EU ECO-TANDEM PROGRAMME

ended

The EU ECO-TANDEM Programme project main goal is to boost sustainable tourism development and capacity of tourism SMEs through transnational cooperation and knowledge transfer. Since tourism value chain is today showing a general and shared concern related to “overtourism” impacting on destinations sustainability, this very last represents at the same time a challenge and an opportunity as well. This is primarily due to the unchanged focus on growth of the main tourism businesses and SMEs, and record-breaking numbers of international travellers. As a consequence, an increasing discontent is raising from local communities and broad media coverage which are generating an almost “enforced” shift to holistic destination management. More sustainable and responsible approaches and methodologies will be at the forefront of the tourism value chain: more travellers caring about sustainability, wanting more unique vacations, and seeking to be immersed in local cultures and explore unspoiled environments.This poses the challenge about how the tourism professionals and value chain can cope with responsible and sustainable skills, capacity and technology/process/service innovation. And how to equip EU SMEs in the transition to a more sustainable and responsible approach and service to travellers. There is a need to accelerate and widen the exchange of skills between entrepreneurs and technologists, thus creating a common language and understanding. The challenge is however that people and companies from different disciplines do not naturally cooperate with each other: although companies in tourism are often very open to collaboration, they lack the resources and interdisciplinary skills necessary to organise such collaborations. And here is where the ECO-TANDEM Programme will change the game in the tourism industry.