Project in brief According to ARLEM report on sustainable tourism*, the Mediterranean region is the world’s eading tourist destination, although there are considerable disparities within it. It receives 30% of tourist arrivals and 25% of the total income from global tourism, with 80% of the visiting tourists coming from Europe. Whilst tourism plays a key role in the region’s economic development and integration into the process of globalisation, it also puts considerable pressure on natural resources and the environment. In order to combine competitiveness and sustainability in tourism development, GOALS project aims to implement a shared strategy for the integration of the “Total Quality Management”model in the tourism industry and its application to the creation of new touristic itineraries and packages. Specific objectives • To experiment innovative structures of tourism planning/management based on broad institutional/socio-economic cooperation • To foster the application of “Total Quality Management” systems and schemes for sustainable tourism development in target areas Expected Results: • Defined models of governance for the participation of civil society, local communities and institutions in processes setting up tourism strategies • At least 7 thematic itineraries and 28 packages created/promoted according to the criteria of “Total Quality Management” • Improved capacity of SMEs to provide competitive products and services • Tourism flows better distributed in time and space