CBTB

Information about the project’s background
The Chambers of Grevena and Corfu have been involved in the last years in projects aiming to enhance sustainable development mainly in the general field of entrepreneurship and tourism. In this effort, they have identified the need for the development of tourism, not only at entrepreneurial level, but also in terms of the preservation of local products and traditions. Based on the fact that there is a recent trend in the cross-border area to preserve and promote local cultural heritage, the two chambers responded to the challenge of combining this trend with the wider efforts for sustainable tourism development, through mapping and promotion of traditional gastronomy. Furthermore, stakeholders in the tourism industry have already acknowledge the fact that tourists are becoming more sophisticated and they seek a holistic experience including discovering cultural and gastronomical secrets instead of the conventional sea and sun pattern. Thus the need for upgrading tourism product towards that direction is common in both sides of the borders.
The implementation of the project activities and the achievement of the project’s results is a common aim for the partnership as a whole. The activities will be implemented with the participation of all beneficiaries, not only to cover a larger geographical scope, but also to gain a wider scope for the collection of the data required for the development of the envisaged pilot smart-phone application.
Sustainable tourism development is a major issue as part of most European, regional and national policies of Greece and Albania. In the framework of “Europe 2020 Strategy” tourism development is characterized as key sector for all cross-border productive systems. Despite the applied measures, the cross-border area lacks a holistic management and promotion plan for the development of mild tourist products, hence the main tourist product remains the “sea-sun” concept. The CBTB project aims, thus, to provide a holistic management and promotion toolkit for the attraction of quality tourism in the area and the support of local economy.

The CBTB project focuses on the local traditional gastronomy, as a significant element of the cultural heritage, common in the c/b area. Breakfast will be the focal point of the project for numerous reasons:

1. Hotels are the cornerstone of the tourism sector and breakfast is a meal that almost all hotels provide. In addition, other tourism enterprises (restaurants, coffee – bars) occasionally serve breakfast, hence they could also apply the brand.
2. Breakfast gives travelers the first taste of the gastronomic culture of each place or area.
3. Breakfast was also chosen because it capitalizes an initiative of the Greek Tourism Organization (“Greek Breakfast”), which – in the case of CBTB project – will be applied in the cross-border area as a unified area and will be enriched with products from both countries.
   The novelty of the project lies in the exploitation of branding procedures and mobile marketing tools (applications), towards the development of a cross-border gastronomic tradition that will be actually applied in tourism enterprises of the cross-border area. A new brand that will supply an already existing (and widely promoted) brand (“Greek Breakfast”) will be a strong asset for the whole cross-border area, as the products will be jointly selected and the brand will be designed in a way that will approach the area as one destination and will be not differentiated in country level. Additionally, the connection of tourism enterprises with local producers of traditional goods will boost the local economy and reduce the unemployment.
   The main target groups of the project are the hotels in the cross-border area on one hand, and the potential tourists on the other. Along with them, the local authorities of the cross-border area (regional authorities, municipalities), the enterprises belonging to the wider tourism sector (restaurants, bars, tourism agencies) will benefit directly and indirectly from the project, as they will have additional tools for the promotion of the area. Furthermore, producers of local products will benefit through the raise of demand for local/ traditional products. Finally, the citizens of the area will benefit, since the holistic development of tourism in the area will provide better prospects in terms of economic development, employment and quality of life.