The Black Sea basin is a region of unique ecological, cultural and economic importance. However, Black Sea tourism is challenged by overdevelopment, pollution and waste, seasonality, and ineffective knowledge transfer for new business and practical solutions. This reduces the added value of the sector and makes it highly vulnerable to global shocks. It also hinders the sector’s transition to sustainability and hampers regional economic development, including the exploitation of blue growth opportunities.
United by the perception that such regional challenges can be addressed with novel context relevant solutions and that sustainable tourism is an integral part of Blue Growth due to its potential to contribute to economic development while preserving the integrity and resilience of marine and coastal ecosystems, 3 established universities and 1 development agency from the BSB region have designed the „Interdisciplinary Solutions for Smart Sustainable Tourism and Services for Blue Growth in the Black Sea Basin (INTERSMARTS)” initiative.
The INTERSMARTS project aims to improve the sustainability performance and innovation absorption of tourism and services through interdisciplinary research, networking, co-creation and holistic knowledge generation. It was officially launched in June 2024 and is expected to deliver the following results within 18 months
* INTERSMARTS Network for Interdisciplinary Solutions for Smart Tourism and Services with task forces on sustainable infrastructure and resource management, anti-pollution and waste management, seasonality solutions, technology transfer and innovations;
* Needs assessment research about sustainability and blue growth perspectives of tourism and related services regarding the main sectoral challenges
* INTERSMARTS Innovation Management Platform with a data-base of novel solutions and technology advancements that demonstrate how sustainability tourism entities can be improved as well as with idea-generation and crowd-sourcing functionalities
* Four transnational Interdisciplinary research and networking events for smart sustainable tourism in Bulgaria, Republic of Moldova, Greece and Türkiye.
INTERSMARTS is one of only 33 projects selected from 151 proposals submitted under the 1st Call for Proposals of the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme. For the successful implementation of this initiative, the Interreg NEXT BSB Programme is providing €499,145,22 or 90% of the estimated budget.
The project consortium is led by the Varna University of Management (Bulgaria) and includes International Hellenic University (Greece), Moldova State University (Republic of Moldova) and Istanbul Development Agency (Turkey).
The project will bring benefits to business, academia, communities and policy-makers in the partners’ countries and in whole Black Sea area. Sustainable smart tourism and blue growth are issues that go beyond the national borders.
