Triple P Tourism Project is a three-year initiative funded by the EU. It focuses on the 6 IPA II beneficiaries in the Western Balkans, to include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. The project aims to improve the quality of the tourism offer by: creating joint offer/product(s) to foster regional integration in the tourism sector and its joint global promotion; diversifying tourism offer of the region; alleviating policy barriers to development of tourism industry and easing of administrative procedures; improving the level of services related to tourism; and supporting small-scale infrastructure projects to support the development of regional tourism offer/product.
FUTOURISMO competition was the first regional competition organised in February-March 2021 within the remit of the Triple-P Tourism Project and the work of the Regional Cooperation Council. The goal of the competition was to support innovative digital solutions in tourism that will help mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the heavily affected sector of tourism in the Western Balkans. It is expected that these digital solutions will have a positive effect in terms of keeping jobs, maintaining their operations and promoting the region as a touristic destination.
EFIS Centre was a part of the technical assistance project led by NEBS sprl to support the Regional Cooperation Council in the development of the concept of this regional competition in tourism, provision of expert advice as well as support in preparation of the event and its launch. The call for the competition was published and promoted widely through many outlets and media in the six Western Balkan economies attracting over 80 proposals. Of these, 15 teams were selected to receive mentoring support to help them develop their ideas further and prepare for the competition’s final event. Jelena Angelis from EFIS Centre mentored:
- Meanderbug app, a digital marketplace for farms accommodation in Montenegro
- E-Health Tourism platform by Klinika Digjitale in Kosovo
- Museum digitalisation platform of the City of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Pitching of the ideas was held online (due to the restrictions of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic) and broadcasted via social media. Seven teams were selected for an award from the Regional Cooperation Council. Two of them were Meanderbug and Klinika Digjitale. The pitching of the short-listed projects are available here.
“It was a pleasure to work with Dr Jelena Angelis from the EFIS Centre. Her mentoring was very helpful in further development of our project e-Health Tourism. We were lucky to have her support, in particular since she is an expert on medical innovation. This made our communication easier and enabled a better understanding on how digital health services can help overcome the COVID-19 difficulties in tourism. Our platform e-Health Tourism is available to tourists in all 6 Western Balkan countries since the COVID-19 pandemic and also to the people of the Western Balkans travelling abroad.” (Dr Dardan Asllani, CEO, Klinika Digjitale – Digital Clinic)
