As part of the SMARTMED (Empower Mediterranean for Smart Tourism) project, at the Faculty of Tourism Studies - Turistica, University of Primorska, we discussed together with stakeholders the key challenges of tourism in the development of smart, inclusive, and sustainable tourism in order to strenghten the capacity of destination management. The workshops and learning materials will soon be available for all interested parties.
The project aimed to strengthen public and private sector stakeholders, to develop, cooperate and provide integrated tourism policies and innovative solutions through a "smart tourism business model" developed by project partners from 8 European Mediterranean countries, under the leadership of the lead partner, The Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Croatia. The project ends in September. Its activities have been carried out since 2019 within the Interreg Mediterranean 2014-2020 program.
The analysis of the situation revealed a lack of cooperation among the key stakeholders in the development of tourism, therefore decision-making activities involving bottom-up stakeholders participation were promoted and implemented as part of the project. In addition to local authorities and tourism or destination organizations, the project also involved various associations, tourism providers and agencies, NGOs, protected areas, primary schools, and key stakeholders, among which we would like to highlight the Regional Development Agency Green Karst and the Soča Valley Development Centre.
"The approach of involving various stakeholders from the tourism sector proved to be extremely effective, as it turned out that in many places the stakeholders involved are already insufficiently involved in the decision-making processes related to tourism development at the local level, and the Covid-19 pandemic made cooperation even more complicated," was pointed out by the project coordinator at Turistica, lecturer Peter Kopić. In the second half of the implementation of the project activities, based on the decision of all stakeholders, a series of educational seminars and pilot initiatives were carried out, which addressed the topics of sustainable and inclusive tourism, employment, year-round development and seasonality in tourism, i.e.: "Presentation of good practices to increase the competitiveness and sustainability of the tourism offer", "Local community in tourism" and "Development of a sustainable tourism offer: the case of the Green Karst". This was followed by six different training sessions and workshops aimed at all tourism actors, from the tourism industry and decision-makers in the development of tourism to small tourism providers and associations, as well as young job seekers and teachers of tourism clubs in elementary schools.
The training sessions were carried out by external experts and mentors from UP FTŠ Turistica, i.e. from the field of sustainable tourism, assist. prof. Simon Kerma, from the field of inclusive tourism assist. prof. Irena Weber and from the field of year-round tourism with a focus on entrepreneurship and digitization, Miha Bratec, MSc. More than 300 participants took part in the seminars and trainings. The events ended with field visits to examples of good practice in the area of Brkini-Karst and Ajdovščina-Nova Gorica-Goriška brda.
On the official website of the project (www.smartmed.interreg-med.eu), all educational content of the project partners (trainings and workshops) will be available soon. For more information, you can write to the web address smartmed@fts.upr.si.
The press release is financed by the project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.
University of Primorska,
Faculty of Tourism Studies -
Turistica (UP FTŠ Turistica)
Obala 11a, SI-6320 Portorož, Slovenia
Tel.: +386 5 617 70 00
Fax: +386 5 617 70 20
E-mail: info@fts.upr.si
