SMARTRURAL aims to ‘elevate the smart thinking mindset of students, academics and rural tourism communities/authorities, who, armed with cutting-edge knowledge, strong pedagogical tools and an smart thinking mindset and skills, will effectively be able to contribute to the transformation of students from an ‘traditional employee temperament’ to a ‘smart thinking initiator mentality’.

The project, which has a 24-month implementation period, aims to create the training content required for developing smart applications and creating smart business models in rural tourism destinations. It is important to build an open training platform that will support the development of rural areas.

The SMARTRURAL team consists of 7 universities dynamically involved in tourism development activities in 7 EU countries (Lithuania, Turkey, Spain, Slovenia, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland). At a European level more than 20 000 people will be informed about the project based on an effective and joint dissemination strategy followed by all participating countries. By identifying and engaging key relevant stakeholders in SMARTRURAL project will assist in receiving important feedback and input.