Under the first pillar, the group revisited the idea of adapting Türkiye’s sustainability accreditation approach for tourism services to Black Sea coastal destinations, with gastronomy discussed as part of it, pending confirmation of the leadership role by Türkiye’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Under the second pillar, Turkish and Bulgarian experts expressed interest in jointly improving access to cultural heritage data, to support sustainable tourism through better documentation and visibility of heritage.

The meeting also presented TOURAL, a Horizon Europe project on new tourism models in rural and coastal areas, with pilots in Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine that include digital tools for underwater heritage, living lab results and a rural heritage platform. The next steps are to consolidate the Roadmap, refine project concepts and prepare them for the Steering Group, which shows how a sea-basin framework is turning shared tourism and heritage priorities into a project pipeline.

#BlackSea #CulturalHeritage #CoastalTourism #CrossBorderCooperation