- The program will help selected startups get off the ground, scale their business, explore new models and improve sustainability practices starting in January 2024.
- The deadline to apply is October 31, 2023.
- The first information day of the accelerator program that is part of Creative Europe’s «CulturalDeTour» project will be held on Wednesday, September 27 in Valencia.
Empowering small or early-stage sustainable cultural tourism businesses in Greece, Spain or Slovenia to scale and thrive in a constantly evolving market. This is the main objective of Creative Europe’s CulturalDeTour Accelerator Program (CDTA), a 6-month acceleration initiative that offers an unprecedented opportunity for sustainable cultural tourism businesses to gain valuable insights and develop essential skills to grow and expand their businesses through digitization, technology and sustainability using the Earth-Centered Design Methodology. The deadline to apply remains open until October 31, 2023.
The CDTA Program seeks to boost innovation, sustainability and business creation in the tourism sector through a design-driven process. To this end, it will select 30 innovative teams, SMEs and early-stage sustainable cultural tourism companies based in Greece, Spain and Slovenia, operating within the cultural tourism sector, to grow and learn, expand their business, explore new models and improve sustainability practices from January 2024. Emphasizing new business models, the program will provide participants with the competencies needed to thrive in the sustainable cultural tourism industry.
Resources, guidance, networking.
Between January and June 2024, participants will be able to benefit from four national workshops in the language of each participating country, two transnational workshops for cross-border understanding and collaboration; five hours of one-on-one mentoring on sustainability business modeling, access to industry experts for personalized guidance and advice, thematic courses and webinars from partner organizations and networking opportunities to share best practices
Applications through October 31, 2023
Applications can be submitted online for new companies through https://bit.ly/CDTAapply
. The deadline for submission of applications is October 31, 2023
InfoDay on September 27
Coinciding with World Tourism Day, on September 27, 2023, «The Tourism Innovation Day» will be held in Valencia, a day that will host three international events in the tourism industry with the aim of establishing an ecosystem to support entrepreneurs and SMEs in the tourism sector, promoting innovation, growth and business creation in this industry.
The day will kick off with the event «CulturalDeTour Forum: cross-border cooperation for regional and innovative tourism with EU (European Union) funds», a side event of the EU Regions Week, approved by the European Commission. It will launch the CDT Boost Acceleration Program to support cultural entrepreneurs in expanding and improving the sustainability of their activities. This event will be the first information day of the accelerator program that is part of Creative Europe’s «CulturalDeTour» project, which aims to support cultural entrepreneurs to expand their activities and improve sustainability.
An overview of the program will be provided, highlighting the benefits and opportunities it offers for your tourism business. This innovative event is part of the actions to achieve the overall objective of the project: to drive innovation, sustainability and business creation in the tourism sector through a design-driven process.
At the second event «Fu-Tourism 5.0» Forum: Valencia, towards sustainable tourism, the European COSME project «FU-TOURISM 5.0- Business support ecosystem for the transition of tourism SMEs towards green resilience» will be presented. With a budget of €4 million, it aims to support European tourism SMEs in their transition towards a green economy by launching an acceleration program that will support 102 SMEs through sustainability support services, inclusive business models and direct financial assistance.
The day will end with the presentation of the Social Founders Award 2023: tourism and women, aimed at projects driven by women in the idea, startup or entrepreneur phase. In this year’s edition, awards will be given to those projects and successful cases of female entrepreneurship in Tourism and Social that support and create a better world.
About the Cultural DeTour project
The Cultural DeTour project aims to use design-driven innovation and sustainability integration to drive collaboration and entrepreneurship in the cultural tourism sector, and to create a strong cross-sector and transnational innovation network to enhance economic resilience during the recovery phase of COVID-19.
Cultural DeTour is the product of a unique collaboration between three heterogeneous but complementary partners from across the European Union: Envolve Entrepreneurship (Greece), Finnova (Spain) and Arctur (Slovenia).