Tourism’s role in resilience at the EUSBSR Annual Forum

Within this year’s overarching theme of resilience, at a cultural resilience session tourism was discussed as a key component of cultural resilience, helping to build connections, trust, and mutual understanding across borders underlining tourism’s long-term potential value beyond economic impact. As the Mayor of Tallinn, Peeter Raudsepp said “you make friends and build trust in times of peace”,

The presence of Interreg Baltic Sea Region projects further demonstrated how international cooperation contributes to sustainability and innovation in practice. Light in the Dark supports rural and coastal tourism businesses to develop off-season, nature-based experiences, helping destinations address seasonality and build year-round economic resilience. Meanwhile, CliNeDest brings together destinations to develop climate-smart tourism solutions, including tools and training to support low-carbon visitor experiences and accelerate the transition towards climate-neutral tourism. In parallel, projects such as REDIRECT are advancing regenerative tourism approaches that go beyond reducing impacts, aiming instead to restore natural and cultural assets while strengthening community resilience across the region.

The Forum brought together policymakers, regional and national authorities and practitioners to address shared regional challenges through cross-sectoral cooperation. Former President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, challenged participants to rethink the region’s potential: “The intellectual assets in the region are enormous! Could we be the ones moving forward, when Europe as a whole is so slow?” a question that strongly resonates for tourism as a sector with untapped transformative capacity where the Baltic Sea Region can be a shining light.

Explore the full programme here: https://eusbsr.eu/annual-forum

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