OBJECTIVES

Overview of the objectives of the action | 1 October 2008 - 31 March 2011

The main objective of SETCOM has been to foster the use of sustainable energies in tourism in the partner communities and beyond and finally develop them to leading examples in energy sustainable tourism. For this purpose a concrete roadmap – the Energy Action Plan - saying how to reduce energy consumption in tourism through the use of renewable energies has been developed during the project running time. The Energy Action Plan is one of the main outputs of the project and will be disseminated Europe-wide.

The overall project objective in the participating partner communities has been the reduction of energy consumption and the CO₂-emissions in tourism business. To reach the project targets the project managers first had to make the project  known widely in the participating communities, build up important cooperation contacts and raise awareness for energy saving topics among the most important target groups as tourism companies and local administration with a view to implement the project in the most effective way.

It can be pointed out that during the project important cooperations could be build up, e.g. to main tourism associations in the community that supported the aims of SETCOM. These cooperations helped to achieve the project goals significantly. The whole project team cooperated with other mayor players in the field of tourism like associations of hotels and restaurants or regional tourism associations. Likewise, important cooperations could be build up between the SETCOM project managers and universities, e.g. in case of Potsdam CCI with the University of Applied Sciences Eberswalde in terms of the INKA-BB project that works out approaches to integrate climate changes into regional development processes, including also strategies for tourism. These cooperation contacts can be mentioned as fundamental for the success of the project in terms of the contact to tourism companies.

Besides, the aim of the Potsdam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CO) over the whole project running has been to coordinate the efforts of the partner communities to carry out the project effectively and to gain excellent results which shall be presented in the report.

SETCOM’s specific objectives:

The project’s targets coincide exactly with the scope of the EU Action Plan for more Sustainable European Tourism.

Among others, SETCOM aims

• to develop the participating communities as sustainable tourism destinations
  
  
• to encourage sustainable companies by setting up an energy action plan for the tourism sector saying how to reach the main goal of lowering CO2-emissions beyond European targets
  
  
• to sensitise tourists about energy saving and a sustainable holiday

SETCOM’s strategic objectives:

• Reducing GHG-emission caused by the tourism industry in the participating communities dramatically by saving energy and by increasing the use of carbon neutral renewable energy sources
  
  
• To foster the development of local markets for energy efficiency services and for renewable energy applications