Promoting sustainability among the European tour operator sector
through a business led approach

Call for SMEs

What is the SUSTOUR support programme for SMEs?

The SUSTOUR support programme for SMEs ran from June 2022 - July 2023 and was financed under the EU COSME programme. It was designed to help tour operators and travel agencies in improving their sustainability performance. The participants benefited from innovative online trainings, multi-day (classroom) trainings, coaching and peer-to-peer learning – all provided and guided by selected sustainable tourism experts.

A total of 627 SMEs from 35 European countries were selected to participate in the SUSTOUR support programme. To make the largest possible impact in promoting sustainability in the European travel sector, the SUSTOUR Consortium decided to accept all eligible companies that have achieved sufficient points in their application and invite them to participate in their preferred choice of support module.

627 SMEs selected to participate in the SUSTOUR support programmes

The SUSTOUR project ended in September 2023 with a final conference in Portugal highlighting the achievements and success stories of selected SMEs. See the event website for more information and recordings.

 

Further details about the SUSTOUR support programme for SMEs

The SUSTOUR support programme for SMEs offered participants several support modules, notably:

1. Sustainability certification programme

In our sustainability certification programme tour operators and travel agents received comprehensive support services in your Travelife certification process. Travelife is internationally recognized and based on a management system, which supports the effective integration of sustainability in 6 steps to reach certification:

  • Engage your company, including the appointment of a sustainability coordinator.
  • Carry out a basic evaluation of sustainable aspects in your company.
  • Develop and implementat a sustainability policy.
  • Develop and implement an action plan.
  • Report on sustainability activities and achievements.
  • Get audited and certified.

SUSTOUR supported selected SMEs through these 6 steps in the form of trainings, coaching and finally auditing leading to two levels of certification:

 

Travelife Partner

is an award for tour operators and travel agencies that are committed to sustainability and have developed the necessary framework, implemented sustainability practices and plan to continually improve their performance. This requires compliance with basic sustainability requirements.

Travelife Certified

is the full certification that verifies a companies’ excellence in sustainability. This requires compliance with a more substantial set of sustainability criteria recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and confirmed by a third-party audit.

 

2. Accelerator programmes

In our accelerator programmes the participating SMEs dove deeper into a specific sustainability topic, receiving intensive support along the way and becoming industry pioneers by co-developing and piloting practice-oriented tools and strategies. 

  • Supply chain management: Implementation of sustainability principles in your supply chain
  • Carbon management: Analysis and improvement of the carbon footprint of your travel offers
  • Plastic management: Training, risk analysis and reduction strategy for you and your suppliers
  • Certification of shore excursions: Training, assessment and certification of shore excursions
Application information

For all detailed information about the project, please have a look at the SUSTOUR application guidelines for SMEs.

Download the SUSTOUR application guidelines for SMEs

 

Here you can watch the recording of our SUSTOUR info webinar that was held on 31st of March, 2022 to present the project to interested SMEs. The presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking on the image below.

Your company is eligible to apply for technical support under the SUSTOUR project, if it meets all of the following eligibility criteria.

Your company:

  • Has an economic activity of travel agency, tour operator or other reservation service and related activities (NACE 79);
  • is a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), as defined in the EU recommendation 2003/361, having an independent legal status (consortiums will be excluded). The category of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises consists of enterprises which:

-    employ fewer than 250 persons; and

-    have either an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million

In the application form you will be asked to provide the data for staff headcount and indicate range of turnover for the years 2019 and 2020. The eligibility of your company will be determined by the 2020 data.

  • is established in an EU Member State or a third country participating in the COSME programme: Iceland, the UK, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania or Turkey.
  • has not received alternative funding for support services provided under another project of the COSME TOURCOOP programme, notably Tourban, CEnTOUR, ETGG2030, TouriSME and EU ECO-TANDEM;
  • has not been prosecuted in the last 5 years for legal violations in relation to health, sustainability, human resources and taxation matters.
 
  • The application call closed on Tuesday 10 May 2022 at 17h00 CET.
  • Each submitted application has been assessed by 2 evaluators designated by the SUSTOUR project partners (please see the applications guidelines for the detailed evaluation criteria).
  • In June 2022 all applicants received notice whether their application has been selected to participate in the SUSTOUR support programme.
  • The SUSTOUR support programme for SMEs will run until the end of June 2023.

Do I need to pay anything for participating in the support programme?

All participating SMEs will receive the EU co-financing. SUSTOUR will additionally cover the remaining contribution for all SMEs that are members of a SUSTOUR partner or supporting travel association. Please refer to the page "cooperations" listing the project partner and supporting travel associations.

For all other SMEs an own contribution is required, ranging between 200€ to 400€ depending on the size of the company in terms of number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE)[1] staff:  

Number of FTE staff

≤ 25 FTEs

26-100 FTEs

>100 FTEs

SME own contribution

€200

€300

€400

 

[1]     The calculation of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) is an employee's scheduled hours divided by the employer's hours for a full-time workweek. When an employer has a 40-hour workweek, employees who are scheduled to work 40 hours per week are 1.0 FTEs. Employees scheduled to work 20 hours per week are 0.5 FTEs.

I am already a member of Travelife – can I get a refund of my membership fee?

No, SUSTOUR promotes the uptake of sustainability practices through certification or improving sustainability performance in specific areas. If you are already a Travelife member, you will be able to benefit from the Technical Support Scheme, but your company will not be retroactively refunded the membership fees.

Is it possible to apply for both the certification programme and the accelerator programme?

In principle yes. You can choose to obtain support for certification (Travelife Partner and/or Travelife Certified) as well as support provided under the accelerator programme (one or several modules). You will be able to indicate your choice in the application form.

Best efforts will be made to offer selected SMEs the support services they have chosen, in so far as the sum of all support services to be provided fits within the budget of this project (595.000€).

With this in mind, we invite you to choose the support services you would like to benefit from and list them in order of preference.

When making your choice, please consider the time required to follow all the support activities proposed under the certification / accelerator programme (see ‘time commitment’ for each activity in the application guidelines under points 3.1.1 and 3.1.2).   

Is it possible to pick and choose support services?

No. Once you have made a choice to benefit from the certification programme and/or the accelerator programme (one or several modules), you are only eligible for the support services provided in the frame of the selected programme(s) and module(s).

How does the voucher system work?

You will be selected for the right to obtain certain services for which you obtain virtual vouchers. The services will be provided by approved and trained service providers. Once the service has been completed successfully you can deliver the virtual voucher to the service provider who will be paid by the SUSTOUR project. 

What is the amount of grant I can expect to receive?

Selected SMEs will receive virtual vouchers to ‘pay’ for a number of support services. There is no money value on the vouchers.

As an indication, the value of support services are as follows:

  1. 1.650€ if you choose to obtain the Travelife Partner award;
  2. 3.150€ if you choose to become Travelife Certified;
  3. 400€- 3.000€ if you choose one or several modules under the accelerator programme.

No single SME will obtain vouchers for support services in excess of 6.000€. In case of more services taken than 6.000€ the SME needs to contribute the additional amount from its own resources.

What if you wish to engage in more activities than initially applied for?

If needed, there is certain flexibility to add additional activities. This however depends on the overall remaining budget. Such flexibility will be assessed case by case, according to your company’s needs and the overall demand for such services.

What happens if travelling is not possible due to COVID-19 or other restrictions?

In such case all activities will be provided online up to the moment face-to-face meetings will be possible again.

What is the timeframe for the application and implementation of the support programme?

Once the call for SME applications has been launched, you will have 2 months to apply. The deadline for application is Tuesday 10 May 2022 at 17h00 CET.

The selection of successful SMEs and signature of a third-party beneficiary agreement will take approximately one month. The list of selected SMEs is expected to be published by 7 June 2022 on the SUSTOUR website.

The support programme started in July 2022 and will run until June 30, 2023. 

Can I apply later for this support programme?

No, there will only be one call round. If you would like to profit from the scheme you will have to apply before the deadline (10 May 2022, 17h00 CET). During the implementation we will accommodate your internal planning, however all activities must be concluded before 30 June 2023.

Can we apply as a group of companies?

You have to apply as a legal entity. If there are more individual companies under the legal (holding) company they will all benefit, to the extent that the company still respects the definition of an SME (see above). In such case it is not needed to apply individually for each company. Groups can also be international, but only the companies established in an eligible country will be entitled to receive support (see above).

In what language will the support services be provided?

Training sessions and coaching provided in the frame of the certification programme will be delivered, where possible, in either English, Croatian, Finnish, French, Dutch, Portuguese, German or Greek. A good level of comprehension of one of these languages is required. Best efforts will be made to propose training and coaching in other European languages.

Most online trainings, tools, standards and other materials required for Travelife certification are available in multiple languages such as English, French, Croatian, German, Danish, Dutch, Spanish and sometimes even other languages.

The support services provided in the frame of the accelerator programme will only be available in English.

 

The call for SME applications has been closed on 10th of May, 2022. The applicants were informed about the results in June 2022.

 

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