Decarbonising the Tourism Industry post Covid-19 support (DETOCS)

The EU must decarbonise its economy by 2050 out of necessity for climate change mitigation and adaptation. In parallel, the EU requires to increase its energy security, self-sufficiency and competitiveness, with the current energy crisis further exacerbating the situation, and the prices of fuels and electricity increasingly threatening the viability and profitability of Europe’s tourism infrastructure. Furthermore, as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns and travel restrictions, Europe’s tourism infrastructure has seriously declined – a situation now further exacerbated by the severe energy crisis. The recovery of the tourism sector is necessary and crucial, now more than ever in its vulnerable state, as the tourism industry is highly valuable to the European economy.

The recently approved Interreg Europe DETOCS – DEcarbonising the TOurism Industry Post Covid-19 Support – project therefore aims to support the recovery of the EU tourism infrastructure sector following the Covid-19 pandemic, amid the energy crisis, in a sustainable and low carbon way. In doing so, DETOCS complies with EU long-term policies for the decarbonisation of the economy. During the project implementation, good practices for sustainable tourism will be identified and exchanged among partner regions in Slovenia, Greece,

Malta, Finland, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Netherlands; meanwhile, project partners will aim to improve related policy in their regions through capacity building in the participating regions and the adoption of policies proven to be successful in other regions.

The DETOCS’ project aims are, in each of the partner regions, to:

1. Facilitate the decarbonisation of the tourism infrastructure;

2. Increase the energy efficiency of tourism infrastructure;

3. Increase the energy selfsufficiency of tourism sector;

4. Promote new and novel types of tourism, which have low energy consumption and carbon footprint (that is, virtual tourism);

5. Assist regions to cope with the current energy crisis that increases the share of energy cost in their total operational cost threatening their profitability and economic viability. DETOCS contributes to the EU Cohesion Policy and specifically to the Policy Objective 2 (PO2): A greener, low-carbon Europe, as it promotes clean and sustainable energy transition of tourism infrastructure. In order to promote the achievement of a climate-neutral Europe by 2050, the targeted polices will contribute to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through new investments in energy efficiency, energysaving schemes and sustainable renewable energy as set in Directive (EU) 2018/2001.

The four-year DETOCS project has a total budget of €1,980,883, with €1,567,416 provided by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The Institute for Sustainable Energy of the University of Malta, together with the Ministry for Tourism, are participating in this project as full partners.

In the coming weeks, a reach-out will be initiated to form a national stakeholders group composed of all relevant entities that are directly or indirectly involved in the tourism industry in Malta. The stakeholders’ group will be continuously informed and involved in the project, which also includes participation in local and international workshops and visits. The ultimate goal is to share the good practices that Malta has so far succeeded in implementing and to learn from other regions on how energy efficiency can be further enhanced to offset the cost of energy and to facilitate a long-term sustainable and decarbonised future for the tourism industry in Malta. The kick-off meeting of the project will be held in Slovenia in May.

The DETOCS project consortium consists of 13 project partners and one advisory partner from nine different European countries, namely Slovenia (Lead partner), Greece, Malta, Finland, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary and Germany (Advisor partner).