COTOUR is seeking to inject some strategic thinking into European regions’ promotion of tourism. All of the regions involved in the operation are quite capable of making plans to promote tourism, but they rarely consider it as an integrated tool for regional development. And as they have limited knowledge of projects carried out by other European regions, they lack successful examples of how tourism can become such a tool. The partners also need to develop coherent plans for involving local partners such as SMEs and local authorities in their tourism strategies. COTOUR is creating a strategy that strengthens tourism as a tool for regional development. It is also training regional facilitators who can implement this strategy and improve tourism by developing regional products or other distinctive activities. Finally, it is creating a communications plan enabling the partners to promote their tourism development strategies effectively to other regional players. Achievements: Achievements so far The main objective of COTOUR operation was to create a strategy for upgrading tourism as a tool for regional development in five European regions: East Flanders (Belgium), Sicily (Italy), Malopolska (Poland), Telsiai (Lithuania) and Limousin (France). The Strategic Touristic Plans per region were developed after realisation of two structural components focussing on expertise exchange and training of local initiators. Regional initiators used new knowledge and expertise to upgrade tourism, for example by development of regional products. During the six semesters of the operation, the following activates took place, corresponding to the components: Component 2: Expertise exchange workshops (EEW): - Six meetings: start up meeting in East Flanders, Telsiai (EEW1), Sicily (EEW2), Malopolska (EEW3), Limousin (EEW4), Telsiai (EEW5) during which SWOT/SOR analysis were developed by all partners; Component 3: Training Programs (TP) for regional initiators: - Six meetings: in Malopolska (TP1), Limoges (TP2), Telsiai (TP3), Sicily (TP4), Malopolska (TP5), East Flanders (TP6); related to 6 topics: 1/ Marketing, management and innovation; 2/ Finances and accounting; 3/ Investment analysis and European integration; 4/ Service industries and quality management; 5/ IT and communication in tourism sector; 6/ Export management and integration of typical food products; a total number of 42 good practices identified during six Training Programmes - the case studies about the tourism success stories in the regions [East Flanders (9), Sicily (7), Malopolska (7), Telsiai (12), Limousin (7)]; - six TOURGuides including all materials. In the sixth semester the following interesting cases were presented by the partners: subsidy protocol (East Flanders); products with European quality certification (Sicily); possibilities to export and integrate regional products in tourism (Malopolska); competitive ability of non-traditional businesses in Western Lithuania (Telsiai); AREPO - Association of European Regions for Products of Origin (Limousin). Component 4: Communication and promotion: - Six Communication Seminars took place during TPs in Malopolska (2 times), Limousin, Telsiai, Sicily and East Flanders with participation of press, TV and local representatives of tourism offices and regional governments; - Website of the operation: www.cotour.org; - DVD; and - Brochure and cooking book showing regional products from Malopolska region of COTOUR. The involvement of partners was as expected in the operation's proposal. All partners actively participated in the meetings.