NewsThe Cities of Valencia and Porec-Parenzo join the European FU-TOURISM Project Consortium
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The Cities of Valencia and Porec-Parenzo join the European FU-TOURISM Project Consortium

  • Valencia, European Capital 2024, with its innovation centre Las Naves and Porec-Parenzo, World Heritage City; will be part of the pilot projects of the programme 
  • FU-TOURISM, which aims to support European tourism SMEs in their transition to a green and inclusive economy, involves seven European countries and is funded with €4 million. 

The City Council of Valencia, city that holds this year’s title of Green Capital 2024 –supported by its innovation centre Las Naves– and the Croatian city of Poreč-Parenzo, a UNESCO World Heritage City (inscribed in 1997) have joined the consortium of the European project FU-TOURISM and will be part of the pilot projects of the program.
The accession of these cities will help to advance this innovative project that supports European tourism SMEs in their transition towards a green, digital, and inclusive economy, with a focus on the application of the principles of the regenerative economy.

Both cities will act as Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) and support tourism SMEs, with the support of EUPOLIS, which will integrate the Tourism Impact Model (TIM) and the Digital Readiness Index (DRI) to measure and report on the sustainable and digital transition of SMEs and destinations. Its membership will thus complete a partnership composed of partners from different parts of Europe: Finnova (Belgium), Envolve (Greece), SYNYO (Austria), Vestbee (Poland) and Open Impact (Italy) and led by Eupolis Grupa (Croatia) with CEDRA as an affiliated entity.

The entry of the city of Valencia in this project, at the proposal of the Finnova Foundation, will bring great benefits given the enormous capacity of the City Council in entrepreneurship issues through the Las Naves Foundation and the commitment it has in sustainable tourism linked to biodiversity with the Albufera Natural Park and the Dehesa del Saler as examples. Valencia will help devise the innovation accelerator model for the future of tourism with two main axes: digital and sustainability. Valencia’s commitment to digital is evidenced by the numerous events organized by the city, with the Valencia Digital Summit as a global benchmark. Regarding sustainability in tourism, Valencia holds this year the title of European Green Capital of Tourism. The city of Valencia can become the urban laboratory of good practices of innovation in Tourism linked to the double transition (digital and circular economy, water efficiency in tourism, energy, and tourism, etc.) generating a model that can inspire to activate other Hubs of innovation in tourism in other territories. In addition, it will be able to share funding opportunities for this industry through European funds and guidelines for working with public-private partnerships.

Transition of tourism SMEs towards eco-resilience

Funded with €4 million by the SMP – former COSME- program and with a duration of 36 months (2023- 2026), the European project FU-TOURISM “Future-Ready Business Support Ecosystem for Tourism SME Transition to Green Resilience” aims to support European tourism SMEs in their transition to a green and inclusive economy, focusing on the application of the principles of the regenerative economy. FU-TOURISM also aims to develop a platform and a network of clusters, with local ecosystems that enable greater cooperation on innovation among tourism SMEs, as well as between SMEs and incubators and accelerators.

  • The acceleration program will support 60 SMEs, 10 from each country (Spain, Greece, Croatia, Belgium, Austria, and Poland) through a 5-month support program and a grant of 20,000 euros. 
  • Scaling Up program will select 7 SME consortia per country, 42 in total (Spain, Greece, Croatia, Belgium, Austria, Poland) to receive 30,000 euros grant and business support program. 

The project involves seven European countries, six of which offer direct support services to SMEs.

This initiative aims to find the most innovative startups that are working to promote the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, underlining the commitment of this Organization to promote innovation and sustainability in the tourism sector. This synergy will also allow a presentation on European funds for the sustainable tourism sector where companies and entrepreneurs can learn how to access more growth opportunities.

The FU-TOURISM project, aligned with the objectives of the European Green Pact and the EU Digital Single Market, is presented as a unique opportunity to transform the tourism sector towards a greener, more resilient, and digitized model.

Keywords

SME Transition, Regenerative Economy, Tourism Impact Model (TIM), Digital Readiness Index (DRI), Digital Transition, Circular Economy, Eco-Resilience, European Green Pact