The INSPIRES Project fosters collaboration among Tourism SMEs in Europe, to develop digital and green transition solutions, with resilience and sustainability.

Co-funded by the Single Market Programme of the European Union.

INSPIRES project presents an innovative approach to address a crucial EU priority: fostering collaboration among SMEs to develop scalable and transferable TWIN TRANSITION solutions, thereby stimulating robust economic growth in regional tourism ecosystems throughout Europe. The consortium comprises 7 partners spanning 6 EU countries, each contributing unique expertise: 2 DMOs, 3 BSOs, 1 university, 1 affiliated city, and 1 EU Network. Together, they forge a robust alliance dedicated to bolstering resilience among tourism SMEs in the post-COVID-19 economy, empowering them to navigate crises and thrive.

INSPIRES focuses on three inter-related tourism themes:

• Resilience,
• Sustainability
• and Digitalisation.

Tourism resilience refers to the industry’s ability to diligently deal with disasters and self-inflicted crises in order to maintain stability while ensuring the flexibility and diversity necessary for innovation and further development.

Sustainable tourism aims to minimize negative impacts and maximize positive ones. It considers economic, social, and environmental aspects, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment, and host communities.

Digitalisation impacts and transforms tourism. Platforms, online payments, social media and smart solutions greatly impact tourism, enhancing the visitor experience. Considering SMEs, digitalisation inspires innovative models, solutions and ecosystems. It opens up new roles for destinations and visitors, making way for start-ups and upscaling existing businesses. While also helping meet supply and demand.

Specific Objectives

1. Collect and share EU-wide best practices on resilience, digitalization, and sustainability to inspire tourism SMEs and stakeholders.

2. Conduct training for key stakeholders to become multipliers in disseminating knowledge on resilience, sustainability, and digitalization to SMEs.

3. Provide tailored capacity building for tourism SMEs on resilience, sustainability, and digitalization, including tools, management strategies, certification, and funding to improve their environmental performance and overall resilience.

 4. Provide financial support to SMEs to develop and implement new business strategies, new products and cross sectoral approaches to increase the resilience, sustainability and digitalisation of their daily activities.

There is a strong focus on the topics 8, 16, 20, 25 and 26 of the EU Transition Pathway for Tourism.