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European Capitals of Smart Tourism 2022
Deadline: Jun 16, 2021  
CALL EXPIRED

 Urban Management
 Smart Cities
 Urban Development
 Sustainable Tourism
 Tourism
 Urban transport
 Smart Mobility

1. ABOUT THE INITIATIVE

The European Capital of Smart Tourism is an EU initiative, currently financed under the COSME Programme. It is built on the successful experience of the Preparatory Action proposed by the European Parliament and implemented by the European Commission in 2019 and 2020.

The initiative seeks to strengthen tourism-generated innovative development in European cities and their surroundings, increase their attractiveness, and foster economic growth and job creation. It also aims to establish a framework for the exchange of best practices between cities participating in the competition, create opportunities for cooperation and new partnerships.

The 2022 European Capital of Smart Tourism is the third edition of the competition. Gothenburg and Málaga were selected as the winners of the 2020 European Capitals of Smart Tourism competition, while Helsinki and Lyon won the inaugural competition and jointly held the titles of 2019 European Capitals of Smart Tourism.

This Guide for Applicants contains all information applicant cities need to know about the competition for the European Capital of Smart Tourism 2022.

For the purpose of this initiative, a smart tourism capital is defined as a destination facilitating access to tourism and hospitality products, services, spaces and experiences through ICT-based (Information and communications technology) tools. It also implements innovative, intelligent solutions and fosters the development of entrepreneurial businesses and their interconnectedness.

In line with this overarching definition, the initiative will showcase exemplary practices by tourism destinations in implementing innovative and intelligent solutions in four categories:

SUSTAINABILITY DIGITALISATION CULTURAL HERITAGE ACCESSIBILITY & CREATIVITY

The two cities showing the most intelligent, innovative and inclusive solutions in all the above- mentioned areas – and convincing the European Jury with an attractive programme for the year of the title – will be awarded the title of “European Capital of Smart Tourism 2022”.

For your city to become a European Capital of Smart Tourism, you will have to show us what your exemplary and innovative solutions in sustainable and accessible tourism development are, as well as how you are capitalising on your cultural heritage for tourism. All that, paired with innovative digital tools and creative ways to enhance your visitors’ experience.

 

 

2. TIMELINE

Launch of competition
22 April 2021

Application deadline
16 June 2021 by 17:00 (CET) 

Evaluation Phase – including evaluation step 1 by independent experts
June - August 2021

Announcement to shortlisted finalists
September 2021 November 2021

Presentation of finalists in front of the European Jury and announcement of winners

 

 

3. ADMISSIBILITY AND ELIGIBILITY

3.1 ADMISSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Applications must be submitted the latest by 16 June 2021 at 17:00 CET. Applications received after this deadline will not be accepted.

All applications must be submitted via the online application submission tool, which is accessible via www.SmartTourismCapital.eu. Applications submitted by any other form will not be taken into account.

Applications must be readable, accessible and printable.

We will only be able to accept applications that are complete in all their parts, including the requested signed and stamped Mayor’s Endorsement.

You will be asked to provide an answer to all four categories (Accessibility, Digitalisation, Sustainability, Creativity & Cultural heritage). We will not be able to accept applications which only answer to one, two, or three of the categories.

You may apply in any official language of the European Union. You can find a list of all eligible languages here. We would suggest writing, or submitting material, in English, to the extent possible, to speed up the evaluation process and comparability of applications.

 

3.2 ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

The eligibility criteria for applying to win the title of “European Capital of Smart Tourism 2022” are as follows:

  1. The European Capital of Smart Tourism competition is open to EU Member States, as well as the non-EU countries that take part in the COSME programme1.

  2. All cities that are located in an EU Member State or a non-EU country participating in the COSME programme, which have more than 100 000 inhabitants, can apply for the title.

  3. In countries where no city has more than 100 000 inhabitants, the largest city is eligible to apply. For small states with the number of inhabitants below 1 million by 31 December 2020, cities with more than 10 000 inhabitants are eligible to apply.

  4. A “city” is understood to be an urban area, (excluding conurbations), and is understood as an administrative unit governed by a city council or another form of elected body.

    A metropolitan area or a larger urban zone is allowed to apply under the following conditions: it includes a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants and is promoted/branded as a tourism destination in line with the local/regional/national tourism development and promotion strategy. In that case, the application should be submitted by the city (of more than 100,000 inhabitants) and in case awarded, the city will bear the title of the “European Capital of Smart Tourism 2022”)

  5. The signatory of the application should be the Mayor or the highest-ranking city representative, authorised by national law to legally represent the city.

  6. The EUROSTAT database for the last available year is a reference for checking the number of inhabitants for cities in EU Member States:

    http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=urb_cpop1&lang=en

    For non-EU countries that take part in the COSME programme, the national statistics office database for the last available year act as reference for population data.

  7. All cities meeting the aforementioned requirements can apply to become the European Capital of Smart Tourism 2022, even if they have already won a city award by the European Union and/or if they currently hold an award by the European Union in this year’s cycle, with the exception of European Capitals of Smart Tourism 2019 winners (Helsinki and Lyon), and the 2020 winners (Gothenburg and Málaga).

The European Commission may perform specific checks when assessing the eligibility criteria.

3.3 EXCLUSION CRITERIA

Cities will be disqualified should any, or more than one, of the following apply: The applying city is subject to an administrative sanction (i.e. exclusion)2
The applying city is in one of the following situations3 :

1 Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/39579

  1. 2  See Articles 131(4) and 106(1) Financial Regulation

  2. 3  See Articles 138(2) and 106(1), 107 of the Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union and repealing Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 (OJ L 218, 26.10.2012, p.1).

 

Bankrupt, being wound up, having their affairs administered by the courts, entered into an arrangement with creditors, has suspended business activities or is subject to any other similar proceedings or procedures under national law (including persons with unlimited liability for the participant’s debts)

Declared in breach of social security or tax obligations by a final judgment or decision (including persons with unlimited liability for the participant’s debts)

Found guilty of grave professional misconduct4 by a final judgment or decision (including persons with powers of representation, decision-making or control)

Convicted of fraud, corruption, involvement in a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorism-related crimes (including terrorism financing), child labour or human trafficking (including persons having powers of representation, decision-making or control)

Shown significant deficiencies in complying with main obligations under a procurement contract, grant agreement or grant decision financed by the EU or Euratom budget (including persons having powers of representation, decision-making or control)

Found guilty of irregularities within the meaning of Article 1(2) of Regulation No 2988/95 (including persons with powers of representation, decision-making or control)

Applicants have misrepresented information required for participating in the contest or failed to submit such information.

Any conflict of interest, in any form, duration, or severity, is in existence between applicants and the evaluation panel and/or the organisers of the competition, at the time of application, and throughout the process. For more details, please see par. “9.2 Conflict of interests”.

 

4. AWARD CATEGORIES AND ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

In the application form, the city will be asked to write four essays to present its best practices and measures implemented under each of the four award categories (Accessibility, Digitalisation, Sustainability, Creativity & Cultural heritage) to improve its profile as a tourism destination. To give room to the overarching context and the interconnectedness of all categories, cities are also required to write an introductory essay describing their performance as a tourism destination overall. For more details, please see par. “6. How to apply: Step by step”.

4.1 AWARD CATEGORIES

Here you will find detailed information on what is meant by each of the categories as well as some examples. These are intended to help you gain a better understanding of the different categories. The examples for the categories below are by no means exhaustive, they are meant as a general orientation. We encourage you to think beyond these examples and to demonstrate your city’s specific cases, concrete actions and solutions.

4 Professional misconduct includes: violation of ethical standards of the profession, wrongful conduct with impact on profes- sional credibility, false declarations/misrepresentation of information, participation in a cartel or other agreement distorting competition, violation of IPR, attempting to influence decision-making processes or obtain confidential information from public authorities to gain an advantage.

 

ACCESSIBILITY: : Explain if your city is physically accessible to travellers with special access needs, regardless of age, their social or economic situation and whether they have disabilities or not. Being accessible means to be easily reachable by different means of transport and with a strong network in and around the city. How accessible is your city – by car, train, plane, and bike? Beyond the infrastructure, are your tourism services accessible to all? Please describe whether you are a barrier-free destination for – as an example – people in a wheelchair, with mobility challenges, for families with strollers, etc. Furthermore, tell us what your infrastructure looks like! Your restaurants, museums, walking tours – is information available in multiple languages? Is the service-staff multilingual? Is there a street guidance routing for blind people? How accessible are your tourism services for people with mental disabilities, people hard of hearing, parents with young children, the elderly, etc.? Describe your services, activities, exhibitions and attractions and tell us whether they allow everyone – regardless of disabilities – to participate. Also, do not forget to tell us how accessible your booking systems, websites and services are – they are a part of it all. Do you offer multilingual information? Are the websites/apps user-friendly and intuitive?

SUSTAINABILITY: Is your city working to preserve and enhance the natural environment and resources and balancing economic and socio-cultural development? We want to know how you are managing natural resources (including innovative environmentally-friendly measures) as a tourism destination, and if you are implementing resource efficiency measures and actions aimed at combating, or adapting to, climate change. Being sustainable goes even further – are you putting in place measures aimed at reducing tourism seasonality? Are you working on involving the local community? Do you share revenues with local communities? Are local tourism revenues channelled into local development, communities and businesses? How does your city as a tourism destination contribute to local employment (e.g., that a sustainable tourism activity provides an alternative economic income to the usual local activities)? How does your city support businesses and local communities to develop sustainable solutions or collaborations for the tourism industry?

DIGITALISATION: Being a digital tourism city means offering innovative tourism and hospitality infor- mation, products, services, spaces and experiences adapted to the needs of the consumers through ICT-based solutions and digital tools. Are you providing digital information about your destination, its attractions and tourism offers? Is your information on public transport, attractions and accommoda- tion digitally accessible, or even integrated? Do businesses have a digital-friendly environment to grow in? Are you supporting tourism businesses in the development and use of digital skills and tools? Do you use digital solutions for enhancing innovative tourism offers?

CREATIVITY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE: Is your city making resourceful use of its cultural heritage and creative industries to enrich tourism experience and quality of life? What actions are you implementing to boost the recognition of your city as a smart tourism destination and to incorporate the tangible and intangible heritage of your art, history and culture in its centre and surroundings, in your enhanced tourism offer? How do you use cultural heritage and creativity to attract tourists, as well as exploit synergies between tourism and cultural and creative industries?

 

4.2 ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND GUIDELINES

The cities need to describe concrete examples of measures implemented under all four categories described above. How well a city is performing in these four categories will be assessed on the basis of the following four assessment criteria:

  1. How smart and feasible are the implemented measures? Applying this criterion, the evaluating experts will assess how advanced and original the implemented measures are in each category. They will look at why this measure was innovative in the applicant city, what new technologies were applied, how they have changed the tourism experience and if they can be implemented in other cities.

  2. How convincing is the strategic approach in terms of sustainable actions? How durable are the measures over time? Under this criterion, the experts will assess the strategic, long- term solution-based approach, instead of just short-term problem fixing in each category. It will also be assessed, how the results of the implemented measures are being sustained over time.

  3. How inclusive are the implemented measures for different social groups? Under this criterion, the evaluating experts will assess in each category if the implemented programmes and measures are allowing people of every age, cultural or religious background, and, regardless of any disability or lack of local language skill, to participate in the tourism offer/ services. Under this criterion, the experts will also assess if the implemented measures address and are adapted to different social groups, for example families, seniors, etc.

  4. Is there a system of indicators aimed to determine the effectiveness of the measures? How effective are these measures? Under this criterion, the experts will assess in each category the effectiveness and the impact of the measures on the local business environment and the local community. Detailed information about the tangible and, where possible, measurable impacts of the implementations, including delivering quantitative data on relevant indicators, will support the assessment.

Remember: When describing your measures in each category, make sure you address the four assessment criteria above. The more specific you are in describing your best practices, the better the chance to score high in the above mentioned criteria. Please mention how the implementation of the measure changed the tourism in your city, what impact it brought on tourism arrivals/ employment/tourists satisfaction ratings. Give us concrete numbers, if you have them, and demonstrate the tangible, measurable results of your actions.

Presenting tangible and measurable impacts of the measures implemented will increase chances of your application to be scored high.

 

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