Das EU-Projekt "ECO-TANDEM" geht in die finale Phase. "Tandems" bestehend aus Tourismusbetrieben und Start-Ups arbeiten an nachhaltigen Lösungen für den Tourimus:
Eighty award-winning companies, four outstanding speakers, three ambassadors, one hundred and thirty-one participants in attendance and over seven hundred who streamed the event. Figures that describe the success of the 2023 Award ceremony promoted by EU ECO-TANDEM. An event created to crown the virtuous three-year project – coordinated by X23 (Italy) and co-financed by the European Union, through the COSME programme – honouring all the protagonists of the initiative.
In particular, to the forty ‘TANDEMs’ each consisting of a tourism company and an innovative tourism company, who worked together on five contemporary challenges – identified during the same project process – for the ‘green’ transformation of the tourism industry. Teams from Italy, Germany and Slovakia faced off and challenged each other on challenges such as ‘post-Covid 19 resilience’, ‘energy efficiency’, ‘water conservation’, ‘circular economy and waste management’ and ‘mobility’.
‘Innovation and tradition are inextricably linked in this programme. And the innovators are the interpreters of this change, which is so fundamental for the tourism industry," said Marika Mazzi Boém, Innovation Area Director for X23, a private research centre and ‘business support organisation’ and project coordinator, who presented ‘TANDEM’ and the partners of the project, co-funded by the EU, which aims to support traditional tourism companies in the ecological transition, enabling the paradigm shift.
‘The EU ECO-TANDEM project,’ said Maria Elena Rossi (ENIT’s Global Marketing & Promotion Director), ‘is only the beginning of the journey. Technological innovation is important, but we need human resources to achieve a real ecological transition’.
Angela Gerekou (President of the Greek National Tourist Board) added, ‘Sustainability goes beyond reducing emissions. It calls for a symbiotic relationship between tourism and the environment, support for local communities and their economic activities, and the promotion of sustainable tourism’.
Francesca Martignoni (travel consultant and tourism marketing specialist) also emphasised the need for cooperation from everyone, ‘Planet Earth is the main asset of tourism and has never been so endangered. Preserving it requires commitment from both individuals and companies’.
Vanda Marakovà (Slovak University of Matej Bel) emphasised, ‘Among the indicators of a successful tourist destination, one must include the quality of life and happiness of the local communities’.