GenT - Tourism Generation aims to highlight practical approaches to tackling the sector’s challenges, with a particular focus on skills, innovation and strong collaboration between education and the professional world. We spoke about this with Andrea Huber, co-head of the Bachelor’s in Leisure Management, and Alan Quaglieri, lecturer and SUPSI coordinator for this year’s edition.
GenT - Generazione Turismo brings together leading educational institutions in the Ticino region (USI, SUPSI and SSSAT); what is the value of this initiative?
The main value of GenT is to create a space for students from different but complementary educational backgrounds to meet and exchange ideas. The initiative represents an important opportunity to strengthen the link between education, institutions and the professional world, involving local stakeholders and stimulating a shared reflection on the future of tourism in Ticino.
Following a first edition focused on skills, this year the discussion centred on values: what do you consider to be the essential values today for those wishing to work in tourism?
The development of skills is a central aspect of training future professionals who are called upon to understand and deal with a complex phenomenon such as tourism. At the same time, the management of tourism and its implications cannot be separated from the definition of objectives that guide the application of professional skills. Tourism is, in itself, neither a blessing nor a curse. It can be an important lever for regional development, but even before asking how, it is essential to ask what tourism can and should serve. In other words, we must give substance to the word ‘development’, and this is where values come into play.
It is important to foster a critical mindset that promotes awareness of the nature and intensity of the impacts that tourism can generate. In this sense, one of the key values that emerged during the event is a sense of responsibility towards the local area and its inhabitants. This responsibility must be shared within the framework of open, transparent and participatory governance systems that take into account the interests, rights and sensitivities of the various social actors involved.
Tourism operators, therefore, must be able to develop the necessary empathy towards the needs not only of visitors, but also of residents, businesses and institutions, so as to be able to make a decisive contribution to the definition of informed, shared and sustainable strategies in the long term.
How can educational institutions such as SUPSI, USI and SSSAT translate these values into concrete training programmes, ensuring they do not remain merely theoretical principles?
A key aspect is creating learning opportunities that expose students to real-life situations, local stakeholders and diverse perspectives. Initiatives such as GenT move precisely in this direction: they do not merely convey content, but foster dialogue, interdisciplinary work and critical reflection. This year’s workshop also allowed students to collaborate in mixed groups, discussing concrete cases and reflecting together on the values that should guide the tourism professionals of the future.
Dialogue between the academic world and local stakeholders is central to GenT: what are the main challenges and opportunities in strengthening this collaboration within the Ticino region, particularly in light of the testimonies shared during the day?
One of the main opportunities is the chance to develop a common language among those involved in education, research and professional practice. Engaging with local stakeholders allows us to better understand the sector’s real needs and to prepare professionals who are more aware and better equipped to tackle the ongoing changes. At the same time, certain challenges also emerge, linked for example to the need to reconcile differing interests, varying timelines and expectations that are not always aligned. It is precisely for this reason that opportunities for dialogue such as GenT become important: they help to forge connections, foster dialogue and stimulate a shared vision of tourism.
Looking at the work of the student groups and the idea of a ‘manifesto’ for the tourism professional of the future, what outcomes emerged from this day, which saw students from the three different educational institutions collaborating?
One of the most interesting aspects was seeing how students from different backgrounds managed to engage in dialogue and identify common values and shared priorities. The work carried out this year also builds on the previous edition of GenT, where students identified 12 possible profiles of the “tourism professional of the future”. Building on these, participants in the 2026 edition explored the values that should guide their actions. The group work gave rise to the idea of a tourism professional capable of combining skills, social responsibility, a focus on the local area and interpersonal skills. The workshop also highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue: bringing together different perspectives enriched the discussion and helped build a more nuanced and informed vision of the future of tourism.