SMEs TRAnsition for an European Circular tourism Ecosystem: TRACE 3rd OPEN CALL FOR SMEs SUPPORT

Overview

Objectives

Objectives of this call include the enhancing and monitoring of sustainability performance of SMEs in the tourism sector, boosting their awareness, development and capacity to develop and integrate sustainable innovations in their business practice, and making sustainability, resilience and circularity key factors of competitiveness in the global tourism market.

Activities/actions supported

Supported activities will focus on aspects such as analysis of greenhouse gas emissions, development of sustainability plans, support for application to the EU ecolabel and other certification processes, and monitoring of a set of key indicators for sustainability and circularity. Particular attention will be given to the enhancement of skills and capacities of the involved SMEs internal staff, through training and capacity building activities, and a series of direct support services dedicated to certification processes, sustainable finance and innovation management.

Anticipated outcomes

Anticipated outcomes include enhanced sustainability, resilience, cooperation and competitiveness of SMEs. This is to be achieved via capacity building, knowledge sharing and best practice exchange as well as support with environmental assessments, certifications and strategic business development for sustainability and circularity.

Institution providing the funding

European Commission

Size of funding

The support within Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 for SMEs provided by TRACE Consortium members under the form of services are valued approximately EUR 4,000 per SME. In addition to these services provided by the Consortium, within Phase 4 beneficiaries will be awarded with direct funding in the form of grants of maximum EUR 7,200 to deploy their Sustainability Plan.

Conditions

Overview of eligibility criteria

To be eligible, entities must meet the following requirements:

1. be a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME):

• An SME will be considered as such if complying with the European Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC and the SME qualification guide;
• SMEs that do not have yet annual turnover or balance sheets are also considered eligible given that they fulfil the mentioned criteria of the SME definition;
• In case an SME enters the TRACE Support Programme, it will remain eligible even if, at a certain point during the programme execution, it does not fulfil criteria of the SME definition;

2. be SMEs working in tourism sector, ideally demonstrating or aiming for innovation in tourism, preferably within the following categories, in line with these Eurostat classes[1]:

• I5510 — Hotels and similar accommodation
• I5520 — Holiday and other short-stay accommodation
• I5530 — Camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks
• I5610 — Restaurants and mobile food service activities
• I5630 — Beverage serving activities
• N7710 — Renting and leasing of motor vehicles
• N7721 — Renting and leasing of recreational and sports goods
• SMEs in other sectors (e.g., R - arts, entertainment and recreation) can take part in the selection process, while they need to demonstrate that their activities are linked to the tourism sector

3. be a legal entity established in one of the following countries:

• Belgium
• Cyprus
• Italy
• Romania
• Spain

Applicants that are legal entity SMEs established and based in the other European Union or EU Associated Countries[2] are eligible to participate in TRACE Support Programme (e.g., action-learning trainings, awareness raising towards sustainability and circular tourism webinars, networking activities etc.) but are excluded from receiving funding support;

4. not have had convictions for fraudulent behaviour, other financial irregularities, unethical or illegal business practices;

5. not have been declared bankrupt or have initiated bankruptcy procedures;

6. are not under liquidation or is not an enterprise under difficulty according to the Commission Regulation No 651/2014, art. 2.18;

7. are not excluded from the possibility of obtaining EU funding under the provisions of both national and EU law, or by a decision of either national or EU authority.

Overview of award criteria

The award criteria include alignment to TRACE project circular tourism objectives and expected impacts (min. 3/5), impact (min. 3/5) and feasibility of transition towards sustainability (min. 3/5).

Procedures

Application procedures

Interested applicants from the five eligible countries are requested to apply online and answer all mandatory questions at https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/TRACE-3rd-Call-application-form.

Application support available

Support is available at supportiniziativa [dot] cc (support[at]iniziativa[dot]cc).

Useful links

Link to funding opportunity

Link to the programme for more info