In 2023, we developed the application titled "Cross-border destination development for inclusive and sustainable tourism in the Slovenian-Hungarian border region" (CROSSDEST), which we submitted together with Hungarian and Slovenian municipalities and tourism organizations in the Interreg VI-A Slovenia-Hungary 2021–2027 program in January 2024. The application was supported, and implementation will start in the fall of 2024.
Total project budget: 936,312.00 Euro
ERDF grant amount: 585,685.20 Euro
Partners:
– Hévíz Tourism Nonprofit Limited Liability Company
– Pannon European Territorial Association Limited Liability Company
– Murska Sobota Development Center
– Lendva Tourism and Development Institute
– Goodplace is the institute for sustainable tourism
– Sárvár Tourist & TDM Nonprofit Limited Liability Company
– Innotime Hungary Consulting and Service Provider Limited Liability Company
In Slovenia, 90% of all guest nights are currently in destinations certified under the Green Destinations (GD) system accredited by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), and more and more sustainable attractions and tourism providers are available within the Slovenia Green program. Sustainability now determines the thinking of all tourism stakeholders nationwide, including guests visiting the country.
In Hungary, sustainable tourism development is still in its infancy. However, international pressure is becoming more and more apparent, as the lack of a sustainability certification recognized by the GSTC reduces the competitiveness of the region, which is a difficult task to overcome, as it requires simultaneously shaping public attitudes, developing sustainable systems, improving the sustainability of individual service providers, and transforming the destination brand.
Today, more than two-thirds of the world's travelers are looking for sustainable destinations. However, the Slovenian-Hungarian border region can only meet this condition as a unified, sustainable destination if Hungarian destinations also achieve GSTC sustainable certification, and since there is no sustainable destination without sustainable service providers, as many attractions and tourist services as possible will also obtain sustainable tourism certification, and in parallel, a cross-border tourism network will be established, the members of which will recommend each other and develop common tourism products under the umbrella of a unified sustainability brand.
The four settlements associated with the project are internationally known, with independent, albeit constantly changing target audiences after COVID. However, in order for the region to become a unified, cross-border destination, where, thanks to the cooperation of the project partners, a returning clientele with longer stays will develop, the following problems need to be addressed:
– significant differences in preparedness in the areas of sustainability and accessibility, two core values
– lack of a comprehensive quality management program that would allow key target groups to receive uniform services that take into account international standards (e.g. families, people with pets, cyclists, seniors)
– since all of these are missing, there is no unified and complete information system that would provide up-to-date and personalized information about the tourist offer of the region on both sides of the border, including local products
– since tourism actors do not know each other and local producers, other actors in the region do not appear in the offerings of individual settlements, and they cannot build on the benefits of the circular economy more broadly.
Main outcomes of the project
– Within the framework of the program, building on Muraszombat's good practice, the others will also obtain the GD certification, while Muraszombat's goal is to achieve at least the silver grade.
– A pilot program will be implemented at each of the four locations, the aim of which is to strengthen regenerative tourism. The developed programs will be transferable to each other.
– As a result of the project, at least 20 attractions and at least 40 service providers will be prepared to obtain the GD Good Travel Seal certification.
– A pilot program supporting the circular economy will be developed, which can be used by all four municipal partners.
– A unified quality management and monitoring system that complies with international standards and takes sustainability into account will be developed.
– Building on GD standards, all partners will work based on a uniform methodology.
– Innotime is developing the digital platform that will allow each partner to continuously monitor their results and the sustainability index of their own destination and tourism services.
– An e-learning curriculum will be prepared, available to all tourism service providers in the region, presenting the criteria of sustainable tourism and the values of the border region.
– With the help of the service provider training program, the region's tourism service providers could prepare for international certification within the framework of a unified mentoring program, and local producers on both sides of the border will also be involved in the pilot program supporting the circular economy.
– At the end of the project, the settlements will be able to provide uniform horizontal quality services, and attractions and tourism service providers will be able to develop new cross-border products based on knowledge of each other's services.
The project consists of 4 main elements:
- The project will develop a unified quality management system, which, based on uniform standards defined by the GSTC, supports the implementation of sustainable tourism development at both the destination and service provider levels, and helps the uniform preparation of destinations, attractions and tourism service providers to meet international expectations for horizontal aspects. By the end of the preparation program, the destinations included in the project will obtain the international Green Destinations certification, and the international Good Travel Seal certification will become available to a minimum of 40 tourism service providers.
- During the implementation of the program, a unified monitoring system, which is linked to the European Commission's Common European Tourism Data Space, and uses a unified indicator system and a unified data collection methodology to provide destinations and tourism service providers with an index of their own service level and where they rank within the region with this index number.
- Within the framework of the project, each project partner settlement will develop a tourism product aimed at the coordinated presentation of services based on sustainable tourism within the destination. pilot projects aims to support various experience-based presentations of sustainability, complemented by a fine-tuning period to support implementation.
- In order for individual guests to be able to organize their cross-border trips and holidays as easily as possible, and for tourism service providers to be able to find partners as quickly as possible when developing joint tourism packages and products, a development of a tourism database based on uniform principles, in which the services of at least four destinations participating in the project are available, and it may be possible to display additional service providers in the future. An important goal of the project is to develop this database and to uniformly involve the service providers of the region in order to make the widest possible selection available.
The application is co-funded by the European Union and supported by the Hungarian Government.
