In the first call of the Interreg Euro-MED Programme, 10 projects working for a better and greener Mediterranean were selected for the Sustainable Tourism Mission.
On the occasion of the Kick off Meeting held last April 10 and 11, 2024, all the projects of the Sustainable Tourism Mission – the 2 Governance Projects and the 10 Thematic Projects – met for the first time in person. They officially started the common work to be pursued, together with the Joint Secretariat and the other Thematic Missions of the Interreg Euro-MED programme.
The Kick off Meeting represented, at the same time, the first meeting of the MED Clusters of the Sustainable Tourism Mission whose one of the results was the production of three Orientation Papers.
Now it’s time to know a bit more about the Thematic Projects.
COOL NOONS
By testing and promoting innovative solutions in the urban areas, the COOL NOONS project aims to address urban tourism in Mediterranean cities, which are dramatically exposed to the negative effects of climate change and in particular to heat waves.
Five pilot cities will implement innovative solutions to improve the tourists and residents experience during the hottest hours of the day. The tools and methods used combine scientific accuracy, pragmatism and creativity, thanks to the diversity of the partners involved.
Visit the project website.
COOL NOONS is a member of the MED Cluster Climate Change, Nature & Biodiversity
HERIT ADAPT – HERitage and territory resilience through sustainable Tourism, climate change ADAPtation and ciTizen engagement
HERIT ADAPT works to reinforce the sustainability and resilience of Euro-MED tourism destinations by increasing the adaptation and mitigation capacity of natural and cultural heritage assets, which are directly linked with their tourism attractiveness.
Territorial Working Groups will co-test solutions in sites and urban environments. Most important, they will co-develop Sustainable Tourism Strategies for combating climate change impacts by using cultural heritage as a key dimension of cultural ecosystem services.
Visit the project website.
HERIT ADAPT is a member of the MED Cluster Climate Change, Nature & Biodiversity
LIBECCIO – sustainabiLIty of tourism By Enhancing Cooperation and dIgital transfOrmation
Tourism lacks of resilience to unforeseeable risks. Its governance is rigid in responding and mitigating them while there is the need to provide more timely information to tourism policy and decision makers. All these are hindering factors to a more sustainable development of the sector.
Through digital transformation, LIBECCIO tackles some of the main tourism challenges in the Mediterranean area.
The project aims to respond to the need for better destination management by supporting policy makers with an informed and data-based decision-making process. It wants to positively impact the implementation of policies for a more sustainable tourism paradigm.
Visit the project website.
LIBECCIO is a member of the MED Cluster Innovation
MAST – MAking sustainable Tourism possible
MAST aims to facilitate and support the transition towards more resilient, circular and sustainable management systems in Mediterranean SMEs accommodation. It will accomplish this process through a study that, guided by the ISO:21401:2018 standard, leads to the definition of a sustainability protocol and self-assessment tool that can be easily implemented in accommodation enterprises.
By engaging SMEs from different European countries in the co-creation and validation of new solutions, the project will promote sustainable initiatives applicable to the most current tourism management realities where companies operate.
Visit the project website.
MAST is a member of the MED Cluster Circular Economy
MedDiet Go – Med Diet identities-from territorial networking to cluster organization
MedDiet Go aims to foster Mediterranean lifestyle and rural landscape as a tourism opportunity through innovation and networking, promoting the territories of the Mediterranean Diet (and its healthy products) as international and sustainable tourism destinations.
By transfering the main achievements of the MD.net Project, the project wants to expand stakeholder adherence to the values of the Mediterranean Diet. It also aims at consolidating the Med Diet Euro-Cluster to connect rural economies and face the challenges of the global market.
Visit the project website.
MedDiet Go is a member of the MED Cluster Innovation
MED-GIAHS – Mediterranean GIAHS sites network to promote sustainable agricultural tourism
MED GIAHS wants to create a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Sites network to preserve and foster GIAHS by rebuilding and redefining tourism in a new and more sustainable way.
The project will achieve that through the elaboration of a Joint Strategy on sustainable agricultural tourism, a Joint guide for the elaboration of GIAHS action plans, a catalogue of touristic experiences and a training plan for local actors on GIAHS sites. 5 European and 6 Northern African GIAHS sites plus 3 candidates for GIAHS sites will benefit of these products.
Visit the project website.
MED-GIAHS is a member of the MED Cluster Climate Change, Nature & Biodiversity
MED-Routes – Enhancing MED sustainable cultural tourism through the creation of eco-itineraries inside European Cultural Routes
Cultural tourism is a key-asset for economies in the MED region but it clashes with climate change when sustainable practices aren’t embraced. To tackle this, the MED area must rethink its cultural tourism to blend local heritage with sustainability.
MED-Routes aims to pioneer a sustainable tourism model focused on the shared heritage of four Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe (CRs) in the Mediterranean (MED), emphasizing a “slow tourism” approach. The project offers a solution promoting cultural tourism across the MED-area by establishing and disseminating a local-based, low-impact model of sustainable tourism rooted in the common heritage of these 4 CRs.
Visit the project website.
MED-Routes is a member of the MED Cluster Circular Economy
NaTour4CChange – Governing sustainable tourism in territories with high environmental value: reconnecting tourism and nature for addressing the climate crisis with an ecosystem-based approach
By reconnecting tourism and nature to address climate change with an ecosystem-based approach, NaTour4CChange aims at enhancing the governance of sustainable tourism in regions with high environmental value. It wants to set common methods to allow participating regions to assess their tourism-related climate adaptation and mitigation priorities, and take climate action via plans and strategies, supported by cooperative governance.
The project builds on successful experiences at the Mediterranean and global level to test solutions for increasing the resilience of coastal destinations in the Mediterranean.
Visit the project website.
NaTour4CChange is a member of the MED Cluster Climate Change, Nature & Biodiversity
SMITour – SMart Industrial Tourism in the Mediterranean
The SMITour project aims to enhance Mediterranean regions and sites through the development of Smart Industrial Tourism (SMIT) activities, leveraging the partners’ expertise and advanced methodology to stimulate economic and social growth, minimise environmental impact, and encourage research and innovation.
By analysing existing practices and technologies, the project works to identify pathways for the development of new business models for SMIT, fostering a blend of physical and virtual experiences through AR, VR, and MR. Through collaboration and innovation, SMITour seeks to create a common strategy and Action Plan for Smart Industrial Tourism, paving the way for economic diversification and technological advancement in the region.
Visit the project website.
SMITour is a member of the MED Cluster Innovation
TOURISMO – TOURism Innovative and Sustainable Management of flOws
Persistent challenges, like overtourism, continue to affect destinations and communities across the Mediterranean region. TOURISMO aims at addressing these challenges by using innovative technologies that offer new solutions and novel services to monitor and manage tourist flows.
Better flows handling will be implemented through the development of a monitoring and decision-making support management structure and testing in 8 MED pilot sites. The approach is based on using data from various datasets and on-site technologies (i.e. thermal cameras, pax counters, drones, tags) relevant to tourists’ presence, density, trajectories and behaviors.
Visit the project website.
TOURISMO is a member of the MED Cluster Innovation
What’s next?
New projects will soon join these first ten, enriching the community of new solutions and innovations to move forward in the Mission for a greener and better Mediterranean.
