Calypso (Preparatory action)

General information about the CALYPSO preparatory action

In 2009, a preparatory action on social tourism in Europe was launched under the name CALYPSO, with a one million euro (EUR 1,000,000) budget allocated for 2009 and the same amount confirmed for 2010. The budget was increased to 1.5 million euro in 2011, the last year of the three-year Preparatory Action.

Implementing this project would be a genuine opportunity to promote partnerships, spurred on by the European Commission, between the social partners as well as the public and private sectors.

Calypso aims at promoting tourism in the low season, combating seasonality whilst having a social benefit and stimulating European citizenship through touristic exchanges.

Regional exchange programmes (such as Interreg, co-financed by the ERDF fund) are indeed indicative of the propensity of encouraging regional and cross-border cooperation.
Within this context, CALYPSO is intended as a tool in extending existing regional good practices to other European territories whilst ensuring accessibility, through tourism exchanges, to different target groups in order to encompass additional strata of the European population.

Reaching such objectives would contribute to:

• generate economic activity and growth across Europe (by facilitating the development of European tourism programmes for target groups).
• improve tourism seasonality patterns across Europe, particularly through the social policy function of tourism (tourism growth patterns; encouraging economic activity by target groups during the low season as a means to reduce unemployment risks for tourism personnel; mitigating pressures on the physical infrastructure of developed destinations by promoting tourism outside the peak months; assist in the development of small emerging destinations in the context of regional development).
• create more and better jobs in the tourism sector (respect for tourism sustainability challenges; strengthening full-time employment prospects as opposed to seasonal part-time work; improving employment conditions by stressing the importance of a qualitative work environment throughout the entire tourism supply chain).
• increase the European citizenship (providing tangible opportunities to improve mobility, self-fulfilment, socialising and active learning for families, youths and seniors).

The Calypso prepatory action seeks to support specifically 4 target groups :

1. over 65 years of age or pensioners / early retired citizens that receive pension benefits;
2. all youths aged between 18 and 30 years;
3. disabled adult citizens, together with one accompanying person (if needed);
4. families (children, parents and/or grandparents) certified by their country's coordinating authority as facing difficult social (financial, personal and/or disability) circumstances.