Sustainable tourism
In the spotlight
Discover what actions you can take to encourage sustainable tourism in your region, from supporting local businesses and preserving natural heritage. Our experts have hand-picked the most relevant content for you on the topic so you can dive right in and learn how to balance tourism growth with environmental conservation and community well-being.
E-workshop recording: sustainable and competitive tourism
On Tuesday 21 September 2021 from 14:00 to 17:00 (CET), the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform organised an online workshop on competitive and sustainable tourism sector. Allowing for networking opportunities during breaks, the event was organised around three distinct sessions: a panel discussion with keynote speakers, two parallel working groups, and a plenary session.
Recordings
You can watch the first session below and the working groups and plenary session on our YouTube channel.
Key learnings
Moderation and concept by Luc Schmerber, Mart Veliste, Astrid Severin and Marco Citelli.
‘Tourism development strategy of Valmiera city and surrounding area (Valmiera+)’
Lienite Priedaja-Klepere (Vidzeme Planning region, Latvia) presented how the promotion of the tourism sector in the region of Valmiera was improved through:
The setup of a shared strategy among Valmiera City, several neighbouring municipalities as well as representatives from academia, research and the tourism industry.
The setup of the Gauja national Park tourism cluster, bringing today together around 50 businesses, 9 municipalities, 13 NGOs and further stakeholders.
Both initiatives contributed to a more efficient governance and collaboration among stakeholders in the tourism area and a 30% growth of the sector. Within the cluster, strategic development projects enabled the attraction of additional resources and the development of new products and services. A strong brand emerged and the open dialogue among regional stakeholders enabled the uptake of nature & culture heritage goals in the regional tourism development strategy
Testimonial of a policy change on Public-private cooperation platforms for cultural and natural heritage-based tourism
Björn Ohlen from the Västra Götaland Region reported how the regional authorities worked on a proactive strategy to draw more local and especially international tourists into the region telling the story of Sweden’s rich industrial heritage. To this end, the region developed an industrial cultural route with hiking and biking trails and a network that connects industrial museums, people and remote places. The PRISMA network enables a close collaboration and provides a common branding and point of entry for a wide range of regional players. With the implementation of its strategy, the Region Västra Götaland has been able to enhance the visibility of its heritage and to involve the local population, on a voluntary basis, in guided tours, to showcase the heritage and the knowledge of ancient crafts.
Trinidad Manrique de Lara Vilchez from the Diputación de Granada presented how they got inspired by Västra Götaland despite the large distance between the two regions. In the CHRISTA project, they learned that the conditions of the two regions were very similar: both are areas with great tourism potential but suffering from depopulation and unemployment. That is why the PRISMA network attracted their interest. Based on the method of Västra Götaland, Granada decided to change the Provincial Geopark Strategy, to showcase an offer for sustainable tourism based on the rich natural and cultural heritage of the area and to create a network of public and private visitor centres instigating cooperation and common development among the Municipalities in the Geopark area. This approach paid off. By 2019, the number of visitors had nearly doubled to 130,395 up from 65,547 in 2017 and the average overnight stays had increased from 1.69 to 3.31 nights per visitor.
Presentations
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Working group I – Cooperation for success: joint branding and multistakeholder involvement programmes.
A well-attended discussion developed around three good practices: ‘From guesthouse to guesthouse cooperation’ (Destination SMEs) about a network of small guesthouses located in rural areas of North Karelia (Finland), ‘Benvinguts a Pagès (BaP) - Welcome to the Farm’ (EUREGA) about the promotion of Catalan food and food producers through direct visits to farms, orchards, herds and fishing boats, and Validichiana Living (BRANDTour) about a model of territorial governance to expand proposals of vacation by integrating products/services and improving the competitive positioning of destinations in Tuscany (Italy).
Teresa Caldarola from the Economic and Tourism Promotion Department or Tuscany Region (Italy) reflected on the good practices presented from a policy maker’s perspective and initiated the discussion.
What have we learned?
Joint branding is a very useful tool to overcome a weakness of many of the small and very small businesses in the tourism sector, namely the lack of resources and skills for marketing and especially communication. This is especially relevant for international marketing.
All three practices show how more value (e.g. increase in overnight stays) can be created by working for common goals. Practices such as these can help overcome seasonality and fragmentation struggles of the tourism sector.
Joint branding is useful to bring together the actors of different supply chains relevant to the tourism sector, like for instance agrifood and transportation.
Well managed brands can significantly contribute to fight over-tourism by bringing tourists away from the main sites and promoting a diversity of interesting sites.
Trust and value-based collaboration among tourist actors is a powerful soft tool to promote diversity in the tourism offer and contribute to the transition towards a more sustainable tourism. Teresa highlighted how the initiatives presented related to several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Referring to Sustainable Development Goals on tourism programmes and products can help communicate and brand sustainable practices.
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Working group II – Off the beaten track: Developing new geographically distributed and off-season tourism offers.
A lively exchange took place around three good practices: the establishment of the ‘Visit Prosecco Hills’ network of tourism-oriented enterprises in the Veneto Region (Local Flavours), the quick response given by the Province of Teruel to help the recovery of local tourism in Covid-19 times (RAMSAT), the public-private partnership that made Via Transilvanica possible and is boosting Romanian ecotourism (MOMAr). Thomas Guillot from NECSTouR shared his expert opinion on these good practices as well as additional knowledge and insights for discussion.
What have we learned?
When a strong policy vision encounters entrepreneurial forces committed to promoting the territory it is possible to create «alternative attractors» and break tourism seasonality between major tourism hotspots. That is the case of the ERDF-funded ‘Visit Prosecco Hills’ consortium, which provides touristic services that integrate the wine tasting experience and helps consolidate the hills as an alternative destination halfway from Venice and the Dolomites.
Minimising the impact of Covid-19 on local tourism is a though yet surmountable challenge. The Province of Teruel reacted quickly to the pandemic and reoriented its local tourism development strategy by betting on proximity tourism, showcasing local excellencies and ‘putting on the map’ lesser-known destinations, in cooperation with stakeholders of all kinds. Available data indicate that this approach paid off.
Maintaining and promoting trails is a great way to support ecotourism all year long. The public-private partnership started off in Romania around a 1,200 km trail stretching across Transylvania contributes to enhancing access to the cultural and natural heritage of the region. Building an ecosystem favourable to the valorization of new itineraries is a must for any policymakers to committed to sustainable tourism.
Competitiveness and sustainability: one does not exclude the other! If pursued in parallel, they increase the overall resilience of the tourism sector. In the aftermath of Covid-19 the bulk of regional initiatives and investments needs to target the recovery of local and proximity tourism. As the good practices explored in the working group confirm, this can be done in cooperation with a plurality of different stakeholders – from private companies to NGOs – and should always have the valorisation of the natural and cultural heritage as the ultimate goal, to enable the «tourism of tomorrow».
Presentations
Financial support for sustainable and competitive tourism under European Structural and Investment Funds
Ramune Genzbigelyte Venturi (European Commission, DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Unit GROW G1 – Tourism and Textiles) reminded of the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the tourism sector as well as its importance for the EU in terms of GDP and jobs, and the need to provide support and work on the transition towards a more resilient, sustainable and digital European tourism ecosystem.
She explained how the EC is working jointly with the relevant stakeholders on the co-creation of a Tourism Transition Pathway towards an European Agenda for Tourism 2030/2050, starting from the key lessons from the “Regional impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on the tourist sector” study: tourism growth needs to be manged responsibly; new destinations emerge; tourism needs to be sustainable; digitisation becomes the new backbone of tourism; collaboration, innovation and creative ideas are essential. She concluded her intervention by reminding the relevance of tourism for Interreg during the funding period 2021-2027. She also explained that investments in tourism are possible through all 5 policy objectives supported by the ERDF as long as they follow the appropriate intervention logic.
Presentation
Conclusions
The tourism sector has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and is now starting to show signs of a slow recovery. This e-workshop on ‘competitive and sustainable tourism sector’ has put the spotlight a number of successful strategies that are driving this recovery by bringing visitors to remote areas, attracting both local and international tourists and increasing overnight stays. A key success factor has been the collaboration of dispersed actors through functioning networks that work under a common branding, as well as the launch communication strategies and marketing campaigns.
The regions have been creating alternative tourism offers, away from the hot spots offering open air tourism, enabling people to slow down and enjoy natural and cultural heritage and the rural environment. This type of tourism has been particularly appreciated by the local population in times of Covid-19. The approaches presented have shown that regions promoted alternative modes of transport ranging from hiking and biking to canoes and horseback riding. They also featured local delicacies enabling them at the same time to strengthen their local businesses, particularly in rural areas. The regional authorities supported the development of these new sustainable and competitive tourism offers financially and through manpower and used Interreg Europe projects to inspire policy changes and new strategies.
In addition to this, the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform can help you address any policy challenges. Through matchmaking sessions and peer reviews we can provide you with experiences and in-depth knowledge from other regions that have successfully found solutions for the challenges you are experiencing. Curious about who these services work? Visit our expert support webpage and contact us.
Policy Learning Platform resources
- Policy Brief: “
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- Policy Brief: “ ”
- Policy Brief: “ ”
- Story: “Rural businesses in the tourism sector”
- Policy Brief: “Cultural heritage in mountain regions”
- Policy Brief: “
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- Policy Brief: “
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- Policy Brief:
- Story: “Off the beaten track: Regional strategies boosting tourism through heritage”
- Webinar: “Cycling tourism”
- Webinar: “Ecotourism in riverside territories”
- e-Workshop: “Living rivers: a driver for sustainable regional development”
- Online discussion: “Digital technologies and museums: post-pandemic experiences”
Credit: Photo by ECO-CICLE Public Institution Krka National Park
Rural businesses in the tourism sector
Tourism is often a stimulating economic sector for rural regions facing scarce employment and business opportunities. Barriers to economic development are mainly related to a too strong reliance on traditional activities, a weak cross-fertilisation between different sectors and stakeholders, and a lack of tools to stimulate SME innovation.
The partners in the Interreg Europe project RuralGrowth have exchanged their practices on how to focus on reinforcing the competitiveness of rural businesses in the tourism sector to find solutions to those barriers.
In the involved regions, almost 30% of all SMEs are relevant to the visitor economy sector. The upgrade of the hospitality sector and connected traditional rural activities is crucial, but boosting the visitor economy also brings benefits for sectors that indirectly support tourism such as agriculture, the processing industry and various services, resulting in creating new local jobs and infrastructure developments benefiting visitors and inhabitants alike.
Beyond economic development, the RuralGrowth partners also aim to sustain vivid local communities able to preserve the integrity of the natural environment as well as cultural assets. A sustainable visitor economy not only facilitates the growth and competitiveness of local SMEs but also contributes to all aspects of sustainability.
Comprehensive policy improvements in Savonlinna, Finland
Savonlinna is a city of around 35.000 people in Eastern Finland, in the lap of Lake Saimaa. It is represented in RuralGrowth by its economic development agency Savonlinna Development Services Ltd.
Building on the exchanges initiated with the partners of RuralGrowth, Savonlinna Development Services Ltd managed to get funding approval and implement no less than three projects with significant budget allocation:
- The ROIHU project, is a start-up coaching project to establish a growth path for SMEs from business ideas to scalable business models. The project was inspired by the Newcastle University, Advisory partner in RuralGrowth and developed in cooperation with XAMK - South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences. The project involved about 2.000 prospective or new entrepreneurs in events, seminars, and business training sessions. 53 newly established businesses and 7 new start-up companies aiming for the international market were coached. It was closed by 30.9.2020 with a total public funding (ESF) of € 865 270.
- The PAMU Savonlinna (service design for tourism and visitor economy sector) project was ongoing with allocated funding (ERDF) of € 526 248 until 30.06.2021. It is implemented jointly by Savonlinna Development Services, XAMK and Samiedu vocational institute. The project has involved over 50 SMEs in coaching and contributed to the design of over 40 service concepts.
- Digiportaat (Digisteps) is about facilitating the adoption and use of digital distribution channels in rural SMEs. The project is not targeted exclusively for SMEs in the visitor economy, but a course offer has been developed with the view of serving specifically companies involved in hospitality and tourism. Thanks to its success, the project was extended until 31.12.2021. Already 374 SME participants and 131 business advisors have been trained. The total allocation (ESF) was raised from € 1.290.000 to € 1.750.000.
The project's lead partner is XAMK, working jointly with the regional development companies in Mikkeli and Savonlinna, ProAgria (Finnish expert organisation for rural entrepreneurs) and the Entrepreneurs of South Savo society.
Pellervo Kokkonen, the project manager for Savonlinna Development Services Ltd in RuralGrowth highlighted that, “besides the contribution of the project partners, it was also the strong ongoing interaction on local level among the members of the Local Stakeholder Group which made the emergence of those projects possible. Each partner was ready to take up the inspiration from our international partners and the international dimension of the projects imposed somehow a higher level of ambition in policy improvement. The high level of trust among the local players, including the Managing Authorities for the development funds, enabled to develop those projects and embed them in a shared strategy.”
Lessons learned – the way forward in Savonlinna
The experiences made with the actions initiated in the framework of the RuralGrowth project will definitely not remain unused:
- Startup incubation activities as delivered in the ROIHU – Startup booster Savonlinna project are going on under the leadership of XAMK. Discussions have been initiated on the possibility to offer in the future a co-working space to local entrepreneurs.
- The activities on service design for tourism and visitor economy sector in the PAMU Savonlinna project have led to follow-up projects dealing with service experience for tourists and capacity building measures, waiting for approval for funding. A major development consists in the launch of an online Do It Yourself package for service design. The Samiedu vocational institute has also incorporated service design into its education offer with SME entrepreneurs and SME employees as target group. Samiedu’s staff has been accordingly trained for service design.
- The Digiportaat (Digisteps) project, considering its huge success among local SMEs, was first granted an extension and allocated additional co-financing. The current project demonstrated the huge demand for coaching and training in digital skills in the SMEs. It is expected to be continued based on the lessons learned in the next funding programme period. A new project is already being planned in coordination with the relevant Managing Authority; the anticipated budget will be € 1.400.000 for two years.
The lessons learned in RuralGrowth helped the Finnish organisations to leverage the funding provided by their Regional Operational Programmes with high-quality projects resulting from the cooperation within Interreg Europe. No doubt, visitors will be able to benefit from all those improvements on site soon.
Photo credit: tweny20photos on envato elements
Webinar on eco-tourism in riverside territories
On 24 October 2019, the Policy Learning Platform hosted a webinar on the topic of eco-tourism in riverside territories. You can access the presentations, replay of the webinar and key learnings in this article.
After the introduction by thematic experts on environment and resource efficiency, Venelina Varbova and Ruslan Zhechkov, the webinar presented four successful study cases:
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for visitor management in protected areas by Andrei Blumer, from IMPACT projectDocument
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in Latvia and Estonia by Māra Sproģe from SWARE project. Take a look at the video Māra shared during her presentation.Document
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a platform for cooperation and development of nature tourism by Lienīte Priedāja-Klepere, from Destination SMEs project. Take a look at the video Lienīte shared during her presentation.Document
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, a public-private participatory policy making model for tourism development by Ruth Mulhern from SWARE projectDocument
Webinar recording
Watch the replay of the webinar below. To help you navigate to the highlights and questions during the webinar, find an agenda overview below. This is followed by a summary of the key learnings.
00:04:36 Introduction presentation by thematic expert, Venelina Varbova
00:16:35 Presentation on evaluating the carrying capacity for visitor management in protected areas by Andrei Blumer
00:27:55 Presentation on developing water tourism along riverways in Latvia and Estonia by Māra Sproģe
00:37:45 Q&A: Can ecotourism activities be combined with river and catchment area restoration?
00:41:50 Presentation on Gauja national park tourism cluster by Lienīte Priedāja-Klepere
00:51:55 Presentation on Lough Derg Marketing Group by Ruth Mulhern
01:09:55 Q&A: The objective of Destination SME is to strengthen the tourist offer and its competitivness. Assuming that this is already happening, have you incorporated some checks and balances related to nature protection?
Panel discussion
01:16:00 Q&A: Have you measured the direct economic benefit of those actions?
01:17:03 Q&A: Can money coming from eco-tourism be invested in nature management?
01:22:28 Q&A: Do you know how many nature related jobs are created?
Key Learnings
Natural resources along riverways are vulnerable to potential pressures from tourism and therefore need to be protected in order to remain a source of attraction and economic benefits for the future. Th balance between protection and tourism is not easy. However, in many European regions much experience has been gained e.g. visitor management and approaches for assessing the impact of tourism flows on habitats and species.
The Romanian experience in evaluating the carrying capacity for visitor management in protected areas is a positive example in this regard. In areas with such high environmental pressures it is important to slow down the pace of tourism and promote ecotourism activities.
Natural heritage of riverside border areas have the potential to contribute to improving cross-border collaboration through developing and promoting a joint tourism offer. This leads to more balanced tourism development, enhanced quality of tourism services and visitor experience. Besides bringing concrete economic benefits to a cross-border region, the example of developing water tourism along riverways in Latvia and Estonia has a very strong agenda. It related to addressing seasonality, promoting water tourism and attracting the attention to new and undiscovered territories.
Defining a long-term vision, engaging and working with the right stakeholders, creating the strategic policy framework from riverside and tourism perspective are essential elements for ecotourism development of riverside areas. The participatory policy-making model for tourism development, management and promotion of Lough (Lake) Derg in Ireland can serve as an inspiration for other regions.
It is essential to highlight the benefits of cooperation between businesses engaged in nature-based tourism. Such benefits include achieving stronger strategic positioning, knowledge exchange, development of joint and innovative tourism products. The experience of Gauja national park tourism cluster demonstrates this innovative approach and contributes to improving the sustainability of the regional tourism offer.
Image credit: Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh from Pexels
Tourism strategies and roadmaps for supporting SMEs in Moldova
The Policy Learning Platform conducted an online matchmaking for the National Tourism Office of Moldova, on 12 July 2024. The National Tourism Office of Moldova requested some advice on how to build a strategy on tourism while developing support schemes for tourism SMEs.
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The tourism sector has had a couple of turbulent years – from very fast growth leading to overtourism and adverse impacts on the environment and communities. To a nearly complete shut-down during the COVID pandemic with its lasting social and economic impacts. Therefore, identifying good practices fostering a resilient and environmentally sustainable sector is crucial for rebuilding the sector in Europe.