The island of Gran Canaria recently played host to the launch of the TWINNEDbySTARS project, an initiative that seeks to transform European Outermost regions into internationally recognised maritime ecotourism destinations. This endeavour is designed to harness the benefits of tourism for marine biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation.
The kick-off meeting for this European project took place on Wednesday, October 25th, at the Science and Technology Park of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC). Subsequently, a public official presentation was organised on Thursday, October 26th, at the facilities of the Canarian Latin Sailing Federation.
The TWINNEDBySTARS project is spearheaded from the Canary Islands by the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) and is composed of strategic partners from France (Martinique), Belgium, Portugal (Madeira and Azores), and Spain.
The project draws its inspiration from the success of prior initiatives in the Macaronesian region, which have established networks and methodological frameworks for designing and fine-tuning transformational marine ecotourism products and activities. These involve Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) located on various islands. Notable practices include onboard marine environmental education, navigation, respectful wildlife sighting, and stargazing. These efforts have led to highly satisfactory tourist experiences and more environmentally responsible behaviour from both SMEs and tourists.
TWINNEDbySTARS aims to expand on these achievements across the European Outermost Regions (EU ORs), promoting green and digital innovation within these communities, strengthening existing partnerships, building capacity, and fostering opportunities for co-creation.
The project’s goals include enhancing the competitiveness of the maritime tourism sector in Outermost regions, contributing to the protection of marine biodiversity, preserving cultural heritage, and developing marine astrotourism. This last aspect involves celebrating ancient navigators and positioning these remote territories as sustainable destinations.
To achieve these objectives, the project aims to bolster the sustainability of a well-established collaborative network of tourism stakeholders across the four Atlantic Outermost Regions. These regions sit at the natural nautical crossroads of the Atlantic Ocean, making use of the trade winds, the Canary Current, and the Gulf Stream. An analysis of existing cooperation networks in maritime and coastal tourism within these regions will be conducted, mapping out the actors in the quadruple helix.
In the project’s second phase, a capacity-building programme will be carefully crafted to raise awareness and equip tourism firms and other stakeholders with tools to accelerate digital and ecological transitions. Additionally, it will identify opportunities for open and social innovation with actors from other Outermost Regions.
The consortium will conclude its efforts by analysing available coastal and maritime tourism products and development sites in the four Outermost Regions. This data will be processed to design and implement co-creation workshops on tourism products, which will be tested with real customers.
TWINNEDbySTARS has received substantial support, with 85% co-financing of nearly 1 million euros by the European Executive Agency for Climate, Infrastructure, and Environment, through the European Maritime, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Fund.