Online presence and smart tourism development (based on knowledge and innovation) are becoming deciding factors about competitiveness and visibility of tourism destinations. In order to be successful on the global market, the whole region needs to overcome large numbers of challenges. Implementing digitalization and ICT technologies in the tourism sphere could result with exponential growth of the region. Tourism businesses in our region should keep up with these new trends and need to reposition themselves on the market and rebrand their offers to be more appealing to the contemporary tourists searching authentic experiences and added value.

Overall objective of this project is to introduce smart tourism development concept based on more innovative and efficient use of our current cultural and natural resources and existing human capital. This will result in increased business opportunities for local tourism service providers, greater number of tourists in the region and generated new employment.

Target groups: The key stakeholders in this action are individual entrepreneurs living and working in target municipalities (artisans, craftsmen, farmers, athletes) not involved directly in tourism sector; local tourist service providers ( tour guides, local agencies, family restaurants ) who are already in the tourism sector; public institutions related with managing cultural and natural heritage such as museums, galleries, national parks that need to modernize and become part of the tourist offer. 

Project results

  • Expand knowledge and raise awareness for sustainable forms of tourism in the CBC region; 
  • Raise awareness among tourists for the small sustainable family businesses and among service providers for exchange experiences and supporting each other in creating CBC offers;
  • Create new tool – online people to people platform to the market in the CBC region, 
  • Make research and 8 studies for sustainable tourism aspects in the CBC region;
  • Develop training course on sustainable tourism in the CBC region;
  • Increase capacities of the local inhabitants about new and innovative tourism offers;
  • Data base on stakeholders in tourism in the CBC region; 
  • Study on sustainable tourism in the CBC region;
  • Study on cultural and natural heritage in the CBC region;
  • Study on market segmentation and tourist profiling in the CBC region;
  • Study on domestic and international tourists in CBC region;
  • Study on supply of tourist services and tourist potential in CBC region;
  • Study on benchmarking of European tourism: tourism trends and prospects;
  • Study on SWOT analyses and review the national level documents and reports relevant to the tourism plans within CBC development strategy;
  • Study on stakeholder collaboration and benchmarking analyses within the framework of the CBC region; 
  • 5 module training course, webinars and online trainings for stakeholders from CBC region;
  • Practicum with teaching materials for the training course;
  • Creation of people to people on line platform with unique experiences from the CBC region;
  • Flayer.

As a traveler, wherever I travel, I always want to see the life of the locals and through them, to see the most credible perspective, to witness the place with all possible senses.

This weekend with Genuinexperiences I had the opportunity to be part of many authentic tourist experiences in the Ohrid- Struga region, Peshkopi and the Dibra region in Albania. In the coming weeks I will share the most interesting experiences. For example, the presence of making a Byzantine mosaic in Ohrid, knitting baskets in Peshkopi, making saddles…

But I will start this short series of stories by sailing across Lake Ohrid and the desire to wake up one day as a pirate. Seriously! I have so much to tell, I have met people whose modesty and authenticity inspire me.

This summer, almost all forecasts say that we will spend the summer in Macedonia. Maybe that’s the right time to indulge in something new, something different. Take a look at the site of Genuinexperiences and I believe that there you will find the experience you want to experience in person.

Evgenij Houp, North Macedonia
Implementation period

December 2017 – August 2020

Project keywords

Beyond BordersCultural heritageEU for YOUGenuine experiencesIPA CBCNatural resourcesOnline platformSustainable tourismTouristic unique experiences

RBMT
BIMCert