DIGITOUR
- Full title: Boosting the tourism sector in Europe through digital tools and innovation – the DIGITOUR project
- Start Date: 01/11/2021
- Project end date: 31/01/2024
- Duration: 26 months
- Total project budget: EUR 1,333,178
- Of which EUR 480,000 is earmarked for Small and Medium Enterprises in the tourism sector.
- Program: COSME
THE CONTEXT.
Venetian Cluster, together with 10 partner organizations representing 8 European countries, is participating in the project “Boosting the tourism sector in Europe through digital tools and innovation – DIGITOUR. (101038133),” funded by the European COSME program (under the European call for proposals COS-TOURINN-2020-3-04). Tourism, one of Italy’s historically leading sectors, has been hit hard by the Covid-19 outbreak. Currently, SMEs in the tourism sector are facing a severe liquidity crisis, with losses reaching 85 percent for hotels as well as tour operators and travel agencies. To survive and remain competitive in the coming years, SMEs need support to adapt to today’s challenges and to find new solutions for efficient and sustainable management, to develop new products and services from a sustainability perspective, and to enhance the marketing and promotion of their offerings to market needs.
Digital tools and technologies can help SMEs in this regard; however, the level of skills and knowledge toward these tools is not equally distributed among European SMEs, even within the framework of tourism ecosystems.
THE PROJECT.
The DIGITOUR project will support tourism SMEs through two types of vouchers (funds to be applied for through the submission of a project), targeted at different levels of digital maturity. The two vouchers are aimed at achieving two different goals:
- The “Up-skillingand Capacity Building Voucher” (Up-skilling and Capacity Building Voucher) is aimed at SMEs wishing to increase their skills and knowledge toward digital tools and technologies. The goal is to improve the digital skills and capabilities of tourism SMEs and increase their knowledge of digital tools and technologies through one-on-one training and consulting activities.
- The “Collaboration Innovation Voucher” (Collaboration Innovation Voucher) is aimed at groups of SMEs wishing to cooperate on innovative projects on a national or transnational level. The aim is to promote innovative ideas from tourism SMEs to develop digital solutions that can improve their product and service offerings and enhance their management, marketing and promotion in new and sustainable ways, adapting to the new challenges of the tourism sector. An additional opportunity to create cross-border partnerships between tourism SMEs, innovative, digital and smart solution providers and new technologies. Transnational cooperation projects between SMEs will be encouraged through this voucher.
Both vouchers will contribute to the project’s overall goal of increasing the competitiveness and resilience of tourism SMEs in Europe in a sustainable way to meet new challenges in the tourism sector by improving their digital knowledge, promoting sustainable innovative ideas and solutions, and fostering cross-border and cross-sector partnerships.
THE PARTNERSHIP
The DIGITOUR consortium is represented by organizations from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Serbia and Spain, providing a representative picture of the European tourism landscape, from north to south, east to west. Some of these countries are among the world’s top destinations for international arrivals, such as France, Spain, Italy and Germany. Others are emerging destinations, such as Eastern European countries. The coordinator of the project is Venetian Cluster (Italy). Venetian Cluster is highly motivated in the implementation of the project and is committed to a mutual and strong collaboration to achieve its strategic goals.
The DIGITOUR project plans to give economic and noneconomic support to at least 138 companies from at least 12 European countries (the final number will depend on the number of proposals received, the number of companies participating in the second type of voucher, and the budget of the submitted projects). During its 26-month life, the DIGITOUR project will create an inclusive and innovation-friendly environment to enhance the capabilities of European tourism SMEs to integrate innovative digital tools according to their needs and develop new offerings and business models with the support of experts.
Read more about the project timeline, events, and main activities at: https://digitour-project.eu/
