Development of a  Territorial Brand for Cultural Identity
Proposed by companies in the extended tourism sector with in-depth knowledge of their locations, including not only catering and hospitality, but also cultural services and artisanal and agri-food productions, this project deals in an innovative and cross-border way with the challenge of increasing tourist attraction in the cooperation area, through the enhancement and certification of Cultural Identity, composed from the environmental, social and cultural sustainability of cross-border companies. Cultural identity enhances the competitiveness of micro, small and medium-sized companies based in blue and green tourism areas. The general objective is to promote the cooperation area's tourist destination image with a standard "Cultural Identity" quality brand defined through a debate between communities and companies. This brand will have legal value, such as those of the ISO:9000 standard, and will allow companies to meet the expectations of "conscious tourists".  SMARTIC's specific objectives are as follows: Defining cross-border standards for a tourist brand; providing SMEs with tools for growth to certify and develop 90 companies; promoting companies adopting the brand and the pilot areas and providing a brand logo, web platform and tourist guide for "conscious tourists".  Expected changes: More competitive micro and SMEs of the tourism sector of the pilot areas. Increased tourist arrivals from outside the cooperation area. Innovative bottom-up participatory approach, open to all local stakeholders to define widely shared cross-border standards.