Tourism 4.0, ENIT promotes EU Eco-Tandem: tradition and innovation create a network for a collaborative neo community

The Italian National Tourism Agency supports small and medium tourist enterprises towards sustainable conversion. In circle, the innovative ideas for tourist contamination and not, to profile future tourism.

ENIT works on the Eu Eco-Tandem program co-financed by the European Union, to promote the development of sustainable tourism through transnational cooperation and the networking of the know-how of entrepreneurs operating in the travel sector. SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) of traditional tourism are encouraged to get in touch with startups and innovators, with pioneers from other sectors, for a “mutual benefit” company from which the name “Tandem” derives.

The aim is to find innovative solutions to help traditional SMEs to adopt a more eco-sustainable approach in the tourism sector. If you own or work in a traditional tourism SME or if you are an entrepreneur in the tourism sector, you can participate in the Eu Eco-Tandem project.

The participation in the project allows you to: strengthen your skills and know-how on sustainable tourism management and the circular economy; learn how to initiate the ecological transition of your company; collaborate and learn from deep-tech start-ups; increase your competitiveness in the tourism market; access funding for the eco-innovative pilot project; become part of a European network of SMEs and organizations active in the sustainable tourism sector: gain visibility through the project’s dissemination channels.
The contingencies lead to a restyling of the distorted tourist offer starting from 18 May 2020 and to establish new balances. The latest data from the UNWTO (World Tourism Organization) show a world balance in August 2020 of -70% of international arrivals in the world (-75% is expected in September), from 850 million to 1.1 billion international tourists. A loss of $ 910 billion to $ 1.2 trillion in tourism export revenue and 100-120 million jobs at risk. In this scenario, Europe is aligned with -69% of foreign arrivals. The growth trends recorded up to 2019 all over the world, and in particular in the main European destinations, have been subverted thanks to the double-digit growth incidence of the Asian and US markets.

Thanks to the Eu Eco Tandem project, the focus is on new, more sustainable and responsible approaches and methodologies to give even more value to the tourism supply chain: more travellers attending to sustainability, who want exclusive holidays and who seek to be immersed in the territory and their cultures, in their way of living and exploring uncontaminated environments. The challenge is on how tourism professionals are able to manage with competences, skills and technological innovation and virtuous processes. The challenge, however, is that people and companies from different disciplines do not naturally start collaborating with each other: although tourism companies are often very open to collaboration, they lack the interdisciplinary resources and skills necessary to organize such collaborations. With the EU ECO-TANDEM program, the tourism industry changes its face.