason, tourism is often seen in a very narrow and short-term (only as a business opportunity to make money fast, etc). Incarnation of this view in the business practices often leads to poor quality of service, reduce the chances of a stable, long-term development of the company and, ultimately, have a negative impact on the sustainability of tourism development in the partner countries.

The survey and interviews explored the possibilities and chances of workers employed in the tourism sector, is now to improve their professional skills. The results showed that many professionals working in tourism, as well as a wide range of other interested in increasing tourism qualifications of individuals often have no chance to improve their professional skills on an ongoing basis on the one hand, the opportunity to study, or to improve their skills in Tourism is concentrated mainly in the educational institutions of the capital and major cities of the partner countries. It entails a great obstacles financial plan, because the subjects of training, as well as their employers, there are additional costs associated with travel to the site training, as well as the lack of an employee at work during the training. The study also showed that most of the interest in professional development resides in the peripheral regions (such as in rural areas), attractive and very promising in terms of tourism development. But since it is this group of people do not have enough professional knowledge, they can participate in the development of tourism in his native land in a very limited extent that, as a result, prevents the increase in employment in the future.

Subject to formulate the problem, the development and implementation of distance programs and courses to improve the skills of specialists in tourism, according to representatives of the economy, is becoming increasingly important. In addition to the remote, should be expanded and offered full-time professional development activities. Construction of the two forms of training in the partner countries, and the development and implementation of advanced courses to improve professional development of the tourist area must affect a much wider range of stakeholders that will contribute to solving the problems in the professional skills of tourism enterprises and organizations in Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine.

Presented problems, and possible solutions to them in recent years intensively discussed with representatives of the partner countries. The project applicant, Professor Albrecht Steinecke, for years maintained close scientific collaboration and educational contacts with Belarusian partner universities (from 2001 to BSEU, Minsk, BGUFK, Minsk), partner institutions from Ukraine (from 2002 Mr. Yaum, Yalta, KUTEL, Kiev) and Georgia (from 2002 Tbilisi State University of Economic Relations). Among other things, this should also include training Yalta five colleagues at the University of Paderborn in 2003 as part of the Tempus project (IMG-2003-UKR 1013, 1014, 1015, 1016, 1021), as well as joint, unfortunately did not get support project CD_JEP-24134-2003 for the introduction of two-stage international specialties in tourism, hotel and restaurant business, as well as for the organization of professional development in these specialties in Yaum and KUTEL. Internship Professor Nico Kvaratskeliya (Tbilisi State University of Economic Relations) in Paderborn, in autumn 2006, as well as further cooperation with his university funded by the Catholic Academic Exchange Service (Xiao). The first successes in solving the problems of excellence in the tourism industry, not least be attributed to the Tempus project 23015-2002 organization National Training Center at BGUFK, Minsk and implementation of relevant educational programs. University teachers and representatives of the tourism industry, who are trained in this project, continue to work on improving substantive content of programs on education and skills development for tourism in Belarus, and will share their experiences with the Georgian and Ukrainian counterparts in the planned project. On the other hand, the Ukrainian partners in the project (NTU Kiev, Odessa ONMA, PSTU Mariupol) will share the experience gained in the framework of the Tempus project IB_JEP-26080-2005 (project coordinator Professor Klaus Rosenthal, University of Paderborn ) to introduce remote training programs for professionals in the field of transport and logistics, with partners from Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine for the development of remote programs on tourism.

During the development phase the project was discussed with the head of the National Tempus Office in Belarus (Nicholas Falling Leaves), Georgia (Lika Glonti) and Ukraine (Svetlana Shitikova) and found by them full support. Integration of national (and regional), ministries of education, tourism organizations and enterprises, universities and students a great opportunity to intensify the cooperation between the major stakeholders of tourism industry in order to improve the quality of education and training in the tourism sector in the partner countries. In the future, with the construction of both national and general partner countries network of remote training for professionals in the field of tourism will engage universities on tourism. Implementation of the project will intensify WeNeT transfer of know-how in the field of tourism from the EU partner universities in Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine, as well as greater cooperation between the EU and its Eastern neighbors in the area of ​​tourism.