PPPA – Smart Social Economy Model in Tourism (Long Distance Trails) – 2026

Objective

To promote socio-economic and territorial development through a bottom-up approach, using existing long-distance tourist trails as test cases for sustainable tourism, notably in rural areas.

Priorities

• Priority 1: enable territories along long-distance trails to collaboratively design, pilot, and evaluate integrated sustainable tourism offers
• Priority 2: support and animate networks uniting local communities, tourism stakeholders, local authorities and social economy organizations
• Priority 3: facilitate transnational capacity building on related topics
• Priority 4: facilitate the creation of a transnational blueprint aimed at integrating social economy principles into sustainable tourism along European long-distance trails

Among financed actions

• Needs assessment
• Analysis of existing social economy practices
• Mapping
• Pilot testing…

Eligibility

• Be legal entities (public or private bodies)
• Be established in one of the eligible countries:
  • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories)
• Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register before submitting the proposal
• A consortium of applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities), from at least 2 eligible countries must be constituted.
• The lead applicant of the consortium must be one of the following type of organisations:
  • an entity or an association managing a long-distance trail
  • a social economy organisation or network
  • a local authority
  • an entity officially in charge of tourism in the relevant region

Additional information

• Initial duration of the action: between 24 and 36 months

Extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment.

• Contact: EMPL-SOCIAL-ENTERPRISE@ec.europa.eu

Useful

• Guidelines: Click here
• Other call documents: Click here
• DG website: Click here
• More information: Click here

• Total budget of the call: 1.5 million euros
• Amount of the grant: around 750,000 euros

• Funding rate: up to 85% of the total eligible costs