On the 13th of October 2020, a kick-off meeting of a new, IRR-led STEFAN project was held. Although originally planned to be organized in Skopje, North Macedonia, the Covid-19 situation representatives of all the 5 partners involved met online.

During the first meeting, all the partners had a chance to present themselves and discuss the first steps and deadlines of the project with an emphasis on the first Intellectual Output. The meeting went very well and we are excited to start working!

The objective of the project is to enhance the competitiveness of the European tourism industry, increasing the professional knowledge of people employed in the sector and quality of its services. This will also increase new opportunities for employability, develop already existing small businesses, and potentiate new ones to emerge.

Within the STEFAN project, 4 Intellectual Outputs will be produced:

IO1: A Country Research describing the development of ecotourism in each partner country in order to give the participants a general overview of the current situation;

IO2: Training Material based on the Country Research (including a Competence Validation Tool for the learners) and a project’s website containing information about it;

IO3: STEFAN E-learning Platform to train the tutors in the fields of ecotourism and sustainable tourism;

IO4: Thematic booklets based on developed thematic tours, highlighting the cooperation between local organisations, stakeholders, municipalities and entrepreneurs, bringing potential and attractiveness of the thematic tours over mass tourism.