Empowering Sustainable Tourism

Where Sustainability Meets Tourism

At Sustainatour, we empower providers of tourism services to thrive by embracing sustainable practices that respect nature and culture by convening stakeholders for collaborative action. Featured projects have been funded by the European Commission - contact them directly for details:

Sustainagro

Erasmus+ KA2 small partnership project between Italy and Portugal to promote sustainability in agrotourism and other non-urban industries

-E-learning for sustainability in agrotourism operations including diversification, marketing, and collaboration strategies

- ECO SEAL certification scheme for non-urban industry operators to demonstrate their commitment to circularity and sustainabilitys

- Pathway to prepare participants to perform sustainable-tourism advisory functions within rural tourism ecosystems

The Baltic-to-Balkan Green Corridor aims not only to increase visibility of rural destinations, but also to improve direct economic outcomes for participating SMEs through longer visitor stays, increased cross-border visitor flows, diversified tourism products and stronger off-season tourism activity. As a project sponsored by the SMP COSME program, B2B Green Corridor demonstrates how sustainable tourism ecosystems can support the long-term resilience, attractiveness, and socio-economic viability of rural territories vulnerable to depopulation and youth outmigration; it moves beyond traditional destination-promotion approaches by positioning sustainable tourism as an integrated territorial-development mechanism capable of generating diversified local opportunity rooted in community identity, environmental stewardship, cultural heritage, and locally- embedded economic participation in EU-areas that are invisible to mainstream tourism. Financial Support to Third Parties launches in May, 2027.

Baltic-to-Balkan Green Corridor - SMP COSME 211329847

https://www.b2bgreencorridor.com/

Sustainagro - Sustainability in Agrotourism Operations Erasmus+ 2021-2-IT02-KA210-ADU-000050754

https://www.sustainagro.net

B2B Green Corridor

Sustaintour Capacity Building in VET - Erasmus+ Project ID: 101183404

https://www.sustaintour.eu/

Four EU-funded projects — DETOUR, Phoenix 4.0, INSPIRES Resilient Tourism, and TASTE — are showing what practical, well-resourced SME capacity building can look like across Europe's tourism sector. Co-funded by the European Union, each combines tailored training, mentoring, and direct financial support to help tourism SMEs and destination management organisations (DMOs) become more digital, sustainable, and resilient. Together they offer a strong best-practice model for how EU funding can translate into hands-on support that reaches SMEs directly.

DETOUR delivers tailored SME training and mentoring on digitalisation, sustainability, accessibility, and business resilience, combined with hybrid learning through its own Moodle platform and a capacity-building programme for key tourism stakeholders. The project also ran an open funding call for SMEs and DMOs worth €15,000–€25,000 per project. detour.eu.project@gmail.com Website: https://detour-eu-project.eu/

Phoenix 4.0 Phoenix 4.0 built the Tourism SMEs Resilience Navigator, a self-assessment tool, alongside a trainer/expert network and a six-module training toolkit. It delivered train-the-trainer and train-the-SME sessions, launched the Phoenix 4.0 Academy and Lab for ongoing learning and advisory support, and ran an Alliance Competition funding call offering up to €25,000 per project. phoenix4_0@arctur.si Website: https://www.phoenix4tourism.eu/

INSPIRES INSPIRES provided mentoring on risk management, circular economy, regenerative tourism, and digital transformation, delivered through cross-region workshops and peer-learning designed to transfer good practice between destinations, with two funding calls for SMEs targeting sustainability, digitalisation, and resilience. https://inspires-tourism.eu/

TASTE documented sustainable food tourism practices and delivered training-of-trainers with toolkits and study visits, alongside advisory services covering needs assessments and roadmaps. Its “Go Green, Get Digital, Be Resilient” funding call, and built an ongoing TASTE community through Challenge Day, Demo Day, and Showcase Day events. Website: https://taste-project.com/ Coordinator: https://cambrabcn.org/en/taste-en/ Contact: sostenibilitat@cambrabcn.cat

SUSTAINTOUR

SustainTour - Capacity Building of VET providers in the Sustainable Tourism aims to bridge the gap between the tourism labor market and VET offerings in the Western Balkans, namely Albania and Kosovo.:

• Design of a blended learning program and educational package

• Creation of a Toolkit of Pedagogical Resources for advisors and trainers

• Launch a digital learning environment and assessment tool

• Delivery of Training of Trainers and national pilot sessions in Albania and Kosovo

• Establishment of a Community of Practice to foster long-term collaboration and innovation

  Website: https://sustaintour.eu

DeTour Phoenix 40 INSPIRES * taste

Our Specialties

Helping tourism providers thrive with sustainable strategies and tools.

Culture Mare Nostrum

We connect cultural sites across Europe through shared storytelling. Each destination becomes part of a larger narrative—inviting visitors to experience culture as a journey, not a single place.

🧵 The Blue Thread Approach

Our project is built around a shared narrative—a “blue thread”—that connects multiple locations through a common cultural theme of blue literacy: understanding the environmental, cultural, and economic significance of water in all its forms. This includes how communities relate to:

• Seas, lakes, and rivers - and the ocean

• Maritime traditions and heritage

• Water as a resource, ecosystem, and source of identity

Each partner site interprets this theme through its own local context—whether coastal, island, or inland—highlighting unique stories, practices, and challenges.

Together, these perspectives form a connected, cross-European narrative, where visitors can experience how water shapes cultures, livelihoods, and sustainable futures across different regions.

Rotational Storytelling Sites

Partner destinations act as rotational storytelling hubs, where the narrative is interpreted and experienced locally. This creates a dynamic, evolving journey for visitors across Europe. This enables:

• Cross-border cultural experiences

• New formats for audience engagement

• Stronger visibility for local heritage

• Collaboration between creative and tourism sectors

Sustainagro - Supporting Agrotourism Prosperity

Structured knowledge exchange and training events designed to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and real-world practice. They bring together:

• Experts from across Europe

• Local land managers, SMEs, and communities

• Policy and innovation actors

to share practical insights, skills, and solutions related to soil restoration and regenerative practices, sustainable agri-food value chains, and agritourism/rural innovation

Unlike one-off dissemination events, TOURTALKS are continuous, bidirectional learning formats—connecting local experience with external expertise and feeding both into decision-making and practice. In short: They turn knowledge into action, capacity, and collaboration.

TOURTALKS are expert-led workshops and masterclasses that connect local stakeholders with European knowledge networks, building practical skills in soil restoration, sustainable land use, and rural innovation.

TourTalks

An initiative focused on strengthening rural economies by empowering agritourism, agri-food operators, and local enterprises with practical skills, tools, and collaborative networks for sustainable growth. At its core is the concept of “Ruralities”—rural areas understood as dynamic ecosystems where:

• Tradition and local identity

• Innovation and entrepreneurship

• Environmental stewardship

• Digital connectivity

all interact to create new opportunities. Through e-learning, certification, and knowledge exchange, SustainAgro helps rural stakeholders build business and digital capabilities, adopt sustainable practices, collaborate across regions, and diversify to future-proof their activities

Thus, the goal is to transform rural areas into resilient, competitive, and attractive destinations, where tourism and local production reinforce each other and support long-term development.

SustainAgro supports rural enterprises and agritourism actors through practical training, sustainability certification, and knowledge exchange—enabling them to innovate, collaborate, and build resilient, competitive local economies.

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Social Innovation Actions MTU

Sustainability in Tourism Unit

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