Educational Resources

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) co-developed this online course, supported by Expedia Group, to help build the capacity of tourism and hospitality businesses towards plastic waste reduction and community empowerment. The course guides readers through the steps for minimising the sourcing and consumption of single-use plastics as well as the importance of businesses to sign the UNESCO Sustainable Travel Pledge. 

Length: 64 pages 

Practical tips for the hospitality industry wanting to welcome refugee and internally displaced guests during their transit.  

Length: 6 pages

Practical tips for the hospitality industry wanting to support refugees and displaced people through employment.  

Length: 7 pages

Climate change, described by UNEP FI as the greatest market failure in history, threatens global well-being and stability. The private sector plays a key role in mitigation. These guidelines help tourism businesses—especially accommodation providers and event organizers—identify funding sources and develop finance proposals for low-emission, climate-resilient operations.

Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

Tourism Cares Online Training offers courses designed to help tourism professionals embed sustainability and community impact into their work. The platform focuses on practical tools and insights that strengthen responsible practices, build industry resilience, and create positive change through travel.

The Travel Foundation Training provides practical, sustainability-focused learning for tourism businesses and destinations. Its courses help professionals integrate responsible practices into daily operations, strengthening environmental stewardship, community benefit, and long-term business resilience.

Ukarimu (Swahili for hospitality) is an open-source curriculum designed to equip young people in Africa’s tourism and hospitality sector with the skills they need to succeed. Using active learning methods, it emphasises both practical expertise and essential soft skills. Developed in Africa for Africa.

UNWTO Tourism Online Academy is a global e-learning platform offering high-quality courses for tourism professionals and students. Developed with leading universities and institutions, it provides accessible training on management, innovation, and sustainable tourism to support career growth and industry development worldwide.

The Alliance’s online training platform empowers hospitality professionals with practical modules on sustainability topics such as climate action, water stewardship, and modern slavery. Each course includes real-world examples, tools, and certifications to help hotels and tourism businesses embed responsible practices and build resilient operations.

This online course introduces sustainable community engagement for accommodation providers, covering key concepts, benefits, and best practices. Includes videos, resources, and quizzes, with a certificate upon completion—perfect for enhancing sustainability in hospitality.

Duration: 1 hour

This course explores how intangible cultural heritage supports sustainable development, resilience, and community well-being, addressing challenges like health, gender, and conflict, emphasising the importance of keeping living heritage alive.

Duration: 6 weeks, with 2-4 hours per week

These 18 modules will help any trainer to implement a practical and relevant hospitality training to young people with little experience in the sector.

Self-paced

Supporting local community welfare is vital for hospitality businesses to thrive. This factsheet provides an overview of how to prioritize community welfare, including getting to know your community, identifying areas for engagement, integrating welfare into existing activities, and ensuring activities remain relevant and grow with the community.

Length: 2 pages

Tourism drives 8% of global emissions, and climate change is already impacting destinations and experiences. This webinar shares practical steps and real business examples to help accommodation providers take climate action, delivered through UNEP’s Transforming Tourism Value Chains project with global partners.

Duration: 1 hour

The toolkit is designed to help anyone who makes decisions on how to talk to guests about the topic of food waste. This includes: Food and Beverage Program Directors, Restaurant General Managers, Chefs and Food Service Personnel, Guest Services Managers, Guest Communications Directors. If you’re in one of these roles, you’ve probably already thought about how to reduce food waste, both in front and back of house. And you may have concerns about how to talk to guests about the issue without alienating them or sounding preachy. That’s exactly what this toolkit is designed to help you do.

Length: 41 pages

This session introduces accommodation providers on SIDS to the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism and guides them in creating their first Climate Action Plan. It outlines how they can align with global goals to halve emissions by 2030, reach net zero by 2050, and report progress annually.

Duration: 7 minutes

This session introduces accommodation providers on SIDS to the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism and guides them in creating their first Climate Action Plan. It outlines how they can align with global goals to halve emissions by 2030, reach net zero by 2050, and report progress annually.

Duration: 8 minutes

This session introduces accommodation providers on SIDS to the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism and guides them in creating their first Climate Action Plan. It outlines how they can align with global goals to halve emissions by 2030, reach net zero by 2050, and report progress annually.

Duration: 1 hour

This webinar offers practical guidance on using evidence-based nudging to influence staff and guest behaviors, reducing emissions, improving customer experience, and benefiting hotel sustainability and profitability.

Duration: 1 hour

This workshop highlights consumers' role in sustainability, exploring trends in climate awareness and ethical purchasing. Participants will learn about influencing sustainable choices, improving resource efficiency, and effective communication of sustainability messages to customers.

Duration: 7 minutes

This workshop highlights consumers' role in sustainability, exploring trends in climate awareness and ethical purchasing. Participants will learn about influencing sustainable choices, improving resource efficiency, and effective communication of sustainability messages to customers.

Duration: 10 minutes

This workshop highlights consumers' role in sustainability, exploring trends in climate awareness and ethical purchasing. Participants will learn about influencing sustainable choices, improving resource efficiency, and effective communication of sustainability messages to customers.

Duration: 14 minutes

This course helps you plan for more sustainable hotels by learning from global leaders. It covers building green teams, managing water, energy, and waste, and ends with guidance on stakeholder engagement and communicating sustainability.

Duration: 1 hour

This self-paced course helps senior tourism managers understand energy management in hotels, linking consumption to carbon emissions. It covers assessing energy use, engaging stakeholders, and implementing efficiency measures for sustainable operations.

Duration: 1 hour

The Net Positive Hospitality Simulation has been developed to engage and upskill hospitality leaders and students, bringing Net Positive Hospitality to life and demonstrating how you can implement the Pathway. It helps users to understand the impacts of their decisions, test sustainability actions and create a tailored sustainability action plan.

This one-hour self-paced course covers the principles of health and safety in tourism and hospitality. You’ll learn about common hazards, key responsibilities, and the occupational, human, and environmental factors that affect workplace wellbeing, as well as the importance of training and supervision.

Duration: 1 hour

This online training program developed by PACT in collaboration with the American Hotel and Lodging Association and Marriott International discusses the intersections between human trafficking and the hotel industry. PACT also offers free tools and resources that can be used in conjunction with the training to help companies combat trafficking and inform clients and suppliers of their commitment to child protection.

Duration: 30 minutes

Building on the foundation of |Your Role in Preventing Human Trafficking: Recognize the Signs|, |Recognize and Respond: Addressing Human Trafficking in the Hospitality Industry| incorporates hotel-level feedback and features interactive scenarios, separate learning paths for associates and managers, a mobile-friendly design, and increased guidance on responding to potential trafficking situations.

Duration: 1 hour

This free online training is designed to support hospitality companies and their human resources, procurement and legal teams, to identify and address the risks of modern slavery in their hotel operations.

This Know How Guide is a high-level introduction to human rights for the hotel industry – what human rights are, the context of the hotel industry, steps to implement the UN Guiding Principles and resources for further reading. It is primarily written for Corporate Responsibility Managers in hotel companies, though it may also be of interest to individual properties.

Length: 13 pages

This Toolkit helps frontline sectors in South Africa understand and address human trafficking, offering practical strategies to identify and support victims. Use it to train staff and improve trafficking intervention efforts effectively.

Length: 9 pages

Specific indicators that you may see in your daily work to help recognise signs of trafficking in persons.

Length: 2 pages

This training module serves as guidance to train young people in house keeing in the tourism & hospitality sector. Facilitators handbook.

Length: 19 pages

This training is developed for anyone with an interest in Digital Marketing skills in the tourism & hospitality. Facilitators Handbook.

Length: 16 pages

This training module serves as guidance to train young people in Uganda in Front office skills in the tourism & hospitality sector. Facilitators Handbook.

Length: 21 pages

This training module serves as guidance to train young people in Uganda in customer service in the tourism & hospitality sector. Facilitators Handbook.

Length: 18 pages

This training is developed for anyone with an interest in bartending and coffee making in the tourism & hospitality. Facilitators Handbook.

Length: 17 pages

This training module serves as guidance to train young people in sustainability in the tourism & hospitality sector. Facilitators Handbook.

Length: 17 pages

These Best Practice Standards, developed by a group of civil rights organisations in consultation with background checking companies, represent high standards that employers and Consumer Reporting Agencies can reasonably be expected to follow.

Length: 30 pages

Discover how to advance employee engagement, on the Pathway to Net Positive Hospitality

Length: 2 pages

This factsheet provides guidance for hotels on how to address risks when recruiting temporary workers.

Length: 2 pages

This factsheet contains guidance for hotels to recognise and mitigate the risks to their employees and job seekers of recruitment scams.

Length: 3 pages

This guidance note provides practical steps and advice for the hospitality industry on recruiting international migrant workers ethically within business enterprise operations and supply chains.

Length: 35 pages

The Wellness Check In encourages a personal review of work stress on personal wellbeing, while the Self Care Playbook provide simple things you can do every day, at home, to protect your health and manage your stress response.

Length: 13 pages

The Wellness Action Plan is a framework which enables staff to identify awareness of their ideal working style, their triggers of stress and helps you to work closely with your team to develop an effective approach to overcoming distressing symptoms, and unhelpful behaviour patterns.

Length: 11 pages

The course explores digital transformation in tourism, focusing on customer experience, operational efficiency, and innovation. Through videos, readings, and case studies, participants learn to implement digital strategies and build sustainable tourism ecosystems.

Duration: 7 hours

This Restaurant Operations course sets the foundation for creating a smooth customer experience, from setting the service at a restaurant for both casual and fine dining to covering preparation and closure procedures. You will also study food safety quality standards and learn to integrate sustainability principles, contributing to the UN SDGs by reducing water consumption and waste production and using seasonal, local products to support a circular economy.

Duration: 8 hours

Culinary Basics for Operations, Catering Management, and New Techniques is a comprehensive course that explores the culinary domain. From foundational techniques to diverse cooking methods and creativity in the kitchen, participants delve into menu development, market analysis, recipe adaptation, and menu engineering for profitability. The course also covers key aspects of catering management, including planning, staffing, financial considerations, and legal matters. Participants emerge from the course with a thorough understanding of the dynamic culinary landscape.

Duration: 8 hours

The Innovation and Technology Management in Tourism and Hospitality course covers different ICT infrastructures and tools, taking a closer look at their roles in shaping the business environment, business models, marketing practices, revenue strategies, and customer service techniques. You will discuss the dynamics generated in the development of ICT and their impact on tourism and hospitality organizations. The course will also cover the themes of digital transformation, business analytics, and digital marketing.

Duration: 12 weeks, with 6-8 hours per week

The How to Become a Restaurateur course will give you the skills and knowledge you need to succeed as a restaurant entrepreneur. You’ll learn the essentials of opening a restaurant and how to avoid the traps many new food and beverage businesses fall into. Learn how the menu you create impacts your need for physical and financial resources while simultaneously learning the foundations of marketing and finance for the food industry.

Duration: 20 hours over 4 weeks

This free mini-course is designed for tourism businesses looking to grow but unsure where to start. Drawing on real-world experience across multiple industries, it offers practical strategies tailored for hotels, spas, restaurants, attractions, travel agents, tour guides, and more. The course cuts through conflicting advice to provide proven, actionable insights without any upsell—just tools to help you move your business forward.

Duration: 9 lectures over 2 hours

In this webinar we will look at the different parts in the food system where the hospitality industry can have an influence on from production to consumption. Afterwards, participants will be able to identify actions for the planning, procurement, and management of food within their operations to improve overall impacts.

Duration: 1 hour

This course explores the link between water security and tourism, helping participants understand tourism's impact on water resources. It teaches tools to assess and manage hotel water use, enabling effective conservation and sustainable practices within hotel operations.

Duration: 1 hour 

This course teaches sustainable food management in hotels, emphasising the benefits of sustainable options and waste reduction strategies. Participants will gain skills to identify and implement measures that align with global sustainability goals, reducing environmental impact and enhancing hotel operations.

Duration: 1 hour

This online course by UNWTO and Booking.com covers sustainable water management for accommodations, including water stewardship, footprint calculation, and efficient technologies. With five interactive modules, it offers practical tips and best practices to help implement effective water management strategies.

Duration: 6 hours over 3 weeks

This course explores tourism’s link to global water security, focusing on water use and costs in hotels. It covers the water management cycle, strategies for savings, and ways to engage staff and guests in conserving water.

Duration: 1 hour

The Hotel Waste Measurement Methodology is a common approach for the hotel industry to collect waste data, and measure and report waste.

Duration: 44 pages

This factsheet explores the issues of water risk and provides recommendations on how to reduce impacts on hotel operations and local supply.

Duration: 4 pages

The Water Stewardship for Hotel Companies report guides hotels on managing water use and implementing stewardship programs. It defines water stewardship in the industry, outlines six key steps, and includes a tool to calculate property water use, with a webinar showing how to apply it.

Duration: 25 minutes

This report recommends six steps every hotel should take to better manage their impact on water, with guidance on setting targets, managing water use, working with supply chain and collaborating for maximum impact.

Duration: 25 pages

This webinar offers practical tips for hoteliers to reduce plastic use and increase circularity, showcasing successful examples and insights from experts, helping tourism contribute to solving the global plastic pollution crisis.

Duration: 1 hour

This self-paced course equips participants with skills to create effective hotel waste management plans, highlighting cost savings, environmental benefits, circular economy practices, and practical techniques to measure, reduce, and divert waste.

Self-paced

This handbook targets the tourism sector, focusing on accommodation and transportation. It guides managers on communicating with children and preventing child exploitation. The handbook offers examples of preventive policies for hotels, taxis, airlines, travel agencies, and other transportation providers to help protect children in the tourism industry. 

Duration: 84 pages