There is a new sense of urgency about improving sustainability of the tourism sector. Europe is becoming more and more popular tourist destination, commanding a market share of the world tourism industry bigger than 40%. Along with this positive economic impact, however, tourism puts a significant strain on European natural environments and socio-cultural authenticity.

Many initiatives have been undertaken in the EU to raise public awareness of sustainability and to ensure sustainable management of tourist destinations, businesses and products. Numerous Europe-wide reports, however, prove that the workforce employed in the sector still lacks the right, green skill set for implementing principles of sustainable development.

Tourism sector in Europe is dominated by micro and small enterprises (MSEs), which often have lack of resources to invest either in sustainable practices or in workforce skills development. At the same time, many sustainable tourism practices have already proven their economic viability to micro and small enterprises. Moreover, affordability and cost efficiency of such practices increase significantly, if MSEs create clusters and combine efforts to implement them.

The Sustain-T project, therefore, aims to enhance the sustainability performance of EU micro and small enterprises in the tourism sector by raising their managers’ awareness of sustainable tourism practices and improving their networking and collaboration skills for establishing new green alliances and implementing joint sustainability initiatives.