More than 1.3 million kuna for experts for the development of sustainable tourism projects

A tender worth more than 175.000 euros for the development of sustainable tourism projects has been announced. As part of the EUSAIR Facitiy Point project, a financially attractive budget has been provided for the development of adopted project ideas for the development of sustainable tourism in the Adriatic-Ionian region, up to the stage of readiness for application and funding from EU funds.

Experts are expected to make a quality contribution in six months of the contract in topics that have been discussed as important in the professional public for some time. Expanding the tourist offer through the development of thematic tourist routes and merging with cycling tourism, stronger involvement of cultural heritage, synergy of creative and cultural industries and the hospitality sector, connecting entrepreneurs in tourism through regional and transnational projects and research - these are just some of the demands for the team who will catch up on this demanding job.

Objectives such as the development of new educational programs for tourism professionals, the training and development of competencies for the unemployed, and the development of networks of sustainable tourism companies and clusters are cited as important elements in the tender documentation. An important component of the task is education and association, as well as the implementation of a system for sustainable destination management.

From destination management and education to clustering in sustainable tourism

Potential bidders should provide two key experts for the development of project proposals with experience in EU projects. Procurement is divided into four groups, and each group consists of the development of one project, whose project idea has already been accepted by the members of Thematic Steering Group of the Adriatic-Ionian Strategy for Sustainable Tourism.

Project ideas to be developed:

• CruiseAIR project, whose key goal is to prepare management plans for sustainable cruising tourism destinations
• AIR Cultural Routes is a project aimed at developing tools for integrated sustainable management of cultural routes at the level of the Adriatic-Ionian Strategy and achieving a balanced distribution of tourist flows.

• ProDest AIR (MIQS) is a project that aims to the development of a strategy and system for smart, sustainable, integrated destination management at the EUSAIR level and to design systems capable of responding to all real development challenges, needs, constraints, trends, risks and threats.
• The Living the Sea 4.0 project aims to expand the tourist offer through the digitization of fisheries heritage and increase the availability of a common fishing history of the entire region.

The documentation for this open high-value public procurement procedure was published in the electronic public procurement notice on 14 June. The deadline for submission of bids is July 26 by 10AM.

Croatian Ministry of Tourism and Sports, together with Albanian colleagues, coordinates the topic of Sustainable Tourism for all ten countries of the Adriatic-Ionian Strategy.