SUSTOURISMO: Last project meeting
On December 6th, 2022, the last (7th) SUSTOURISMO project meeting took place in Trieste, Italy, back-to-back with the SUSTOURISMO Final Conference. It was the second physical meeting since the beginning of the project, and it was the occasion for discussing on the key results of the SUSTOURISMO project and on future cooperation opportunities. The key topics of discussion were i) the presentation of the key results of the SUSTOURISMO technical activities conducted in 2022; ii) strategic activities focussing on disseminated the main SUSTOURISMO lessons learnt, with a focus on the SUSTOURMOB Strategy, evaluation of pilot cases, business plan and final project recommendations. Discussions were the basis for better understanding the key results of the SUSTOURISMO tourist packages and strategic actions during the 2022 and on how to better disseminate at EU level the lessons learnt.
Anna Marconato, Stefania Silvestri and Alice Pappas from the Central European Initiative – Executive Secretariat (CEI-ES) welcomed all the SUSTOURISMO project’s partners. They introduced the meeting presenting the agenda and the key objectives of the project’s meeting and of the SUSTOURISMO final event.
Dr Maria Morfoulaki, head of the Sustainable Mobility Laboratory of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas/Hellenic Institute of Transport (CERTH/HIT), opened the technical session of the meeting. She underlined the key results achieved by the project and the last technical activities to be finalized in order to better promote and disseminate the key results of the project.
After the introductory part, the technical activities started with the presentation of CERTH/HIT on the work package dedicated to key stakeholder involvement (WPT1). This technical session was mainly dedicated on the update on the different Memorandum of Understandings and Letter of Supports signed in each pilot area in order to support the promotion of the local SUSTOURISMO tourist packages and widespread the key results and cooperation schemes at European level. CERTH/HIT presented the SUSTOURISMO cooperation network consisting of the core members, project partners, and the satellite member, all the stakeholders having declared support to project activities and goals (with signed Memoranda of Understanding or/and Letters of Support).
A specific technical session was dedicated to the sport tourism. Prof. Konstantinos Alexandris, from the Sport Management Tourism and Recreation Laboratory of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, presented a study on athletic tourism. He underlined that the sport tourism market is huge, and it is forecasted a big growth in the next years. Active tourism is a sector creating several jobs position as demonstrated for example from the running events all around the word with more than 7.9 million participants in 2020. Other growing sportive tourism sectors are adventure and wellness tourism. These forms of active tourism have a direct impact on local communities from an economic and social point of view.
The following part of the meeting was dedicated to the SUSTOURISMO App monitoring activities and the monitoring/assessment of the pilot actions (WPT2). The Institute of Transport and Logistics Foundation (ITL) presented the data collected through the SUSTOURISMO App during the 2021 and 2022 testing periods. This assessment allowed to collect data on the number of downloads/users and on registered users. The data presented showed that the App was downloaded and installed several times. By November 2022, 611 users were registered to the SUSTOURISMO App, and 363 tourist packages were experienced by tourists.
Download the SUSTOURISMO App using the QR codes (Android in the left and iOS in the right)-
The following presentation was presented by the Institute of Traffic and Transport of Ljubljana and it was dedicated to the assessment of the SUSTOURISMO implications for future actions and on SUSTOURISMO Business Plan development. The focus was on driving forces, marketing potential, as well as the actions that should be taken by interested businesses for the successful adoption of the SUSTOURISMO initiatives (app and touristic packages).
SUSTOURISMO Business Model CANVAS
The last part of the meeting was dedicated to the presentation of the “Roadmap for smart and sustainable tourism in ADRION” technical work package. SUSTOURMOB cycle is a virtuous cycle for ‘sustainable tourism hand in hand with mobility’ planning procedure. This strategy is based on the project’s main results and on the active involvement at local level of the different stakeholders identified in each project’s area.
SUSTOURMOB Cycle
Following, CEI-ES presented the key results of the capacity building actions implemented during the project. ITL presented the ongoing activities related to last local round table aimed to discuss with the key local stakeholders on the future of the touristic packages.
The final part of the meeting was coordinated by the Central European Initiative – Executive Secretariat (CEI-ES) and it focussed on the presentation of the progress of the communication activities. In particular the focus was on the SUSTOURISMO website update, SUSTOURISMO Final Publication and project’s last newsletter.
The meeting day ended with a guided tour of the Trieste historical city centre.
All in all, even if SUSTOURISMO project started within a very difficult period (exactly in the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic), the partners did great efforts and achieved results of high quality! And… SUSTOURISMO follow up actions are already on the go!
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This announcement has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The content of the announcement is the sole responsibility of SUSTOURISMO PP3 (Institute for Transport and Logistics) and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union and/or ADRION programme authorities.
