European Tourism

Call for Proposal on sustainability of European tourism


In the framework of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), the European Call for Proposals ENT/CIP/10/B/N04S00 was published on Knowledge networks for the competitiveness and sustainability of European tourism.

The overall context of the call for proposals on Knowledge networks for the competitiveness and sustainability of European tourism is for going further and encouraging cooperation at European level between Member States, destinations, industry representatives and public and private operators in order to consolidate statistics and analyses relating to the tourism sector competitiveness.

The overall objective of the call for proposals on Knowledge networks for the competitiveness and sustainability of European tourism is to strengthen the research potential on competitiveness and sustainability tourism-related issues on European scale, in particular by encouraging and supporting the development, across Europe, of regional ‘research-driven clusters’, associating universities, research centres, enterprises and regional authorities.

The specific objectives of the call for proposals on Knowledge networks for the competitiveness and sustainability of European tourism:
1. to improve cooperation and coordination on research activities related to competitiveness and sustainability tourism-related issues so as to create a more favourable framework for the European tourism sector
2. to foster transnational research activities in the field of tourism with a clear EU added value
3. to pave the way for the future constitution of a European knowledge network for the competitiveness and sustainability of European tourism ("virtual tourism observatory")

The proposed projects in the framework of the call for proposals on Knowledge networks for the competitiveness and sustainability of European tourism must cover both of the following activities:
a) knowledge gathering and research: The main aim of this activity will have to be the monitoring and evaluation of the evolution of the tourism supply and demand as well as the realisation of studies and analyses on competitiveness tourism issues. The research modules should focus on topics which are as important for policy makers as for tourism SMEs and address challenges of European interest.

b) awareness raising: The awareness raising module should target directly tourism industry competitiveness (in particular SMEs) and should foresee the production and dissemination of materials making the research findings available to tourism industry (in particular SMEs) and tourism authorities by means which can be easily accessed and used.

The total available budget allocated for the call for proposals on Knowledge networks for the competitiveness and sustainability of European tourism is of 1.000.000 euro.

The maximum budget that will be allocated to a project will be 330.000 euro.

The deadline for submitting proposals within the call for proposals on Knowledge networks for the competitiveness and sustainability of European tourism is 01-10-2010

Further information on the call for proposals on Knowledge networks for the competitiveness and sustainability of European tourism can be found on the European Commission\'s web site.