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Call for Applications: Smart Social Economy Model in Tourism

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Deadline: 26-Aug-2026

The European Commission’s Smart Social Economy Model in Tourism call supports transnational partnerships that apply social economy principles to sustainable tourism along long-distance tourist trails in EU Member States. The initiative aims to promote community-led development, rural economic growth, social inclusion, cultural heritage integration, and stronger local value chains. The call has an estimated budget of €1,500,000 and is open to eligible legal entities, including public and private bodies established in EU Member States and other eligible territories under specific conditions.

Overview

The European Commission has launched the Smart Social Economy Model in Tourism call to support sustainable tourism models based on social economy principles.

The call focuses on long-distance tourist trails as testing environments for community-led tourism, local economic development, and transnational cooperation.

The initiative encourages local communities, tourism stakeholders, social economy organisations, public authorities, and Destination Management Organisations to work together on inclusive and sustainable tourism solutions.

Key Funding Details

Purpose of the Call

The purpose of the call is to test smart social economy models that make tourism more sustainable, inclusive, and beneficial for local communities.

The initiative aims to help territories design, pilot, and evaluate integrated tourism offers along long-distance trails.

It promotes a bottom-up approach where local actors actively shape tourism development based on community needs, local assets, cultural heritage, and social economy values.

Main Objectives

The call aims to support tourism models that combine sustainability, local participation, and social economy principles.

Key objectives include:

Focus Areas

The Smart Social Economy Model in Tourism call supports a wide range of tourism, community development, and social economy priorities.

Key focus areas include:

What is the Social Economy in Tourism?

In this call, the social economy refers to tourism approaches that prioritize community benefit, inclusion, cooperation, and local value creation.

Social economy tourism models may involve local associations, cooperatives, social enterprises, community groups, public authorities, cultural organisations, and local businesses working together to create tourism experiences that benefit the territory.

The goal is not only to attract visitors but also to ensure that tourism supports local jobs, preserves cultural heritage, strengthens rural communities, and promotes environmental responsibility.

What Are Long-Distance Tourist Trails?

Long-distance tourist trails are extended routes that connect destinations, communities, landscapes, cultural sites, farms, crafts, heritage assets, and local services.

Under this call, these trails will be used as pilot environments to test sustainable tourism models.

The trails can help connect visitors with local communities while creating opportunities for social economy organisations and rural businesses to offer services, products, and cultural experiences.

Who Can Apply?

The call is open to eligible legal entities that can participate in transnational partnerships.

Eligible applicants may include:

Applicants should demonstrate capacity for cooperation, testing, evaluation, and scaling of tourism solutions based on social economy principles.

What Types of Partnerships Are Expected?

Projects should involve transnational cooperation across different regions or countries.

Strong partnerships may include:

The partnership should show how different actors will work together to design, pilot, assess, and replicate sustainable tourism models.

What Activities Can Be Supported?

The call supports activities that help territories develop, test, and improve smart social economy tourism models.

Supported activities may include:

Four Main Project Phases

Funded projects are expected to follow four main phases.

These phases help ensure that projects are evidence-based, community-driven, tested in practice, and ready for wider replication.

Phase 1: Research and Preparation

The first phase focuses on understanding local needs, existing resources, and social economy opportunities along selected trails.

Activities may include:

This phase helps projects build a clear foundation before testing activities in communities.

Phase 2: Pilot Testing and Community Engagement

The second phase focuses on testing community engagement approaches and supporting local actors.

Activities may include:

This phase helps communities and local organisations apply social economy principles in real tourism settings.

Phase 3: Digital Platform Development or Extension

The third phase focuses on exploring digital tools that connect tourism demand with social economy goods and services along trails.

The digital platform may help:

The platform should support practical tourism, community engagement, and impact measurement needs.

Phase 4: Evaluation, Learning, and Dissemination

The final phase focuses on assessing results and sharing lessons learned.

Activities may include:

This phase ensures that effective approaches can be adapted and scaled beyond the pilot territories.

Expected Results

Funded projects are expected to produce practical and replicable models for sustainable tourism based on social economy principles.

Expected results may include:

Why This Call Matters

This call matters because tourism can generate stronger benefits for local communities when it is planned around inclusion, cooperation, sustainability, and local ownership.

Many rural and trail-based destinations have cultural heritage, local products, crafts, farms, and community organisations that can be better connected to tourism demand.

By using social economy principles, the initiative aims to ensure that more economic benefits remain within rural communities while supporting environmental stewardship, cultural identity, and social inclusion.

How to Apply or Prepare

Applicants should prepare a transnational project that clearly connects sustainable tourism with social economy principles.

Step 1: Build a Transnational Partnership

Applicants should identify partners from different eligible territories or countries.

The partnership should include relevant actors such as local authorities, tourism organisations, community groups, social economy entities, and Destination Management Organisations.

Step 2: Select Long-Distance Tourist Trails

Applicants should identify existing long-distance tourist trails that can serve as pilot environments.

The selected trails should offer opportunities for community engagement, cultural heritage integration, rural development, and local value chain strengthening.

Step 3: Map Local Assets

Applicants should map relevant local assets along the trails.

These may include:

Step 4: Design the Social Economy Tourism Model

Applicants should explain how the project will apply social economy principles to tourism.

The model should address community participation, local benefits, cooperation, inclusion, sustainability, and long-term value creation.

Step 5: Plan Pilot Activities

Applicants should describe how the model will be tested in real settings.

Pilot activities should include community engagement, capacity building, governance testing, training, and support for local actors.

Step 6: Include a Digital Component

Applicants should explain whether they will develop or extend a digital platform.

The digital tool should help connect tourism demand with social economy goods, services, cultural sites, and local stakeholders along the selected trails.

Step 7: Define Impact Measurement

Applicants should prepare a framework to measure social, economic, environmental, and community-level impact.

This may include indicators related to participation, visibility, local value creation, inclusion, skills development, and stakeholder cooperation.

Step 8: Plan Evaluation and Replication

Applicants should show how they will evaluate results, collect feedback, share lessons, and promote replication across other European regions.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Applicants should avoid submitting projects that focus only on tourism promotion without clearly applying social economy principles.

Projects should not treat local communities as passive beneficiaries. The call emphasizes bottom-up, community-led development.

Applicants should also avoid weak transnational cooperation. The project should show meaningful collaboration across territories or countries.

A strong proposal should not ignore impact measurement. Projects must be able to test, evaluate, and share results.

Applicants should avoid proposing digital tools without a clear purpose. The platform should support visibility, access to services, resource sharing, or impact tracking.

Tips for a Strong Application

A strong application should clearly explain how the project will create practical, inclusive, and sustainable tourism benefits.

Applicants should:

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Smart Social Economy Model in Tourism call?

The Smart Social Economy Model in Tourism call is a European Commission initiative that supports transnational partnerships applying social economy principles to sustainable tourism along long-distance tourist trails.

What is the main goal of the call?

The main goal is to develop, test, and evaluate sustainable tourism models that support community-led development, social inclusion, rural development, and stronger local value chains.

How much funding is available?

The call has an estimated total budget of €1,500,000.

Who can apply?

Eligible applicants include legal entities, public and private bodies established in EU Member States, overseas countries and territories, and other eligible entities under specific conditions.

What types of activities are supported?

Supported activities include research, needs assessments, local asset mapping, community engagement, pilot testing, training, governance model development, digital platform development, impact measurement, evaluation, and dissemination.

What role do long-distance tourist trails play?

Long-distance tourist trails serve as testing environments where sustainable tourism models can be piloted, evaluated, and adapted for replication in other European regions.

Why is social economy important in tourism?

Social economy principles help ensure that tourism benefits local communities, supports inclusion, strengthens rural economies, protects cultural heritage, and keeps more economic value within the territory.

Conclusion

The Smart Social Economy Model in Tourism call supports a new approach to tourism development across the European Union.

By combining sustainable tourism, social economy principles, community participation, digital innovation, and transnational cooperation, the initiative aims to create tourism models that benefit local communities and rural territories.

With an estimated budget of €1,500,000, the call is best suited for partnerships that can design, test, evaluate, and replicate inclusive tourism solutions along long-distance tourist trails.

For more information, visit European Commission.

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