In October 2022 the European Commission published a call for proposals for “Regional flagships projects supporting sustainable blue economy in EU sea basins” with 6 different topics including “Topic 1: promoting the diversification of fisheries activities in the Atlantic area”. Following the evaluation and grant agreement phase, the new project for the Atlantic selected under this call started its work on 15 September: FISATUR- Atlantic Network of tourist experiences to promote the fishing and maritime cultural heritage has a Budget of € 834,850.34 and will be managed by a consortium of six partners from France, Spain and Portugal under the lead of FUNDAMAR (FUNDACION PARA LA PESCA Y MARISQUEO).
The FISATUR project aims to support coastal fishing regions in its economic growth through a better integration of the fishery and tourism sectors and the promotion of innovative Atlantic tourist products and services linked to the fishing and maritime heritage. It will contribute to assess the effectiveness of a fishing tourism model as an innovative way to use the coastal resources.
The project is developed in three phases with a duration of 28 months. The project is going to start with a documentation and study phase of the evolution and development of tourist products and services linked to the fishing maritime heritage in each territory. The differential advantages of each locality will be used to design a strategy for the promotion of tourist products and services linked to the fishing maritime heritage. The second phase of the project aims to promote potentially viable business ideas (10 per territory) through an Incubator programme. Finally, the best two ideas per country obtained in the incubator will participate in a trade mission navigation route from Portugal to France with strategic stops where visits and exchanges (B2B) will be held with other network initiatives. The route will serve as a fisheries-maritime dynamization itinerary functioning as an extended working group for the creation and development of projects, but also as a benchmarking between individuals/companies. The project will have a first consortium kick-off meeting on 24-25 October in Vigo.
More information on other projects and companies funded by EU and Member States programmes in the framework of the Atlantic Strategy and respective Action Plan can be found on the Maritime Data Hub.