Tourism Bohinj submits TRAILS4COMMUNITY to the EU
The TRAILS4COMMUNITY project aims to test how long-distance trails can work as community-led infrastructure for social inclusion, local economic development and sustainable tourism across Europe. European Trails proposed the project to four partner organisations in Slovenia, Finland and Portugal, and the consortium submitted the application on Wednesday, 26 August, to the European Commission’s call for a Smart Social Economy Model in Tourism (Long Distance Trails).
Rationale
TRAILS4COMMUNITY – Social Economy Models for Community-Based Long-Distance Trails
Long-distance trails are becoming an increasingly important part of Europe’s tourism economy, particularly in rural and mountain regions with few other economic opportunities. While trails bring visitors, they do not reliably spread the benefit: guesthouses and cafés cluster in some sections while neighbouring communities on the same trail see little of the value. Where trails are managed at all, they are typically managed as a route and a brand, with limited attention to who benefits and who decides.
TRAILS4COMMUNITY addresses this by supporting a common approach to trail-based social economy, treating trails as systems that can generate local governance, local services and measurable community benefit, not only tourism traffic. It builds on established partnerships and practices across three countries to test community governance, inclusive access and economic impact measurement in parallel, then bring the results together into one shared, transferable model.
By bringing together tourism bodies, social economy actors, protected area managers and a European trail network, TRAILS4COMMUNITY aims to strengthen cooperation and provide practical models that can be applied to long-distance trails elsewhere in Europe.
Project Approach
Testing Three Models Across Three Trails
The project tests three elements of a trail-based social economy in parallel, each in the context best suited to it. On the Juliana Trail, in Slovenia and Italy, Tourism Bohinj and the Alpine Association of Slovenia (PZS) are testing shared governance among the national park, municipalities, transport operators and volunteer networks. On the Häme Lynx Trail in Finland, the Häme Nature Recreation Association is testing inclusive access and nature-based wellbeing services for the users the trail currently underserves. On the GR22, in Portugal and Spain, Aldeias Históricas de Portugal is building a territorial economic-impact framework to measure what a trail is worth to the communities along it.
European Trails e.V. coordinates the results across all three pilots, applying its Green Flag Trails methodology and building the shared measurement and digital framework, delivered through Outdooractive, that connects them. The aim is a single, transferable blueprint that other long-distance trail organisations can apply in their own regions.
If funded, TRAILS4COMMUNITY will run for 24 months, coordinated by Klemen Langus at Tourism Bohinj.
Readers interested in the community-building side of this work can find more on our Project Group 2 (Community Building & Local Engagement) page.