Overview
In the last decades European cities have faced economical and social changes which led to the need of public local authorities of managing cities differently and promoting more and more the development of a territory, beyond the increasing of services. Cities nowadays had to put in place real strategies to differentiate themselves and continue to attract visitors, and for medium-sized cities, attracting visitors and tourists can be a great challenge.
The project stems from the awareness of the partners that there are gaps in knowledge on strategies for promoting sustainable tourism among the staff of their Municipalities. The gaps include lack of training tools to allow both Municipalities’ staff and stakeholders to increase their knowledge on the subject and improve forms of collaboration.
Aim
Aims to promote sustainable local tourism takes into full account current and future economic, social and environmental impacts by increasing knowledge and competencies of local authorities staff in sustainable tourism planning and management.
Objectives
The general objective of the project is to strengthen the development of sustainable local tourism and increase the attractiveness of medium sized municipalities through up-skilling the staff of municipalities.
- To increase knowledge and competences of local authorities staff in sustainable tourism planning and management.
- To develop innovative local strategies to define the city’s territorial marketing and promote the cities as tourism destination, boosting the active participation of stakeholders.
- To promote a sustainable local tourism that take into full account current and future economic, social and environmental impacts.
Activities and Results
The project will develop the following results:
- SELF-ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK
A self assessment tool used that through a GAP analysis will help to figure out where the gaps are in terms of knowledge and practice in key areas of tourism. - ONLINE TRAINING COURSE
New training contents for civil servants and managers working in the field of tourism responding to a set of concepts and competencies essential for the staff of the Municipality responsible for the tourism development. - FINAL HANDBOOK
A collection of good practices and concrete examples of sustainable tourism at European level, including tourism strategies developed by the project partners.
Partners
Falköping Municipality (Falköpings kommun) is a municipality in Västra Götaland County in western Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Falköping. The municipality with the tourism development at the business growth and economic development department have experience in working with sustainable tourism. Within the municipality and in cooperation with the other municipalities in the area. The municipality of Falköping is the responsible project manager for Visit Hornborgasjon. Visit Hornborgasjon is a collaboration between Falköping, Skara and Skövde municipalities whose purpose is to create an accessible visitor destination for national and international visitors all year round. Falköping is a part of a cross municipality collaboration in the area around Lake Hornborga that has been going for 30 years.
SERN is one of the main transnational networks in Europe fostering relations between Northern and Southern Europe and in particular between Sweden and Italy. As a non-profit transnational association, SERN has three characteristics that makes it unique:
- It is the only bilateral network in the European Union that brings together actors from the Northern and Southern states.
- It is a multilevel network where different levels of government interact and collaborate.
- It is open to civil society and to private actors.
SERN is the result of a long-term process of cooperation and exchange between Italian and Swedish actors. The Network was established in 2005, and since its creation it developed more than 130 projects at European level and is driving a continuous process of exchange and cooperation between Swedes and Italians.
Scandiano is a medium-size city (approx. 25.000 inhabitants), located in Northern Italy, between Reggio Emilia and Modena. It’s a centre rich in history, culture and tradition, and its art heritage marks this “small capital city” as one of the most interesting towns of the whole Emilia-Romagna Region. Its castles, churches, ancient town gates and squares embellished by arcades attract every year people from all over Europe, who are interested in visiting “less mainstream places” where traces of the Emilian Middle Age and Renaissance are still visible. The most important monument is the Boiardo’s Fortress, a renaissance stronghold build for military purposes by the Da Fogliano Family and later inherited by the famous Este Marquises from Ferrara. Being a place where many Italian food excellences are produced, wine-gastronomy is often combined to culture. Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, Parma ham, Balsamic vinegar and “Spergola” white wine – just to name some a few.
CARDET (Centre for Advancement of Research and Development in Educational Technology) an independent, non-profit, non-governmental, research and development organization based in Cyprus. It is one of the leading research and development centres in the Euro-Mediterranean region, with global expertise in project design and implementation, capacity building, and e-learning. CARDET is independently affiliated with universities and institutions from around the world, such as Yale University, the University of Nicosia and the International Council of Educational Media. CARDET has completed numerous projects relating to the development of capacity building and planning in education and VET, youth support, adult learning, literacies, digital tools, eLearning, educational technology, and social integration of marginalized groups and seniors.
Svensk Destinationsutveckling (SveDest) is a consultancy firm focusing on governance and destination management. The company was started by the Swedish tourism board in 2011 but was handed over to the consultants in 2014. The company is closely tied to the Swedish national strategy. SveDest has mostly regional clients but the work often includes smaller local destinations and municipality in its governance scope. We are working with the EFQM model to provide our clients with the non prescriptive quality framework recommended by the UNWTO. SveDest has worked in destination development and governance since 2011. The organisation is small and has only grown marginally since the start. Our consultants come from an academic business development background and have done the highest profile destination development projects in Sweden over the past 10 years.
The Jijona City Council is the highest governing body of the Municipality of Jijona, through which the people carry out their political will and self-management of the interests of the community. It is the body that is made up of the Mayor and Councillors, working in a collegiate manner. The plenary session is made up of those mentioned above plus the councilors without council, and their number depends on the size of the municipality and what is dictated by the law developed by the local government. The plenary is the one that has the regulatory power. Other commissions can also be created for specific issues; these will have one composition or another depending on their nature. In turn, a wide variety of officials work in the town hall, some are found within the town hall itself, doing administrative tasks concerning their municipality.
