SMART TOURISM - Qualified services for the consolidation and competitiveness of transnational tourism business supply chains
Today, the tourist destinations within the cross-border area are having to deal with competition from up and coming destinations which, over the the medium term, will mean that Europe is overtaken as the most popular destination in the world.
 At the same time, the effects of the 4th industrial revolution are forcing companies to evolve towards ‘industry 4.0’ business models, linked to new digital solutions, in order not to be driven out of the market. The critical issues to be overcome are the fragmentation of supply, a lack of business networks and the fact that companies are too small to access new organisational/technological solutions, as already addressed by various projects as part of the previous Calls : e.g., SMART DESTINATION aims to create a digital tourism ecosystem to integrate tourist information flows, while SISTINA focuses on networks of cross-border MSMEs in the tourism industry. It is now necessary to capitalise on the ongoing initiatives.
 In this context, SMART TOURISM supports the competitiveness of MSMEs in the tourism industry by:
 1. Making it easier for them to access the specialised services necessary for their digital transformation.
 2. Supporting the development of networks and building integrated supply systems.
 3. Developing a market of specialised suppliers able to support innovation processes.
 SMART TOURISM will help companies to reap the full benefits from the potential of their tourism ecosystem by integrating specialised services and expertise into their path towards growth and change
 -SELECTED by intermediaries (associations-chambers of commerce).
 -VALIDATED as part of a process of comparison between suppliers and beneficiaries.
 - FINANCED through special innovation vouchers in compliance with specific service quality and replicability requirements.
 -SUPPORTED in the delivery process to check the results achieved and to model the service in order to represent it on a numerically larger scale.
 To reach the maximum number of MSMEs, SMART TOURISM only makes use of facilitators in the regions concerned.