TOURBIT

Fostering digitalisation of European tourism SMEs’

Digitalisation has the potential to boost innovation, to generate economic and environmental efficiencies and increase productivity. At the same time, it brings unprecedented opportunities for tourism SMEs such as the development of new products and services, processes, access to new markets and improved customer experience.

TOURBIT partnership is a public and private alliance of complementary 8 organisations covering 7 countries (Belgium, Finland, France, Iceland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain) that worked on the activities and objectives of the project until June 2024:

TOURBIT partnership proposed a transnational and cross-ecosystem support scheme based on a framework of three pillars ‘Learning, Building, Testing and Implementing’ which goal was to enable tourism SMEs to cultivate their necessary capabilities to thrive in the digital age.

New and innovative digital technologies for the tourism industry were mapped including the following 7 trending technology solutions: Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of things (IoT), Blockchain, Cybersecurity, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).

Tourism SMEs started their journey of digital transformation with the ‘Digital Readiness Index’, an online self-assessment tool that enabled them to assess their state of digitalisation and recommended actions to boost it. They LEARNed more about technology tools and innovative solutions thanks to a complete programme of webinars.

Connexion, knowledge and collaboration between tourism SMEs and key players from the tourism, technology, and start-ups, was encouraged through an online community on Tourism Innovation. Co-creating workshops and a virtual hackathon with the participation of stakeholders across Europe will complete the BUILD pillar.

Finally, as part of the TEST AND IMPLEMENT pillar, TOURBIT also financially supported 62 tourism SMEs from the 7 destinations involved in the frame of the Digital Acceleration Programme (Call for proposals).

All the training, resources and activities developed within the framework of the project are collected in the Start Digital Toolbox, a very valuable tool for tourism SMEs that want to embark on their digital transformation journey.

The TOURBIT project has an overall budget of 1,331,570 € (out of which 520,000 € was forwarded to tourism SMEs) and was funded up to a maximum of 75% through the COSME- Europe’s programme for small and medium-sized enterprises.

COSME- Europe’s programme

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