The Mandated Regional Councillor for European Programs and President of the Development Agency of the South Aegean Region – READ S.A., Ms. Mara Antoniadi, together with the Agency’s staff members organized in Rhodes the kick-off meeting of the European Project “TOURISMO – TOURism Innovative and Sustainable Management of flows” on February 20 and 21, 2024. The project was approved within the framework of the Interreg Euro-MED Program, with a total budget of €2,980,995, co-financed by 80% from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by 20% from National Resources and the duration of its implementation is 33 months. For the implementation of the project, 10 partners from Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Croatia and Malta are cooperating, in the form of a Partnership, with the lead partner being the Development Agency of the South Aegean Region – READ S.A.
On the first day, following the agenda of the meeting, there was an overall overview of the project in which its objectives and expected results were presented, as well as the overall budget plan and per participating partner. In addition, all the actions and deliverables that should be implemented per work package were analyzed and finally the profile, role, tasks and pilot areas of the TOURISMO partners were discussed:
- University of Florence
- Fondazione per la ricerca e l’innovazione
- Fundación Valenciaport
- Development Agency of Lemesos
- Varna Economic Development Agency
- Public Institution RERA SD for Development and Coordination of Split Dalmatia County
- Malta Regional Development and Dialogue Foundation – MRDDf
- KiNNO Innovation Intermediaries
- Fundación Santa María la Real
The following day, the pilot action to be carried out in the context of the project were presented, the strategic communication plan of the project was discussed and the action plan of the first semester and the dates of the partner meetings for the current year.
As part of TOURISMO, the partners will work together to address the challenges and long-term impacts created by overtourism. This will be done through the shift towards a conscious and sustainable tourism that requires innovative approaches, participation of various actors of the ecosystem, improvement of the tourist experience and stronger engagement of end users. At the same time, the project will create innovative technologies that will offer new solutions and services for monitoring and managing tourist flows. The approach is based on using data from various datasets and field technologies (e.g. thermal cameras, people counters, drones, tags) related to the presence, density, flows and behaviors of tourists, supported by an enriched version of the HERIT-DATA platform, developed and managed by the University of Florence.
The collaboration incorporates a variety of site profiles (UNESCO areas, ports, city centers, beaches, cultural monuments, parks, etc.) from the 7 participating European countries as well as different value chain stakeholders (Development Agencies, RTOs, Scientific Experts, Research Institutes, Intermediaries, NGOs), thus allowing the testing of solutions in different environments as well as the exploitation of previous experience, while ensuring a high degree of innovation.
