On June 3-6, 2025, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry - Vratsa participated in the second partner meeting for the project "INSPIRES - Initiatives for Sustainable Innovative Practices, Resilience, and Empowerment in Tourism SMEs," funded by the European Union's "Single Market Programme (SMP)."
The event took place in Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland, and was organized by the Lapland University of Applied Sciences – a project partner. Representatives from all partner organizations from Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Poland, and Spain attended the meeting.
During the working sessions, discussions covered the progress of key project activities, the preparation of the training program for regenerative tourism, and the financial mechanism for supporting tourism SMEs, for which CCI-Vratsa is the lead partner. The Chamber presented the current status of the preparation for the funding call, which is aimed at 60 partnerships between SMEs from the project countries.
A baseline study among tourism SMEs was also presented during the meeting, aiming to examine the level of sustainability and digitalization in the sector. Thanks to the active work of CCI-Vratsa, Bulgaria is among the countries that have met the set indicators for the number of surveyed enterprises.
A significant part of the program was the second Ideation Jam, which included over 30 tourism SMEs from the partner countries. Four Bulgarian tourism SMEs participated, giving attendees the opportunity to exchange ideas and formulate proposals for future initiatives in sustainable tourism development.
CCI-Vratsa's participation in the partner meeting and the project actively supports the inclusion of Bulgarian tourism SMEs in European initiatives for sustainable and innovative tourism, as well as expanding the Chamber's international cooperation in the sector.
