Press Release

Calling all tourism SMEs interested in innovating and investing in digital technologies

7 December 2022 – With the aim to stimulate digitalisation and innovation uptake in Europe’s tourism sector, the Tourism4.0 project has now officially launched the call for the selection of tourism SMEs. The Malta Business Bureau (MBB) is encouraging local SMEs to apply for the chance to benefit from a training and financing opportunity to prepare their business for the digital transformation.

MBB CEO Joe Tanti maintained that “this project has a great deal of potential in terms of providing more and better opportunities for the digital transition, particularly for SMEs who often lack the financial resources to innovate and adopt new digital technologies”. In line with the Digital Strategic Roadmap for Tourism in the Maltese Islands for 2030, he added that “promoting innovation and digitalisation as a journey for SMEs is the way forward for an economy like ours that is heavily dependent on tourism”.

In collaboration with a consortium of Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Croatian, and Polish partners, the MBB is working to support SMEs in keeping up with the digital transformation by improving their skills and competencies. This project targets specifically those SMEs that seek to embrace digitalisation through the exchange of best practices and mentoring support. To facilitate this transition, selected SMEs will also benefit from a voucher scheme valued at €7,000 that is earmarked for SMEs to invest in digital technologies and innovations.

MBB Projects Executive Martina Spiteri explained that “as part of this project, local tourism SMEs committed to engage in the digital transition will be supported financially to invest in digital business solutions”. “The aim is for tourism SMEs to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of their business, especially within a global market that is increasingly pushing forward the green and digital agenda”.

The Tourism4.0 call is now open and the guidelines, which have been officially approved by the European Commission, are available on the project’s website:

https://tourism4-0.eu/call-for-selection-of-tourism-smes/

Interested companies are kindly requested to complete the application form that may be also found on the project website. The deadline for submitting applications is 01/02/2023 at 17:00 CET.

For further information, kindly contact MBB Projects Executive Martina Spiteri on mspiteri@mbb.org.mt or visit https://tourism4-0.eu/.

 Tourism4.0, funded by the European Union’s COSME Programme, is led by Fedeturismo Confindustria (Italy) in collaboration with Croatian Hotels Association (Croatia), City of Dubrovnik Development Agency (Croatia), Malta Business Bureau (Malta), Regional Pomeranian Chamber of Commerce (Poland), Tourism Innovation Center (Portugal), Wisdom Guardian (Portugal), Digital Cluster of Catalonia (Spain), Cluster Tourism of Extremadura (Spain), and Málaga TechPark (Spain).