The tourism sector in the project area (Armenia, Greece, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine) impacts employment and income, being one of the fastest-growing sectors and still has strong growth prospects. However, the microenterprises dominating the number of tourism businesses in the area demonstrated the need to improve their management performance.

Through the project For a better SME management – CERTOUR II (BSB17), the partnership aims at confronting this phenomenon and enhancing competitiveness by improving the management and upgrading the skills of people of the tourism SMEs, ensuring sustainability.

The main idea is to upgrade the skills of the SMEs’ people to make them able to implement managerial tools and techniques at their enterprises and improve their competitiveness.

Pilot implementation of the management tools was the core activity of the project. In total, 100 tourism SMEs benefited from the project intervention in participating countries, and overall 200 SMEs’ staff participated in the training programs.

Further, the beneficiaries designed and developed an e-training platform 6 training modules:

– General Principles of Tourism Management

– Tourism Services Quality

– Business Model Canvas

– Management tool:  Business Planning

– Management tool:  Balanced Scorecard

– Management tool:  Customers’ Satisfaction

Each training module guides the learners, engaging them during the knowledge-gaining process. After the basic information on the module, the learners will find the course material, practical exercises, and self-assessment form.

The training program was developed in English and translated into Armenian, Greek, Romanian, Turkish, and Ukrainian languages and is available to any interested party for use beyond the project area and duration.

The platform registers over 500 users, and the beneficiaries are still counting.