The project aims at setting up and sustaining virtual communities of practice for SMEs in the tourist sector. The target groups are employers and employees of SMEs and sector organisations. These virtual communities of practice shall facilitate and support lifelong learning of employers and employees in the workplace. Virtual networks will be setup around innovations in the tourist sector (topics are for example active sport, eco-tourism, bird watching). Project activities comprise an analysis of existing support of networks and learner needs of SMEs. Then virtual communities will be set up, monitored, evaluated and disseminated. The expected results are: tools and models to support virtual communities of practice of tourism SMEs, 16 regional or national communities of practice, 5 international communities of practice, a system for monitoring and evaluation, guidelines. Valorisation shall mainly consist in organising seminars for sector organisations as key structures. A web portal will be done. The project results shall be integrated in vocational trainingsystems. The impact is on SMEs and networks of SMEs who will collaborate and learn in virtual communities and then help sector organisations. This relies in a first instance on motivated participants.