• to support the enhancement and promotion of sustainable transnational thematic tourism products contributing to the development and promotion of sustainable tourism in Europe by improving their visibility and market uptake.
• to contribute to the creation of an environment favourable to transnational co-operation among tourism-related stakeholders with a particular emphasis on the SMEs.

It aims at:

1. Strengthening trans-national cooperation, with regard to sustainable tourism;
2. Encouraging a higher involvement of small and micro enterprises and local authorities;
3. Stimulating competitiveness of the tourism industry by means of an enhanced focus on the diversification of sustainable tourism thematic products.

Requirements

For the purpose of this call, a sustainable transnational thematic tourism product should correspond to the following characteristics:

A transnational thematic tourism product is meant as made up of a set of tourism destinations/attractions/services and taking the form of a transnational route/itinerary/trail/tourism offer, either physical (based on physical infrastructure) or conceptual (linking places/destinations/attractions) having a common thematic link and a high potential for sustainable tourism development.

Moreover, the tourism product must:

1. BE TRANSNATIONAL - A thematic tourism product (e.g. a route/itinerary/trail/tourism offer) has to cover/be developed in at least 4 countries as listed under point 5.1. I. Involvement of more than 4 countries will be considered as an added value for the proposal.
2. BE THEMATIC - A transnational tourism product must be conceived, structured and developed around a common theme.
3. BE ALREADY DEVELOPED: The aim is to support the market uptake of the products that have already achieved a certain development stage (e.g. at least the concept/action plan exists and some development activities, networking of stakeholders took already place). It will be the onus of the applicant to provide the description and evidence on the above. For this purpose, the project proposals have to include a thorough description of the sustainable transnational thematic tourism product indicating the actions implemented so far and the development achieved of the product as well as its potential for further tourism development (please see Annex B.0 and Annex 1 Submission Set, Form B6 “Description of the action”).
4. HAVE HIGH POTENTIAL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM (e.g. by increasing tourists' flows, increasing employment and development of enterprises in tourism sector, benefiting local economies and communities, contributing to the responsible use of natural resources, preservation of natural and cultural heritage, etc.).

The project proposal should focus on the promotion of a concrete transnational thematic tourism product (e.g. a transnational route/itinerary/trail/tourism offer) based on a type of tourism (e.g. cultural tourism, cycling, sports tourism, eco-tourism, eno-gastronomic tourism, health and wellbeing tourism, nature tourism, historical, pilgrim tourism, agro-tourism, rural tourism, or tourism capitalising on the maritime and sub-aquatic cultural heritage, industrial heritage or the economic fabric of a region etc. This list is not meant to be exhaustive). Promoting local offers only, without focusing on a transnational offer or promoting a general type of tourism only, without focusing on a concrete transnational product (route/trail/itinerary/tourism offer), would not be sufficient to fulfil the requirements of the call.

The full call documents are available on the participants portal at the link:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/fp7/calls/70-g-ent-cip-13-b-n03s04.html

Maximum EU Contribution per project : € 250 000
Specific Programme(s): Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (EIP) within the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP).