EUROPEAN PROFILES S.A

TITLE OF PROJECT

Sustainable Tools & Activities for Rural Tourism and Ecotourism SME’s Growth

Country:

Greece, Italy, Romania, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus

Project Period:

01/01/2023 - 31/12/2025

Project Value:

€ 1.257.868,83

No of Staff Provided:

7

Origin of Funding:

SMP-COSME-2021-TOURSME

Name of Client/ Beneficiary:

European Innovation Council And SMEs Executive
Agency (EISMEA)

Description of Project:

The project aims to enhance the sustainable growth of SMEs operating in the rural tourism and ecotourism sectors in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Romania and Italy by providing technical and financial support, whilst boosting their awareness, development and capacity in the area of sustainable innovations. The project focuses on supporting the transition to sustainability and digitalization of rural tourism and ecotourism SMEs in the target countries. Rural tourism and ecotourism sectors show a significant growth potential in the Covid-19 and post Covid-19 era. Nevertheless, given that the project main target groups (rural tourism and ecotourism SMEs) belong to communities that might be characterized by geographical remoteness, the number of high-quality learning opportunities and development support activities for their staff to access in those regions is quite limited. This need to be responded by providing rural tourism and ecotourism SMEs with customized support services, training, capacity building, mentoring and business cooperation support activities, as well as financial support for the implementation of relevant activities, aiming at the sustainable development of these sectors, with particular attention to slow tourism across seasons and in connection with respecting the authenticity and well-being of host communities. Specific objectives of the project are:

i) Supporting 90 rural tourism and ecotourism SMEs in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Romania and Italy in developing their skills and capacities in sustainable tourism, whilst creating sustainability strategies in line with the needs and priorities of their territory;

ii) Providing capacity building and technical assistance to the selected SMEs, by applying European sustainability frameworks and tools (such as Environmental footprint methods, EMAS, EU Ecolabel, ISO 14001:2015, CSR, HCMI, etc.);

iii) Fostering innovative practices and solutions, which can provide business destinations with heightened resilience to shocks, enhanced social, economic and environmental awareness and responsibility;

iv) Building effective mechanisms for best practice exchange and dissemination of transferable tools and knowledge between the SMEs, also at a European level.

The European dimension of the project is illustrated by the following elements: the geographical spread of the partnership can help the representation of different countries of the EU as the partners are representing diverse European cultures. Also the transnational cooperation among the partners from 6 different countries enables the cooperation, sharing of expertise and good practice, as well as the mutual learning among organizations/institutions with different mandates and experience, for the development of joint solutions applicable across Europe. The transnational cooperation makes possible the development of EU wide tools and outputs by combining sources of information and capacities and facilitates their dissemination and promotion to different stakeholders at local, national and EU level. Moreover, the project involves the cooperation of 6 partners, that promotes the sharing of expertise and good practices and the mutual learning among organizations, as well as the combination of resources and capacities for the development of joint/common solutions/tools that will directly benefit Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Slovenia, Italy and Cyprus, but which are also applicable across rural tourism and ecotourism sectors in all European countries. Furthermore, the project will contribute to the achievement of the objectives and priorities of the EU’s “Green Deal”, the “SME Strategy for a sustainable and digital Europe” and the “New Industrial Strategy for Europe”.
 

Staff provided by European Profiles SA
• Tourism Expert - Mr. Gian Andrea P. Garancini
• Senior Expert, Advisor / Researcher– Mr. Kostas Hatziyannis
• Trainer – Mr. Sokratis Oikonomidis
• Project Manager – Mr. Grigorios Kontzoglou
• Financial Manager – Ms. Kalliopi Mastora
• Technical Personnel – Mr. George Vardagalos
• Administrative Personel – Mr. Efe Can Ege

Services Provided:

Name of Partners:

• Academia IRSEI (IT),
• APINTECH (CY),
• EU-ROM (RO),
• TP LJ (SI),
• NTC BG Guide (BG)