COOPERATION TO UPGRADE TOURISM AND REGIONAL PRODUCTS
COTOUR is seeking to inject some strategic thinking into European regions’ promotion of tourism. All of the regions involved in the operation are quite capable of making plans to promote tourism, but they rarely consider it as an integrated tool for regional development. And as they have limited knowledge of projects carried out by other European regions, they lack successful examples of how tourism can become such a tool. The partners also need to develop coherent plans for involving local partners such as SMEs and local authorities in their tourism strategies. COTOUR is creating a strategy that strengthens tourism as a tool for regional development. It is also training regional facilitators who can implement this strategy and improve tourism by developing regional products or other distinctive activities. Finally, it is creating a communications plan enabling the partners to promote their tourism development strategies effectively to other regional players.