Invitation for Tourism Businesses to Participate in the UN Tourism Project – MINI-MAXI
The Faculty of Tourism Studies – Turistica, University of Primorska, together with the Centre of Business Excellence at the School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, and the Faculty of Tourism, University of Maribor, is participating in the international project MINI-MAXI: Making Sustainability Competitive, conducted under the auspices of UN Tourism.
The project addresses a central question: how can small and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs) transform sustainability and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles into a real competitive advantage in practice?
The research team is currently inviting European SMTEs to participate in confidential, 80-minute, semi-structured interviews.
In recent years, numerous sustainability strategies, policies, and support mechanisms have been developed at both the European and national levels. Nevertheless, an important research gap remains: how effectively do these “top-down” frameworks work in practice, within companies that must implement sustainability in their day-to-day operations?
The MINI-MAXI project focuses on understanding the main barriers and drivers of investment in sustainability and ESG, the actual practices tourism companies apply on the ground, and the links between sustainability investments and the competitiveness of SMTEs.
The project is carried out in three interconnected phases:
- Analysis of European and national strategic documents that shape the framework for sustainable tourism.
- Qualitative interviews with managers and owners of SMTEs across Europe – the current phase of the project.
- A quantitative survey on a large sample of European tourism enterprises, aimed at validating the findings and identifying broader trends.
The research team is currently inviting European SMTEs to participate in the confidential interviews mentioned above. The conversations are intended solely for research and academic purposes, and all data will be treated anonymously.
Participating companies will be among the first to receive the executive summary of the study, gain insight into the latest trends, challenges, and practices encountered by their peers across Europe, and help co-create data that will inform policy recommendations and support mechanisms for SMTEs.
The results of the project will make an important contribution to understanding how sustainability can become a genuine source of innovation and competitive advantage in the European tourism sector. The findings will also help shape more effective support programmes and policies for tourism enterprises.
For more information about the project or participation, please contact: marjetka.rangus@um.si.
