Where are We now?

Three meetings were organized, the kick off meeting in Florence (Italy) on the 25 and 26 September 2008, the second project meeting in Bath (UK) on the 5 and 6 of March 2009, the third project meeting in Greoux les Bains on the 10th and 11th of September 2009, the 4th project meeting in Barcelona in march 2010, the fifth in Venice in July 2010.

As a first step towards improved cooperation, ERNEST has begun activities on two levels:
the first one concerns social dialogue with the regional stakeholders
the second one consists in the mapping of regional programmes: each partner has done a research in its territory and collected the data referring to the existing programmes strictly related to the issues of sustainability and competitiveness of tourism, with a specific focus on those which are currently active or will be activated in the future.

The results, in the form of two different reports (Survey 1 - Mapping of the regional structures and of the research programmes related to sustainable tourism and Survey 2 - Interregional comparison) have been published in the Documents/Ernest docs section of the homepage.

Click here in you are interested in the Surveys

Activities are underway also as far as regards communication: the ERNEST project brochure and various ERNEST newsletter have been published... In autumn 2009 three new parters have joined the consortium, Wales (UK), Veneto Region (I) and the Agency for the Development of Kosice. In 2010 ERNEST activities included the launching of the common action plan and the launch of the first joint call for interregional research into sustainable tourism (which is now in the evaluation phase)!.

6th Project Meeting – Miskolc, North Hungary

The 6th project meeting was held on the 17-18 February 2011 in Miskolc, North Hungary at NORDA headquarters. Main topics were the 1st Joint Call results and evaluation process, Joint Actions and general project progress update by all partners. The host organization took the opportunity to complete the official programme with the introduction of local good practices, experiences presented by representatives of local organizations. 5 presentations and 2 site-visits took place in the frame of the one and a half-day project meeting. In the frame of the presentations, the participants could get familiar with the research programmes and international project cooperation practices of the University of Miskolc and the University of Debrecen/Károly Róbert College – Gyöngyös, as well as with the local experiences of Hollók? World Heritage site, Lake Tisza Eco-Centre, and Gömörsz?l?s – sustainable village programme. Following the first day meeting programme, the group visited Tokaj, the world- famous wine-growing- and World Heritage Site, where the Mayor of Tokaj and a representative from the Tourism Destination Management Organization held a presentation on Tokaj and its recent developments. To close the programme, the delegates took part in a tour in and around the Miskolctapolca Cave Bath, a thermal bath with very uni     que, natural features in Europe, where they also heard a presentation on tourism developments

 Come to meet us again for the updates!